The great Jubilee Bake Off! Queen invites nation to invent new pudding for 70th celebration

Do you fancy making a dish fit for the Queen? Then it’s time to get baking.

The Queen’s official Platinum Jubilee celebrations began on Monday, with the launch of a competition to make a pudding for the monarch.

The Queen is marking 70 years of her reign in 2022, having acceded to the throne on 6 February 1952 at the age of 25.

Buckingham Palace has unveiled the full programme of events to mark the Platinum Jubilee, and it all kicks off with pudding.

Fortnum & Mason has launched the Platinum Pudding Competition to find a dish to dedicate to the Queen’s seven decades on the throne.

Watch: The Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations programme in full

The recipes will be judged by an expert panel including Dame Mary Berry, one of the judges on The Great British Bake Off.

It is hoped the pudding competition will follow coronation chicken - invented by Le Cordon Bleu London for the Queen’s coronation banquet in 1953 - into the history books.

It is just the first event in a packed schedule to mark the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

Celebrations will include the 95-year-old monarch opening her private estates to the public and some of the world’s biggest stars performing outside Buckingham Palace.

It is not clear which events the Queen will attend as she was ordered to rest by doctors in October last year following an overnight hospital stay for unspecified preliminary investigations.

The bulk of the Jubilee duties are likely to be given to the rest of the royal family, including the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall.

Read more: When is the Queen's Platinum Jubilee bank holiday and what's happening?

The Queen usually spends the anniversary of her accession privately at Sandringham.

From 12 to 15 May, more than 500 horses and 1,000 performers are expected to take part in a show in the grounds of Windsor Castle, which will take the audience through history from Elizabeth I to the present day.

More ceremonies are to take place later in the year, starting on Thursday 2 June 2, the first day of the special four-day bank holiday, when the Queen’s Birthday Parade (Trooping the Colour) will take place in Horse Guards Parade.

On the same day, the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and UK Overseas Territories will come together to light a beacon at the same time as the principal beacon at Buckingham Palace.

On Friday 3 June, a Service of Thanksgiving for the Queen’s reign will be held at St Paul’s Cathedral, before the star-studded Platinum Party At The Palace on Saturday 4 June.

Performers are yet to be named but it is being billed as bringing together some of the world’s biggest names in entertainment.

People across the country will sit down together for the Big Jubilee Lunch on Sunday 5 June, the final day of the bank holiday break.

Read more: Here's how you could be involved in the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations

Sandringham and Balmoral will also be open for residents and visitors to enjoy the celebrations across the long weekend.

Performers, dancers, musicians, military personnel, key workers and volunteers will tell the story of the Queen’s reign in the Platinum Jubilee Pageant, which will see a River Of Hope – made up of 200 silk flags – make its way along the Mall.

Schoolchildren across the country have been invited to create a picture of their hopes for the planet over the next 70 years, and some of their designs will be put on to the flags.

From July, three displays marking the Queen’s accession to the throne, the Coronation and Jubilees will be put on at the official royal residences.

Watch: Queen's Platinum Jubilee plans set with extra bank holiday