7 ways to eat like the Queen this long weekend (and two she might not approve of at all)

Whether you’re rooting for the monarchy or just up for a spot of baking, we have 7 recipes to help you celebrate the long weekend, and Liz’s birthday (and yep, we know it was in April!).

Source: Alan Benson

Known for being thrifty and a rather unadventurous eater (no potatoes?!), the Queen isn’t exactly a food lover. But she does have a bit of a sweet tooth, and in grand British tradition, enjoys a tipple of gin in the evenings. 

The Queen is woken at 8 am every day by a maid (same for us) with a pot of Earl Grey and a few Marie biscuits. At 9 am, she eats a light breakfast – often cereal, like Cornflakes or Special K (kept in Tupperware so they don’t go stale), a boiled egg or toast and marmalade. How very British! We think Liz would enjoy this homemade marmalade from the food dept.

the food dept.’s orange marmaladeImageFor lunch, the Queen often eats alone and, like breakfast, keeps it fairly simple. In fact, her tastes are quite pedestrian – the 20 chefs on staff at Buckingham Palace know to never include onions, garlic or chilli in her meals (she also hates potatoes, a personality quirk the Republican movement might want to capitalise on). While the Queen’s tastes run to steamed fish with wilted spinach, we’d rather invite some mates around and feast on this whole barramundi. Warning: with its generous whack of ginger, garlic and shallots, Queen Liz would not be up for this.

Steamed whole barramundi with ginger and shallot sauceImageThe Queen never misses afternoon tea – Prince Charles once said that his family was “quite obsessed” with it, in fact – and one of her favourite cakes is a Victoria sponge, named after her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria (who also loved a slice of cake after lunch).

Victoria sponge with gooseberry jamImageAnother cake favourite? Fruit cake, of course. We adore this fruit cake that’s lightly spiked with whisky – coincidentally, one of Prince Phillip’s most-loved tipples.

Light whiskey fruit cakeImageFit for the Queen?Queen Elizabeth’s favourite sweet treat of all time is a jam penny – little sandwiches of white bread and decadently sweet jam. She and her sister, Princess Margaret, ate them as children. While you probably don’t need a recipe for those, you might want to go the extra mile and make these old-fashioned cream scones with jam – perfect for long weekend snacking.

Cream sconesImageFamously frugal, Liz hates waste. She’s known to eat leftovers until they’re finished, and once even sent back half a lemon (used on her fish) to the kitchen, urging them to use it again. We’re all about cutting down on food waste, too – like making fish stock with leftover bones, cooking down berries that have seen better days and making a gorgeous jam or thinking of 13 different ways to use up leftover yoghurt. At Buckingham Palace, chefs are told to never include ingredients that could get stuck in the monarch’s teeth (quelle horreur!). Tomatoes and cucumbers are deseeded, and soft fruits like blueberries are out, full stop. ‘Messy’ foods like pasta are also unwelcome, which just sounds awful to us. Sorry Lizzie, but we’ll be making this very, very messy carbonara this weekend. BYO bib.

Spaghetti alla carbonaraImageAt the end of a long day, Liz loves sitting down with a refreshing Gordon’s gin and Dubonnet (royals! They’re just like us!). She’s also a huge fan of the white peaches grown in the greenhouse at Windsor Castle – so much so that she often has them sent to Balmoral when she holidays there. We have a feeling she’d be a big fan of this white peach, gin and basil cocktail.

White peach, gin and basil cocktailsImageThe Queen might have rather plain tastes, but when Heston Blumenthal cooked for her at a private event at Windsor Castle in 2010, she braved offal. Blumenthal served an entrée that looked like a bowl of fruit, but was in fact made of offal including brain and testicles – a bit of a riff on his famed meat fruit. Something Liz might have liked a little more? Heston’s hot chocolate, made with a dash of salt to cut through the bitter dark chocolate. The Queen loves chocolate, though she’s said not to eat it very often.More food fit for a royal