Queen settles jam and cream scone debate

The Queen has finally settled the great scone debate once and for all, but her preference is sure to ruffle a few feathers.

Last month, people across Britain were left outraged after Lanhydrock National Trust shared a photo promoting its Mother’s Day morning tea menu with a photo of scones topped with cream and finished with jam on top.

Local Cornish residents voiced their shock at the idea of cream before jam, but they were soon met with jeering responses from their neighbours in Devon, who traditionally put the jam on last.

The ensuing argument was thoroughly British and rather hilarious, with hundreds of people staking their pride with #JamFirst and #CreamFirst hashtags.

While it spurred thousands of comments and more than a few terse words, the Queen’s former chef Darren McGrady soon settled the debate in a tweet that revealed the royal’s preference.

According to McGrady, it’s always jam first, then cream for the Monarch.

“The Queen always had home-made Balmoral jam first … with clotted cream on top at Buckingham Palace garden parties in the Royal tea tent and all Royal tea parties,” he wrote on Twitter.

While the Queen’s favouritism towards the jam-first camp was certainly welcome news for Cornish residents, it was met with distaste from some Devon folk, who also took issue with the type of cream used on scones.

In Cornwall they use clotted cream — a silky, golden-yellow cream that’s made through a pain-staking heating and cooling process. Those in Devon prefer Devonshire cream, a thick-set cream that’s produced exclusively in the county.

Social media lit up with fiery banter between residents from the two counties, who couldn’t quite grasp their neighbours’ scone preference.

One Cornish tweeter gloated: “In Cornwall it’s #jamfirst. We are proud of our clotted cream and dollop it on as a crowning glory. In Devon it’s cream first as they are embarrassed by their cream & have to hide it.”

“It has to be #creamfirst on a scone, those #JamFirst Cornish lunatics can stay on their side of the Tamar and not spread their heathen ways into Devon,” one Devon man wrote.

Even Starts at 60 readers got in on the action with some very Aussie suggestions standing out from the pack.

“My Aunt told me a thin spread of cream, then jam, then lashings of cream to finish off. ????????
Have been doing that for 50 years no one has complained,” one woman wrote.

“I have put vegemite on scones but do not serve it to anyone else. It was my own sneaky obsession,” said another.

Which do you put on first? Jam or cream?