Wedding belles

Wedding belles



Angelina Blackmon and Kirstin Farris will break out the china, tea service and fun hair accessories for a royal wedding watch party. MICHAEL WYKE / Tulsa World

Tulsa women go all out for watch party

By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer

Published: 4/10/2011  2:27 AM

Last Modified: 4/10/2011  6:33 AM



  Related Story: Fancy hair decorations a popular wedding frill



Like many inspired ideas, Angelina Blackmon's arrived while she was performing a routine activity.



"Honestly, I was shopping. There was this ridiculous headband with a huge feathered plume coming off of it. I thought, 'I could wear this to the royal wedding,' " she said.



And her royal wedding watch party was born.



Prince William will marry Kate Middleton on April 29, and even though the actual ceremony will be more than 4,500 miles and a few time zones away, plenty of Tulsans will be watching. And many, like Blackmon's group, will be celebrating in style.



Along with her friends Leigh Murray and Kirstin Farris, Blackmon is planning a grand watch party at her midtown home, complete with white gloves, a proper tea service, chocolate biscuit cake, and of course, hats.



To watch the live event would mean starting the party outrageously early - live coverage on many networks starts at 2 a.m. Central time - so thanks to the DVR, their big event will start promptly at 8 a.m.



Blackmon is no party-planning novice. This is a woman responsible for a recent bachelorette party when 25 friends reveled in Las Vegas wearing wedding gowns. But she credits her friends for her spectacular parties.



"You have to have fun friends. People are taking the day off work, and they're up for having fun," she said.



Royal service



For Farris, the royal wedding party is an opportunity to use her wedding china and special family heirlooms.



"We're going to use my wedding china, which I don't really ever get to use. We'll use the plates and the coffee service," she said. "It's so hard when everybody is so busy to sit down and have parties. I've been thinking that I wanted to take the time to have a bunch of girls over and use my china."



But what Farris is really happy to use comes from her great-great-grandmother.



"She was from Sweden and Norway, and I'm going to use her tea pot. It was a wedding gift to her," Farris said. "It's from the 1880s and is silver with swirls, a Scandinavian design."



Blackmon's tea of choice will be a blend by Twinings, which is Queen-approved. And the menu has been thoroughly researched, too.



"I read there will be something like 10,000 canapes at the Queen's reception," she said.



Although it might feel like she's making as many appetizers, Blackmon has settled on serving tea and mimosas, fruit tartlets, potted shrimp, bridge rolls, and a bread and butter pudding, which Blackmon described as "French toast minus a lot of the eggs."



And for dessert, of course, there's Prince William's groom's cake.



"I'm very excited that I found a recipe for the Prince's chocolate cake," she said. "(The royal family) has commissioned some famous baker to make the cake, and they sent out the recipe. I, of course, commissioned the Internet."



The chocolate cake she found is made of "biscuits," or as Yanks call them, cookies.



Queen of parties



Leigh Murray, another of Blackmon's party planners, said she's following protocol and doing what she's told to help plan the party.



"We tried to get big life-sized cutouts of Prince William and Kate, but they only make them in England - it would have cost like hundreds of dollars to ship them over," she said.



There seems to be no royal stone unturned at their party. The group is ordering replicas of Kate's sapphire engagement ring to wear, and a guest, who had her wedding dress styled after Princess Diana's, will bring that along.



"Angelina is the queen of celebrations," Farris said. "That girl is so fun and creative. And how often is there a royal wedding? There's nothing more fun than a wedding, and every girl's dream is to marry a prince, so there's that fairy-tale factor."



For Blackmon, these celebrations are not only excuses to be over the top, but they are what make memories for her group of busy friends.



"We'll be taking photos, and guests can leave with them that day," she said. "It's a fun, joyous celebration. I can remember when Princess Di got married. We had just gotten a VHS recorder, so we watched it on tape.



"I'm lucky my friends are creative, and one will show up with some outrageous hat. It's something we'll always talk about."





Royal app



Britain's monarchy is launching its first official "Royal App" for smart phones, and it will focus on past royal weddings.



It will be available for download for iPhones and Android starting April 18.



To honor Prince William and Kate Middleton's April 29 wedding, the application will tell the story of seven royal nuptials and add a "wealth of historical context," said Jemima Rellie at the Royal Collection.



- Associated Press





Make your own royal groom’s cake



Prince William has reportedly asked for his favorite chocolate cake, made with English "biscuits," or cookies, to be his groom's cake. This no-bake, rich cake recipe is from Princess Diana's former Chef Darren McGrady. It appears in his book, "Eating Royally: Recipes & Remembrances from a Palace Kitchen."



CHOCOLATE BISCUIT CAKE



1/2 teaspoon butter, for greasing pan

8 ounces McVitie's rich tea biscuits

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup granulated sugar

4 ounces dark chocolate

1 egg, beaten

8 ounces dark chocolate, for icing

1 ounce white chocolate, for decoration



1. Lightly grease a small (6-inch by 2 1/2-inch) cake ring with 1/2 teaspoon butter, and place on a parchment-lined tray. Break each of the biscuits by hand into almond-sized pieces and set aside. Cream the butter and sugar in a bowl until the mixture is a light lemon color.



2. Melt the 4 ounces of dark chocolate in a double boiler. Add the butter and sugar mixture to the chocolate, stirring constantly. Add the egg and continue stirring. Fold in the biscuit pieces until they are all coated with the chocolate mixture.



3. Spoon the chocolate biscuit mixture into the prepared cake ring. Try to fill all the gaps at the bottom of this ring, because this will be the top when it is unmolded. Chill the cake in the refrigerator for at least three hours.



4. Remove the cake from the refrigerator, and let it stand while you melt the 8 ounces of dark chocolate for icing. Slide the ring off the cake and turn the cake upside down onto a cooling rack. Pour 8 ounces of melted dark chocolate over the cake, and smooth the top and sides using a butter knife or offset spatula. Allow the chocolate icing to set at room temperature. Carefully run a knife around the bottom of the cake where it has stuck to the cooling rack, and transfer the cake to a cake dish. Melt the white chocolate and drizzle on top of the cake in a decorative pattern.



Here’s another British recipe that midtown resident Angelina Blackmon plans to make for her royal wedding watch party on April 29. She describes this as “French toast minus a lot of the eggs.” This recipe is adapted from BBC Food.



BREAD AND BUTTER PUDDING



1 ounce butter, plus extra for greasing

8 thin slices bread

2 ounces sultanas (golden raisins)

2 teaspoons cinnamon powder

12 ounces whole milk

2 ounces double cream (heavy cream)

2 eggs

1 ounce granulated sugar

Nutmeg, grated, to taste



1. Grease a 2-pint pie dish with butter.



2. Cut the crusts off the bread. Spread each slice with on one side with butter, then cut into triangles.



3. Arrange a layer of bread, buttered-side up, in the bottom of the dish, then add a layer of sultanas (or golden raisins). Sprinkle with a little cinnamon, then repeat the layers of bread and sultanas, sprinkling with cinnamon, until you have used up all of the bread. Finish with a layer of bread, then set aside.



4. Gently warm the milk and cream in a pan over a low heat to scalding point. Don't let it boil.



5. Crack the eggs into a bowl, add three quarters of the sugar and lightly whisk until pale.



6. Add the warm milk and cream mixture and stir well, then strain the custard into a bowl.



7. Pour the custard over the prepared bread layers and sprinkle with nutmeg and the remaining sugar and leave to stand for 30 minutes.



8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.



9. Place the dish into the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the custard has set and the top is golden brown.





WATCH THE ROYAL WEDDING LIVE



A plethora of royal wedding coverage is planned by every major television network. Set those DVRs - here are live coverage times announced so far:



CBS, channel 6:"The Early Show" live at 4 a.m.



PBS, channel 11: Live at 2 a.m.



ABC, channel 8:"Good Morning America" live at 4:05 a.m.



NBC, channel 9:"The Today Show" coverage live at 3 a.m.



CNN, channel 41: Live at 3 a.m.



MSNBC, channel 50: Live at 2 a.m.



Kim Brown 918-581-8474

kim.brown@tulsaworld.com

By KIM BROWN World Scene Writer





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