Those Cakes We Like... Have The Royal Seal Of Approval

Not really, but we ARE baking one of Queen Victoria's favourite desserts.

It's a mark of Royal approval.

If there’s one thing everyone knows about Great Britain, it’s that we still have a Royal Family, and even though their role in these modern days is purely ceremonial, they’re still very involved in public life. The Royal family have also had a considerable influence on British food, with dishes such as Coronation Chicken invented for special events such as the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953, or the granting of Royal warrants to popular UK food production companies, such as Kellogg’s UK, or Walkers Shortbread. The Royal family have become intrinsically linked to certain foods throughout history, from the Victoria sponge cake to the crustless cucumber sandwiches associated with the garden parties of Queen Elizabeth II.

The dish I am providing for you today was reputed to be a favourite of Queen Victoria, from whom it gets its modern name. It’s a pretty simple dish using bread, custard, jam, and meringue to make an easy to eat dessert that is surprisingly filling; it’s also delicious served with cream or ice cream. This dish is known as Queen of Puddings. It is considered a little old fashioned now, and you won’t find it on the menu in many restaurants, but it’s a creative and tasty way to use up the remains of a loaf of bread and a bit of leftover milk. That’s another thing us Brits are good at — using whatever is lying around the kitchen to make delicious desserts.

Queen Victoria was reputed to have given her royal approval to the Queen of Puddings.

A Slice Of History

Queen of Puddings has gone by this name since the late 19th century after Queen Victoria expressed delight when it was served to her during a trip to Manchester. The dish itself predates this Royal encounter by several hundred years, and had previously been known as Manchester Pudding, and Monmouth Pudding. Delighting Queen Victoria in Manchester is not its only link to the Royal family, it is also connected through James Scott, the first Duke of Monmouth, eldest illegitimate son of Charles II. Following the death of Charles II the ascension of his younger brother James II (also known as James VII of Scotland) to the throne of Great Britain caused a few problems. James was a Catholic and refused to renounce his faith, causing unease amongst the Protestant nobility. Onto this stage stepped James Scott, first Duke of Monmouth, freshly returned from exile following his implication in a plot to assassinate his father, Charles II, in order to prevent the ascension of James II to the throne in the first place. Despite strong support from the South West of England and Wales, and fielding a larger military force than James II, the Duke of Monmouth was defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor on the 6th July 1685, and our friend the Duke was subsequently parted from his head just nine days later. This is where the link to the recipe that became the Queen of Puddings comes in. Apparently, Monmouth pudding became so known because of the red stripe through the centre formed by the layer of jam; forever linked to James Scott, first Duke of Monmouth, and the reported eight blows of the axe which were required to separate his head from his body.

The 1st Duke of Monmouth in happier times, and at the moment which supposedly inspired the naming of the dessert.

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows for James II after that though, as he was deposed in 1688 and replaced by another nephew, William of Orange, a Protestant, who was married to James II’s daughter Mary. The British monarchy really did like to keep it in the family.

The recipe I’m giving you today is the classic one, I have since had an idea for my own variation (see the end of the recipe for details), it consists of a layer of breadcrumbs soaked in custard and baked until set, topped with a generous layer of jam (I’ve opted for strawberry, but choose whatever flavour floats your boat), and a final layer of meringue. The measurements I’m giving you will comfortably serve 4. For fellow members of the Dead Pancreas Society, that’s 50g of carbohydrate per portion, plus whatever you serve it with, or 200g for the whole pudding.

Your Equipment

Digital kitchen scales

Saucepan

Wooden spoon

Mixing bowl

Pie dish

Deep sided baking tray

Electric hand whisk or stand mixer

Piping bag and star shaped nozzle (optional)

Your Ingredients

For the custard layer:

600 ml (1 pint) whole/full fat milk

25 g butter, plus extra to grease the pie dish

zest of ½ lemon

3 egg yolks

50 g sugar

75 g fresh white breadcrumbs

For the jam layer:

6 tbsp of a jam of your choice (I went with strawberry)

For the meringue layer:

2 medium egg whites

137 g sugar

pinch of salt

The Important Bit

The first step is to make your custard. Gently heat your milk (600 ml/1 pint) in the saucepan until almost boiling. Add your butter (25 g), sugar (50 g)and the lemon zest and stir until the butter has melted and the sugar has dissolved.

The butter should be fully melted and the sugar dissolved in the milk, be careful not to allow the milk to boil.

In your mixing bowl, whisk the 3 egg yolks until they are pale and fluffy. Now take a ladle of the milk mixture and slowly add it to the egg yolks, whisk the egg yolks vigorously while you do this as you don’t want to cook the eggs. Carefully add the egg yolk mixture back into the remaining milk mixture and mix it well.

Grease the pie dish with a little extra butter, then place the breadcrumbs in the pie dish. Pour in the custard mix, and leave it for 15 minutes to allow the breadcrumbs to soak up the custard. This is the perfect time to preheat your oven to 340F / 170C.

Set the custatd and breadcrumb mixture aside for 15 minutes while you preheat your oven to allow the breadcrumbs to absorb the custard.

Place the pie dish containing your custard mix into your deep sided baking tray, carefully fill the baking tray halfway up with hot water. Now place the baking tray and its contents into the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Give your mixing bowl and other equipment a wash — it’s important to try to keep a clean and organised workstation.

After 30 minutes, remove the baking tray from the oven and carefully remove the pie dish from the tray and turn the oven down to 270F / 130C.

Spread 6tbsp of your chosen jam across the top of the custard, which should now be perfectly set. The heat from the custard should be enough to soften the jam enough that it is easily spread using the back of a spoon.

Spread your jam generously over the custard base.

Take your 2 medium egg whites and a pinch of salt and whisk them using your electric hand whisk or stand mixer on the highest speed setting until they form stiff peaks. Remember, you know they’re done when you can hold the bowl upside down over your significant other/friend/child’s head and they do not end up wearing an egg white hat and needing a shower.

Add the sugar (87 g) a little at a time, whilst continuing to whisk the egg whites on the highest speed setting. You should end up with a thick, glossy meringue.

Pipe or spoon the meringue over the top of the jam layer, and place the pie dish back into the oven for another 30 minutes, or until the meringue is a very pale golden colour.

It's up to you if you pipe your meringues or simply spoon them onto the top of the jam.

Serve your Queen of Puddings immediately with cream or ice cream. It would also go nicely with some shortbread biscuits for an added element of texture.

And there's that red stripe. That's what you got for staging a rebellion against the monarchy.

After making this recipe, I’ve decided an interesting variation would be to remove the breadcrumbs within the custard and add a biscuit or pastry base instead, topped with the custard , jam and meringue. It’s something I intend to explore at a later date.

For now, I hope you enjoyed your trip through British baking history. Join me next month, when I plan to get Foolish in the summer heat with another classic British recipe. Until then...

Share joy, share love, share cakes.

I neglected to take an ingredients photo this time, so you can have a Smaug Dorito instead.

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