British baker rises to occasion of queen's pudding contest

The queen became the first British monarch in history to reign for 70 years on February 6 this year

A pudding fit for royalty was announced Thursday after nearly 5,000 amateur bakers entered a contest to design a sweet ending to celebrations for Queen Elizabeth II's Platinum Jubilee next month. 

Inspired by the dessert served at the queen's wedding to Prince Philip in 1947, Jemma Melvin was unveiled as the winner on a special BBC programme with her lemon Swiss roll topped by an amaretti trifle.

Melvin, 31, a copywriter from Southport near Liverpool in northwest England, was overjoyed after a panel of celebrity chefs unanimously picked her out of the five finalists.

"I found out that the queen had lemon posset at her wedding, so I decided the pudding had to be based around the lemon flavour.

The pudding consists of lemon curd Swiss roll on the bottom, topped by St Clement's jelly, lemon custard, mandarin coulis, whipped cream, candied peel, chocolate shards and crushed amaretti biscuits.

Angela Wood, who helped create Coronation Chicken as a young cookery student, said she was surprised her dish of poached chicken in a creamy sauce had stood the test of time.

Judge Roger Pizey, executive pastry chef at the luxury department store Fortnum and Mason, said: "I really think we'll be making Jemma's trifle for at least the next 50 to 100 years, without a doubt."

jit/phz/raz

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