Historic food expert Ivan Day has advised on jellies at Buckingham Palace and created historic desserts for film director Martin Scorcese to use in period dramas.

And at the weekend he met hundreds of visitors to Brodsworth Hall when he brought 55 jellies for what he thinks was the largest display of its kind in England.

He arrived in Doncaster the day after helping out at Buckingham Palace, where they were creating a display to mark the opening of the State Banqueting Rooms to the public.

He said: "This event at Brodsworth is probably the biggest exhibition of jellies I'm aware of in England."

The Brodsworth Hall Jelly Festival was the first time the venue had run such an event, and charted the history of one of England's favourite party foods.

Organiser Jay Commins said: "We followed jelly from the 16th century right to the modern day.

"Back in the 16th century, jelly was served as a savoury, basically the same thing you find inside a pork pie, but with some colouring in it.

"It wasn't until they worked out how to make it without a meat flavour that they started making it sweet. They discovered Isenglass, which is from sturgeons' swim bladder, and starting making fruit flavour jellies.

"Jelly is something that many of us associate with children's birthday parties, but actually creating some of the complex historical designs that would have graced the Victorian table is rather more complicated than you might imagine.

"Not only do you have to plan the colour-scheme and layers carefully, but you need to alter the density and consistency so that the jelly can support itself whilst still remaining perfectly wobbly, and then actually get it out of the mould once it has set - a challenge in its own right!"

Jay himself contributed three modern style jellies to the event - but he admits his efforts were a bit of a jelly-flop compared to Ivan's.

The hot summer weather tested the jellies to the limit - but Ivan's remained standing through out the two day event.

Jay's had given up by the end of day two - sagging and ending up nearly flat.

He said: "Ivan is the king of jellies - he really is the best in the world at making them, and he's advised on the sets of films and period dramas."

Jay decided to arrange the exhibition after being inspired by one of the ornate jelly moulds on display at the English Heritage-owned Victorian country house.

Ivan, who has recently appeared on the television show The Supersizers Go Victorian, said: "The Victorians were generally very straight-laced, but jellies were often seen as an exception to society's conventions."

Despite the range of jellies at the event, none of Ivan's creations were suitable for eating at Brodsworth, despite plenty of requests from visitors.

They were made to a superstrength recipe for the occasion to make them strong enough to keep standing in the hot summer weather for two days.

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