to think this is the most complicated recipe in the universe?

[intwrferingma]

www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lemon_swiss_roll_and_42467
What a faffadoodledo. Over two hours it says. More like over two DAYS! Please share the recipes you wish you'd never started, just to make me feel less of an idiot for embarking on this kitchen odyssey.

The kids want jubilee trifle. This is how I am making it:
Slice lemon Swiss roll I bought from M and S
Layer mandarins out of a tin
Layer orange jelly I made from jelly cubes
Layer custard out of a tin
Layer whipped cream
Decorate with mini lemon meringues from M and S and home made Union jacks, unless the local deli has some ameretti biscuits, couldn’t find any yesterday.

Good lord, that's horrific. A million elements, all from scratch. Who on earth makes their own amaretti biscuits, just to bung in a trifle?!

I hope it's delicious OP, once it's finally done.

You lost me at making your own jelly

I was given the Fat Duck cookbook, which is as you would expect has quite extraordinarily finicky recipes, and is I think the only place I've seen more complicated recipes. (I think the point of the book is to make you appreciate how much effort goes into the restaurant meals and not seriously for any of it to be cooked at home). I'm not tempted to try the jubilee one; I'm not a fan of trifle, not sure how the flavours would work together, and as you say preparation sounds like a lot of effort!

Can't you buy something similar at the Co-op ?!

That's not a recipe, that a punishment !

'faffadoodledo' is my new favourite word.

I like cooking from scratch but no WAY would I spend days doing that! The most complicated cook book we have is a Tom Kerridge one - lots of special ingredients or fiddly processes, but all still achievable.

I made it , am a good baker , it still took me 24 hours . The lemon curd & Swiss roll was delicious ( we had to test it first obviously!) the jelly was lovely. I did buy amaretti, I’m not that dedicated! Somehow when put together the whole thing was tasteless, hardly lemony at all ! So disappointing after all that effort!

That recipe was devised to win a competition, it was always going to be ridiculously complicated. I don't know why they couldn't have short cut it for normal people so that the elements are still the same (orange jelly, Amaretti biscuits etc) but each element wasn't made from scratch!

There's a Jamie Oliver 30 min meals recipe that takes about 2 hours, I make it every now and then cos it's lovely but I'm not sure in what universe JO lives, maybe one where time has a different meaning.

Crazy! Looks delicious but I think I'd be following this tip at the bottom (if you can be bothered to scroll for that long...)

I just knew it would be that trifle, I was hoping M&S would do one but they don't.

I didn't realise that everything was supposed to be made separately, @StarTwins one sounds a good idea.

Also liking "faffadoodledo".

When it won, didn't the creator say that the idea was you could choose how much to do from scratch - and buy all the things pre-made if you liked?

OP so was going to make this but honestly it is a GIGANTIC faff! @StarTwins thanks for the shortcuts; that’s enough to make me reconsider!

Lobster Thermidor. Endless processes, loads of ingredients.

Tbh the amaretti biscuits are the easiest element. And we had lots of amaretto in the cupboard to use.
I am fearful the whole thing won't even take nice. It is an odd combination of flavours! And not very British!
More fool me eh?

Crikey OP! Fair play to you that it was even something you were prepared to tackle. If the list of ingredients is too long (more than about 10 ingredients) I'm out!

Lesson learned @ClinkeyMonkey!
I'd previously have handed the mantle if most complicated recipe to Yotem Ottolenghi. But having tackled this one I think he needs to up his game!

I’m pretty sure the whole point was that the individual elements are available shop bought so you can make as much or as little of it from scratch as you like.

YANBU I saw the late Gary Rhodes doing a really complicated Christmas menu once. He kept telling the viewers how simple each bit was...but there were about 48 different elements! And being a cynical cow, I thought yes, it would be a lot simpler if I had a team of minions to source, check and weigh the ingredients and line them up in bowls, get all the equipment out, set oven to right temperature and then clear away and wash up afterwards!!

I made caramel sauce from a Delia Smith recipe once. It said it would take 7 min. It took 3 attempts, a trip to the shops to buy more sugar and final attempt took about 25 min...

The clincher for me, is if all the ingredients don't fit on one page, then it's not going to happen.
@MrsToothyBitch we have a Tom Kerridge book. I have not yet braved any of the 3 page list of ingredients recipes yet. DH made a really nice Indian lamb recipe from there - but he doesnt mind faffing spending a long time on recipes probably because he doesn't do all the clearing up afterwards

I made it, and though it seemed like a lot of steps, buying amaretti, jelly and lemon curd made it very straightforward - I made swiss rolls which were less than 20 min end to end, the coulis (15 min), and custard (10 min) plus the chocolate shard. Very tasty it was too

@ClinkeyMonkey
I think we must be similar, a long ingredients list, is a deal breaker for me too.

The true family magic of that recipe is it contains so many different elements that someone will grumpily insist on picking out before eating. Normally it's just 'Ew, sponge' or 'Ew, sherry' but here you have amaretti biscuits, lemon Swiss roll, lemon curd, bits of fruit, lemon jelly, unidentified 'jewelled bark'...

"Jemma [the creator of the pudding] said it was important to her that everyone would be able to make her trifle, stressing its simplicity and the fact that it could be made with shop-bought ingredients, for those who preferred not to bake everything from scratch."

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-61428970

And here is the easy way, according to the Harrogate Advertiser:

www.harrogateadvertiser.co.uk/lifestyle/food-and-drink/an-easy-step-by-step-cheats-guide-to-making-the-queens-platinum-jubilee-pudding-thanks-to-the-yorkshire-hotel-in-harrogate-3717608

I was really hoping for a baking equivalent of coronation chicken. Something a little different that's easy and quick to whip up.