"One NEVER counted one's calories: The Queen Mum's favourite recipes, including After Eight ice cream and tipsy tart"

Dubonnet and gin before lunch. Martinis at 6pm and Veuve Clicquot champagne with dinner. Her favourite recipes came doused in double cream, expensive liqueurs and brandy syrups — and yet she lived to be 101.

The Queen Mother had a remarkable appetite for food and drink. This week sees the publication of A Taste Of Mey, a collection of recipes — with a foreword written by the Prince of Wales — from former staff and guests at the Queen Mother’s Scottish residence, the Castle of Mey.

Oeufs Drumkilbo

A picnic favourite of Her Majesty’s, Oeufs Drumkilbo is described as ‘a posh prawn cocktail and egg mayonnaise wrapped into one’. The dish provided hearty ballast for afternoons of vigorous walking in Scotland, and was served at the wedding breakfast of Prince Andrew and Fergie.

Modern twist: The dish featured prawns and eggs, like this one

SERVES 6

450 ml mayonnaise

4 diced hard boiled eggs

225g prawns (cooked but chilled)

225g diced lobster (cooked but chilled)

3 diced tomatoes (skinned and de-seeded)

1 dessertspoon anchovy essence

6 drops Tabasco sauce

1 dessertspoon tomato puree

4 sheets leaf gelatine

150 ml warm fish stock

Soak the gelatine in cold water, then dissolve it in the fish stock and allow to cool. Place the mayonnaise in a bowl and add half the cooled gelatine. Add all the other ingredients to the mayonnaise mixture and stir carefully to combine. Place it in a china or glass bowl and chill until set. Glaze with the remaining gelatine, decorate at will and allow to set. Serve with fingers of brown bread, mustard and cress.

Tipsy Tart

SERVES 8

100g dates chopped

150ml boiling water

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

125g butter softened

225g sugar

1 egg beaten

150g plain flour

For the syrup:

100g sugar

50ml water

1 teaspoon butter

1 teaspoon vanilla essence

25ml brandy (and a drop more to taste)

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas 4 and grease a 20cm pie dish. Soak the dates in the bicarbonate of soda and boiling water till soft.

Leave to cool. Cream butter and sugar together with the egg. Sift dry ingredients into mixture, fold in, then add dates and walnuts. Place it into a pie dish and bake for about 30 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean).

For the syrup, dissolve sugar and water on the stove until the mixture has thickened a little.

Remove from the stove and stir in vanilla essence, butter and brandy. Pour syrup over tart and serve with cream or ice cream


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