Like so many people across the world, Queen Elizabeth reportedly had a major sweet tooth and her favourite treat of all was anything chocolate-based. Former royal chef Darren McGrady cooked for her for 11 years at Buckingham Palace and has described her as a "chocoholic".
According to him, dark chocolate was her go-to - "the darker, the better" - and her love of it was something her chefs apparently passed on whenever she was invited for dinner. Opening up in a recipe video on his YouTube channel, Darren recalled a trip with Queen Elizabeth to Australia where she was introduced to her "perfect dessert".
It was so good that the late Queen is said to have actually requested the recipe so that her own guests could enjoy it at the Palace in the future. This was a shocking turn of events in Darren’s view, as she "never" did this usually.
He declared, "When the Queen came back she’d actually brought a recipe with her. They made her a dish called Chocolate Marquise and the Queen loved this so much that she asked for the recipe. She never did that! And she wanted the chefs in the kitchen to make this and put it on the menu so she could serve it to her guests too."
That’s high praise indeed! So Darren and his fellow chefs were more than happy to oblige and he proceeded to talk through how to make a Chocolate Marquise in the video, sharing that it’s essentially a really rich, creamy chocolate mousse.
What makes it different from a traditional mousse is that it’s frozen, but it stays "quite soft" and velvety even after this. If you fancy giving Darren’s recipe for a Chocolate Marquise a go there’s another big plus side - you can make it ahead of time and keep it ready.
The former royal chef said that this was "fantastic" when he was working for the Queen, as it meant "if the Queen had a surprise guest and she wanted to serve a dessert, then we could just go in the freezer, bring out the Chocolate Marquise". His serving suggestions for this pudding included a little bit of fruit or coffee Crème Anglaise (a smooth, more liquid custard).
I’m personally not so sure about the idea of custard with a lightly frozen mousse, but however you serve it, a Chocolate Marquise does sound very decadent and delicious. As Darren put it, they had the "perfect dessert ready for Her Majesty".
Dessert isn’t the only sweet dish that the monarch used to enjoy, though. The Royal Family famously have afternoon tea everyday and on his website, Darren claimed that Chocolate Biscuit Cake was her "favourite afternoon tea cake by far". He added, "This cake is probably the only one that is sent into the Royal dining room again and again until it has all gone."
His recipe is ever-so-slightly different to the one shared by the Royal Collection Trust, but both are essentially for a cake made from sugar, chocolate, butter and broken-up biscuits. Once set in a fridge, a layer of either melted chocolate or chocolate ganache is smoothed over it.
Prince William is said to love this cake too and even requested it for his and Kate’s wedding. Of course, the main sweet centrepiece on their big day was the magnificent eight-tier fruit cake made by Fiona Cairns and her team.
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