Jemma Melvin’s creation is inspired by a lemon posset served at the Queen’s wedding to Prince Philip.
A lemon and Swiss roll amaretti trifle is to be the official pudding for the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee after winning a competition to find a new dessert.
Jemma Melvin made the dessert, inspired by the lemon posset served at the Queen’s 1947 wedding to Prince Philip.
The trifle is made with layers of lemon curd and custard, St Clement’s jelly, a mandarin coulis, and amaretti biscuits.
It will join the ranks of royal-inspired dishes like coronation chicken and the Victoria sponge.
Some 5,000 people aged from eight to 108 entered the nationwide competition to craft a new pudding to commemorate the Queen’s 70-year reign, with entries whittled down to five finalists, who competed in a final show screened on BBC One.
Jemma, a copywriter from Southport, Merseyside, beat fellow amateur bakers Kathryn MacLennan, Sam Smith, Shabnam Russo and Susan Gardner in the special BBC programme called The Jubilee Pudding: 70 years in the Baking, with the Duchess of Cornwall announcing the winner.
The competition was run by royal grocer Fortnum and Mason in partnership with the Big Jubilee Lunch Charity to create a pudding that had a memorable story behind it, tasted delicious, and was fit for the 96-year-old Queen.
But the most important requirement was that it could be recreated by viewers at home ready for the thousands of street parties planned up and down the country next month.
The finalists’ puddings were tasted by a panel of judges led by baking doyenne Dame Mary Berry, along with Fortnum and Mason’s executive pastry chef Roger Pizey, former Great British Bake Off winner Rahul Mandal; Masterchef: The Professionals judge Monica Galetti; author and baker Jane Dunn; self-taught pastry chef Matt Adlard; and dessert historian Regula Ysewijn.
Jemma’s trifle was crafted with layers of lemon curd Swiss roll, St Clement’s jelly, lemon custard, a mandarin coulis made with tinned mandarins and amaretti biscuits, whipped fresh cream and crowned with more amaretti biscuits and a jewelled chocolate bark.
After tasting the trifle, Dame Mary said it was “absolutely wonderful” with Mr Adlard praising the “great” “lip-smackingly sour” taste combined with the cream and the texture of the amaretti biscuits.
Mr Pizey praised the tinned mandarins used in the recipe, while Ms Galetti joked about how she might get the trifle home in a taxi.
Speaking to BBC royal correspondent Daniela Relph after her win, Ms Melvin said her creation paid tribute to three important women – her grandmothers (known to her as “gran” and “nan”) and the Queen.
Jemma said while her gran had taught her to bake, the trifle was her nan’s signature dish.
Asked how she felt on winning, she said: “I cannot believe it. Everything I was up against was the most beautiful desserts and puddings with beautiful stories.
“So that this quite humble trifle has won is quite surreal.”
Jemma said it was important to her that everyone would be able to make her trifle, so each element is “simple” to make and can be substituted with shop-bought ingredients.
“I wanted it to be the People’s Pudding, not just for the Queen, but the whole of the country,” she added.
She admitted it still hadn’t “sunk in” that her pudding would be joining the ranks of historical dishes like coronation chicken and Victoria sponge.
The sponge with buttercream and raspberry jam filling became a afternoon tea favourite of Queen Victoria’s. After her husband Prince Albert’s death in 1861, it was named the Victoria sponge in her honour.
Poulet Reine Elizabeth, or coronation chicken, was created by the Cordon Bleu cookery school for the Queen’s Coronation Day banquet in 1953.