The National Trust's Jubilee cake

Worry not, mashed potato, mayonnaise and day-old scones will not be among the ingredients in the spectacular cake on sale at 200 National Trust cafés to mark The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

I should think not, you may say, before discovering, as I just have, that all of the above have been used in cake recipes devised by Clive Goudercourt, the National Trust’s development chef, who is behind this commemorative showstopper (scroll down for his Jubilee cake recipe).

Leftover mash replaces flour in his lemon drizzle loaf, mayonnaise gives an extra je ne sais quoi to apple crumble muffins while scones past their best are used in bread-and-butter pudding.

Clive’s waste-not-want-not approach to cookery would undoubtedly have won approval from generations of frugal former aristocratic residents of the grand homes-turned-heritage sites which now host cafés at National Trust sites.

However, I’d defy any of them to resist a slice of the decadent Jubilee cake, a traditional sponge sandwich with double cream, fresh strawberries, raspberries and blueberries – a patriotic nod to the red, white and blue of the Union Flag.

‘It’s a bit naughty, but irresistibly nice,’ says father-of-four Clive, 53. ‘And, after the challenges of the past couple of years we all deserve a bit of indulgence to mark this special event.’

Clive joined the National Trust as head chef in 2007 before being appointed development chef for all its 200 food outlets across England, Wales and Northern Ireland ten years ago.

While some venues are going all-out for the Platinum Jubilee, with open-air theatre (Morden Hall Park, London), jazz (Upton House, Warwickshire) and crown-making workshops (Polesden Lacey, Surrey, and Canons Ashby in Northamptonshire), many with cafés plan to serve Jubilee cake, plus other specially devised NT commemorative sweet treats, including fresh fruit Swiss roll, and rhubarb and custard cake topped with custard cream biscuits.

Clive believes visitors will understandably expect something special for the Jubilee not least because many of its sites have long-standing links to royalty and Prince Charles is president of the National Trust.

‘Henry VIII visited The Vyne [in Hampshire] with Anne Boleyn in 1535; Polesden Lacey hosted the future King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, on their honeymoon in 1923; and King Charles II sought refuge at Moseley Old Hall [Wolverhampton] after his defeat at the Battle of Worcester,’ says Clive. ‘So our associations with monarchs go way back.’

‘Food, music, dancing...everybody seemed so happy. It would be great to see some of that spirit again’

Like many people, I also have fond memories of The Queen’s Silver Jubilee in 1977, when I was eight. That too followed a difficult period in history. There were the miners’ strikes in 1972, followed by the three-day working week to conserve electricity in 1973 to 1974, and money was very tight, something I was acutely aware of growing up on a Nottingham council estate.

‘But then came the Silver Jubilee street parties – there was food everywhere, music, dancing and everybody seemed so happy. It would be great to see some of that spirit again.’

Once upon a time, of course, most visitors to a heritage site would take a flask and a packed lunch. But over the past three decades, dining out has become a more central part of British culture and the National Trust now notches up around £87 million in a typical year from sales of food and drink. This income supports the conservation work the National Trust does and stays at the property the café is located at.

‘There’s been a huge change in people’s expectations of food,’ says Clive. ‘Our menus reflect this by being as diverse as possible.’

Among the ‘world dishes’ Clive and his fellow development chef, Rebecca Janaway, have created are a vegan Moroccan-spiced tagine, Spanish baked rice and Mexican-style diced pork.

While he lives with his partner, a nurse, in Doncaster, Clive spends Monday to Thursday in Swindon at the National Trust head office where he creates and perfects new dishes – there have been around 1,000 since he took on the role.

A highlight of his working week is visiting National Trust cafés to find out which offerings are proving popular. Scones top the list – whether served alone, with butter, or as part of a cream tea – three million are sold at National Trust eateries each year. Victoria sponge cake, chocolate brownies and the humble sausage roll and pasty, as well as the more exotic pea and feta bruschetta, are also firm favourites.

Clive is proud that almost all the food served in the charity’s cafés – which get through more than three million eggs, 390,000 kilos of flour and 176,000 kilos of cheese each year – is made on site. Much of it is also grown, reared – always free range – and produced locally.

‘The majority of our food is made from scratch, daily, in our kitchens,’ says Clive. ‘We even have kitchen gardens at 65 of our sites growing produce.’

But what was Clive thinking when he came up with some of his more offbeat ideas, like putting potatoes in cake? ‘We’d made mashed potato for a dish that day and had some left over. Rather than throwing it away, we wondered what we could use it for,’ says Clive. ‘Potato starch is the basis of a lot of gluten-free flour so we tried it in a lemon drizzle cake and it worked brilliantly.

‘I like to think the queen may have grabbed a piece of flapjack or a nice chocolate brownie’

‘To make muffins, you use eggs and oil, the ingredients for mayonnaise, something we use a lot of in our kitchens, so – although no one would have been able to pick it out in the flavour – we tried a dollop in our apple crumble muffins.

‘Our scones are freshly baked every day but, rather than throwing away any that don’t sell, we decided to slice them and use them in place of bread in our bread-and-butter pudding.

‘We don’t have any of these on our menus at the moment, though they may come back – experimenting to improve a recipe is one of the most fun parts about being a development chef.’

Although The Queen is unlikely to fit in a visit to a National Trust café – where the Jubilee cake will be on sale throughout June – Clive is hopeful that she may have sampled a sweet treat, made to one of his recipes, at some point.

‘A few years ago, she and Prince Philip visited Giant’s Causeway, a National Trust site in Northern Ireland. We have a nice café there,’ he says. ‘So I like to think she may have grabbed a piece of flapjack or a nice chocolate brownie.’

Ingredients

• 8 medium-sized free-range eggs
• 200g (7oz) caster sugar
• 200g (7oz) gluten-free self-raising flour
• 750ml (25fl oz) double cream
• 20ml (1fl oz) vanilla extract
• 250g (9oz) fresh strawberries
• 125g (4½oz) fresh raspberries
• 125g (4½oz) fresh blueberries
• 25g (1oz) raspberry jam
• Icing sugar to dust

Method

Preheat your oven to 170⁰C/340⁰F/gas mark 3.

You will need 2 x 23cm springform cake tins.

1. Firstly line your cake tins. Rub around the inside edges and over the base of the tin with a little margarine or vegetable oil. Place a piece of baking parchment over the base of each tin, put the rings around the bases and then fasten the clips, trim any excess paper from the bases. Cut a strip of parchment about 75cm long and 8cm high and place around the inside edge of the tin, pressing gently to help it stick to the sides and base.

2. Crack the eggs into the bowl of your stand mixer and add the caster sugar. Whisk on high for 7-10 minutes or until light and fluffy. The whisk should leave a trail or ribbon when lifted.

3. Remove the bowl from the mixer and sieve the flour over the egg and sugar mix and fold gently, using a spatula until just combined.

4. Divide the mixture between the two tins and place straight into your oven for 18-20 minutes or until risen and lightly coloured with a gentle spring when pressed. Remove from the oven and cool briefly before unclipping the sides and removing the cake. Once cooled, carefully remove the baking parchment.

5. Pour the cream into a large bowl and add the vanilla flavouring. Whisk with a balloon whisk until the cream is at soft peak stage. Divide it between two bowls.

6. Roughly chop half the strawberries to a similar size to the raspberries and blueberries. Add to one half of the cream along with half the raspberries and half the blueberries. Cut the remaining strawberries into quarters.

7. Take the remaining half of the strawberries and add them to a bowl with the jam and the blueberries, stir to give them a coating of the jam then add the raspberries and very carefully turn the fruit, taking care not to crush the raspberries, using a large spoon until it has a sheen on from the jam.

8. Place one of the cakes on your serving plate. Pile on the cream with the fruits in and spread it out to cover the cake, make sure it’s right to the edges and don’t smooth the edges.

9. Place the second sponge on top and pile the other half of the cream on top. Spread to the edges. Tip on the jam-coated fruit and spread it out gently so it covers most of the surface. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Visit our baking section for more delicious cake recipes

Yearly shopping list for the National Trust

3 million free-range eggs

390,000 kilos of organic flour

176,000 kilos of Somerset Cheddar cheese

National Trust Favourite Recipes: Over 80 Delicious Classics From Our Cafés by Clive Goudercourt and Rebecca Janaway (National Trust, £14.99) is out now

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