Mary Berry announces the winning Platinum Jubilee pudding - and it's a very British lemon trifle

There were 5000 entries for the competition, which was a search for a new pudding to celebrate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee next month

Mary Berry Damehood
(Image credit: Jonathan Buckmaster - WPA Pool/Getty Image)

The winning pudding for The Queen's Platinum jubilee has been announced - and it was made by an amateur baker. 

The dessert, which will be the official pudding for the celebration is a Lemon Swiss Roll and Amaretti trifle - made by baking enthusiast Jemma Melvin. Jemma, 31, said she was shocked to win the Queen's Pudding Competition, which was announced in January, and thought she wouldn't make it to the final, let alone win the whole competition. 

The competition, which was open to bakers nationwide, was a bid to find a dessert to celebrate the monarch's 70-year reign.  

Celebrating her win at Fortum and Mason's she admitted, “It was my friend Sammy who actually sent me the link to apply for the competition and I just thought I might as well go for it, get my name in the hat."

“I didn’t think I’d go any further but I made it to the final 50, made it to the final five, and now my pudding has been chosen. It’s ridiculous.”

While she revealed that the trifle, which has various layers of lemon curd, swiss rolls, custard and jelly is a tribute to three women -  her Gran, Nan and the Queen.

The baker added, “My Grandma taught me to bake, she taught me all the elements, everything from scratch. My Nan’s signature dish was always a trifle; we used to call her the queen of trifles. And the Queen had lemon posset at her wedding.”

Mary with the winning pudding

(Image credit: Getty)

The Duchess of Cornwall and Dame Mary Berry joined forces to announce the winning pudding on BBC show The Jubilee Pudding: 70 Years in the Baking.

The idea behind the competition was to create a special pudding to commemorate the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Similar to how coronation chicken (which was served when the Queen started her reign) became a popular dish - they're hoping to do the same with a new pudding.

Over 5,000 people submitted their puddings, with 50 making it to the short list. Buckingham Palace’s head chef then helped to whittle it down to five finalists.

Her recipe will now be available for everyone to copy - so expect to tuck into the amazing sounding trifle at your street party.

Sarah Finley

Sarah is a freelance journalist - writing about the royals and celebrities for Woman & Home, fitness and beauty for the Evening Standard and how the world of work has changed due to the pandemic for the BBC. 

 

She also covers a variety of other subjects and loves interviewing leaders and innovators in the beauty, travel and wellness worlds for numerous UK and overseas publications. 

 

As a journalist, she has written thousands of profile pieces - interviewing CEOs, real-life case studies and celebrities - interviewing everyone from Emma Bunton to the founder of Headspace.