This pudding was designed in response to a national competition mounted by a large store in London in celebration of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.
The organisers requested a story to accompany the recipe. My approach was to:
Bring together ingredients which can be sourced or symbolic of countries of the commonwealth – an institution very close to the Queen’s heart and some of Her favourite flavours (ginger – India, Vanilla – West Indies, Cocoa – Nigeria, milk & rapeseed oil-UK (supporting UK farmers), honey – New Zealand).
Address current trends for plant-based eating as it is also delicious in its vegan form). It can be easily adapted in a gluten free version too.
be simple enough for home cooks to make, and
be great fun in that it allows much artistic license in its decoration. I thought that many schools would have great fun up and down the country competing for the best ‘castle’ ‘crown’ or simply ‘regal’ decorations.
It can be made in individual ramekins as well and then it serves a few more (see photo at the bottom of the recipe).
Ingredients (serves 12-14)
For the honey and vanilla cream
- 1.2 Ltr full fat milk
- 350ml double cream
- 200g heather or other good quality, fragrant honey
- 2 vanilla beans or 3 tbsp pure vanilla extract
- 40g corn flour
- 10 gelatine leaves
- 1 lime, zest of
- 5 crunchy ginger biscuits, cut in quarters
For the chocolate and ginger sponge base
- 2 eggs, medium
- 50g of self-raising flour
- 50g caster sugar
- 50 butter
- 50g honey
- 50g cocoa powder
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp baking powder
- 3-4 tbsp syrup from a stem ginger jar
To serve
- 3 pieces of stem ginger, roughly grated
- 1 fresh mango cut into small bite size chunks
- A few pineapple bite size chunks
- 1 lime, zest and some of the juice
- Mango coulis, candied mango, crushed ginger biscuits, mint leaves, edible flowers (optional)
Instructions
For the Platinum Delight, you will need a silicone or metal mould of 20cm internal diameter or else use any cake or loaf tin with 1.5lt capacity.
For the Delight to set faster,
- put your chosen mould in the fridge overnight to chill, and
- have a large bowl with water and many ice cubes into which you can place the bowl containing the cream when you transfer it from the pan. Chilling the cream before putting into its mould will ensure better distribution of the vanilla and lime zest.
If using vanilla beans, put the remaining milk and cream in a pan, cut the beans lengthwise and bring the milk and cream to almost boiling point. Turn the heat off and leave the milk to infuse for 30 minutes before straining and returning to the pan to continue with the recipe.
To make the Delight, start by reserving 100ml milk in a small jug.
Put the gelatine leaves in a bowl with plenty of cold water and leave for 10 minutes to bloom.
Put the milk and cream to the pan on a low to medium heat. Mix the cornflour into the 100ml milk and add to the pan. Cook the corn flour out by heating the milk and cream gently for 8-10 minutes stirring continuously until the cream coats the back of a wooden spoon. Add the vanilla (if using extract) and honey. Squeeze the gelatine leaves to rid of the water and add to the pan also. Stir with a whisk to fully incorporate. Put the cream through a sieve into a clean bowl. Place the bowl in another larger bowl with cold water and ice cubes and whisk to chill and start setting the cream.
When the cream is chilled, pour one third of it into the cold mould. Lay carefully the broken up ginger biscuits and top with some more cream. Repeat with the remaining biscuits and again top with the last of the cream.
To make the base of the Platinum Delight, preheat your oven to 160 C.
Whisk the butter with the sugar using an electric mixer. Add the eggs, one at a time whisking continuously. Add the honey and mix. Sift the cocoa, ginger, flour and baking powder and add to the wet ingredients. Line a cake tin with baking paper and grease with a little butter and dust with flour. Pour the chocolate batter into the cake tin and bake for 10-12 minutes. Test that the sponge is ready by inserting a skewer into it. It should come out clean. While the sponge is still hot, drizzle with the ginger syrup. Leave to cool.
Put the fruit pieces in a bowl and mix with the lime zest, a little lime juice and the grated ginger.
To assemble the Delight, dip the mould of the delight in some warm water for 30 seconds to loosen. Put the base on top of the mould and carefully turn the whole thing over onto your cake plate. Top with the chopped fruit, a few mint leaves and any additional elements you wish to serve in bowls on the side.
