RESIDENTS at a Lower Earley care home have been cooking up a storm to enter the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee pudding competition.
Austen House Care Home is hoping to create a pudding fit for a Queen, after the competition was announced in January.
The competition is being run by Fortnum & Mason, to create a pudding that the whole nation can bake for themselves and that will be served not only at Jubilee parties up and down the country, but to the Queen herself.
The best recipes will be judged by Dame Mary Berry, and Masterchef’s Monica Galetti in March.
The care home’s dessert is called Austentatious and includes a vanilla sponge flan base, with strawberry cream and fresh fruits — designed to look like jewels on a crown.
Charles Sadler, general manager at Austen House said: “We’ve all had such a brilliant time taking part in this competition, it has been such fun.
“Our staff and residents love the Queen and they love to bake so when they heard about the competition, they were all so excited to take part.
“It has been a real collaborative process — thinking about ingredients from all over the world and coming up with a pudding that reflects the Queen’s years of service to this country. Not to mention all the delicious different versions we have had to taste over the last few weeks, it really has been no hardship.”
Care home resident Peter said: “The Queen is an amazing lady, we all wanted to get involved in the pudding competition — it would just be wonderful if our recipe was selected.
“We had such a giggle coming up with the pudding, deciding what ingredients should go in and then coming up with the name. I definitely think we’ve got a winning recipe. We can’t wait to find out what the judges think of our entry.”