Wedding Bells Are Ringing

Matrimonial Mayhem is an anthology of wedding stories to benefit the Governor of Alabama's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives for the hardest storm-hit areas of the state. The book is published by Astraea Press http://www.astraeapress.com There are six stories:

Elaine Cantrell, "It All Started with Cinders Malone's Dress," based upon A New Dream. From the wrong dress to a canine disaster with the wedding cake, can anything go right for Matt and Violet on their wedding day?

Therese Gilardi, "Marriage on Sunset," based upon Matching Wits with Venus. Before Colin and Amelia, came Amelia's parents Stella Sweetwater and Gerard Coillard. Maybe not a match made in Heaven, but certainly one arranged by Venus...on Sunset Boulevard.

J.F. Jenkins, "Legend of the Aero Dragon," based upon The Legend of the Oceina Dragon. When a young dragon falls in love, best not to be standing between him and his chosen mate...especially if his choice doesn't exactly match the choice of his father.

Kim Bowman, "The Ballad of Brenda and Willard," based on a true urban legend Third time was the charm in the wedding tale of this author's parents, but exactly what date their anniversary should be celebrated on is anybody's guess.

J. Gunnar Grey, "The Lilies at Laura's Wedding," based upon Deal with the Devil. No happy hitching to be found here, but sometimes the better course to take is to say "I don't."

Kay Springsteen, "Camp Wedding," based upon Heartsight. A blind Marine, a nervous bride, and an adorable child who loves them both is an equation for another tug on the heartstrings in the story behind Dan and Trish's wedding.

Each of the authors is writing a wedding related post on their blogs today. After you finish here, go to http://theresegilardi.wordpress.com for the next story.

And just to make this interesting, the authors are offering four fantastic prizes. Here's a list of what we've got for you.

1st place is a Princess Di bear and coupon code for an Astraea book, plus an ecopy of a book currently available by one of the six of us (winner's choice)

2nd place is a neclace and paperback copy of Kim Bowman's book, plus an ecopy of a book currently available by one of the six of us (winner's choice)

3rd place is choice of 2 copies of ebooks currently offered by the six of us (winner's choice)

4th place is choice of 1 copy of ebook currently offered by the six of us (winner's choice)

Rules are as follows:

Contestant must comment on all seven blogs to be eligible to win.

For every person you send to our site (the person has to note sender's name in post) you get another entry for prizes, same for tweeting, fbing

How's that sound? Nice, huh? The contest ends on Saturday May 14.

And now here's my post on wedding cakes.

Back in the Middle Ages, it was customary for guests to bring small cakes to a wedding feast. Traditionally, they brought fruit cakes. They were stacked on top of each other, and the bride and groom tried to kiss over the top of the stack without knocking it over. If they succeeded, it was thought to bring luck and good fortune. Over time the custom of covering the cakes with the same icing evolved, and the modern wedding cake was born.

When I got married, I had a wedding cake that was frosted in white. It was decorated with iridescent birds, bells, and bows. The layers themselves weren’t flavored. It really was pretty, but I think that couples usually go to a little more trouble to personalize their cake, often choosing exotic flavors and themes or very intricate decoration.

When Prince William wed Kate Middleton, their wedding cake was spectacular. The eight-tiered fruit cake was decorated in cream, white icing and 900 delicate sugar-paste flowers. It had seventeen types of blooms and flowers and took five weeks to complete. If you didn’t like that, you could have chocolate biscuit cake, a childhood favorite of Prince William. The chocolate cake had three tiers with white chocolate water lilies, milk chocolate leaves, and a mixture of white and milk chocolate feathers.

If you’d like to sample the chocolate cake, here’s a recipe from Mail Online, a UK online newspaper.
Ingredients:
4 oz. margarine or butter
10 oz. chocolate
14 oz. condensed milk
Large pack of Rich Tea biscuits
15 glace cherries, chopped, 2 oz. raisins, variety of chopped nuts

1.In a large bowl crush the biscuits
2.Stir the cherries, raisins and nuts into the crushed biscuits
3.In a pan, melt together the margarine, condensed milk and half the bar of chocolate.
4.Pour the chocolate mixture over the biscuit mixture. Stir well until the crushed biscuits are all coated.
5.Line a tin, basin or box with greaseproof or parchment paper. Pour the mixture into it.
6.Freeze for at least two hours or until needed. When needed, take out and leave for two hours.
7.Melt the remaining chocolate and spread on top of the cake.
8.Cut into pieces and serve.

If you try the recipe, send me a slice! And don’t forget that Matrimonial Mayhem is available at http://www.astraeapress.com All proceeds will be donated to disaster relief in Alabama.

From here go to http://www.theresegilardi.wordpress.com