"Kate Middleton" news and stories

Not surprisingly, details on the Royal Wedding cake are a closely guarded secret (don't bother asking how many layers the cake will have), and the pastry chef Fiona Cairns is keeping her lips mostly sealed tight, reports The Telegraph.

Cairns, 56, has been making cakes for 25 years. She cannot disclose how much she, or her staff is getting paid for this royal job.

Here's what we do know about the cake, from Caims' interview with The Telegraph:

The cake weighs more than a sumo wrestler (and seems significantly larger than the groom's cake). There are 17 different types of flowers. It is a rich fruitcake and each guest will be able to get a small slice. The colors will be white and cream and there will be no pillars. The cake will be transported in a van, but don't worry, there is a Plan B in case something goes wrong.

Sounds like it could be the most substantial food item the guests eat all day.

What else can we be sure of? The cake certainly won't look like any of these bizarre iterations.

With 650 guests invited to celebrate Kate and Wills' big day, and the Buckingham Palace kitchens only equipped for formal dinner service for around 150, the menu for the Royal Wedding will not exactly be a five-course affair. In fact, it will consist of nothing more than a "modest spread of Champagne, wedding cake and two-bite appetizers, or canapes," reports the New York Times.

The 21-chef kitchen plans to make 10,000 appetizers, which comes to about 15 canapes per guest. Among them, mini Yorkshire puddings with roast beef and horseradish cream (above left, being prepared by sous chef Mark Stewart), and bubble-and-squeak confit with lamb shoulder (above right, being arranged by Royal Chef Mark Flanagan, Head of Kitchens at Buckingham Palace). Other house specialties include smoked salmon, herbed crèpes and Cornish pasties. The two-bite factor is aimed at convenience, "should a guest need to put one away in order to greet a passing dignitary."

In the evening after the wedding, Prince Charles is hosting a three-course dinner for 300 guests in Buckingham Palace catered by London restaurateur Anton Mosimann.

Join in on the party -- the Los Angeles Times recommends these 22 canapes to make at home. Or to be made by your own Royal Chef.

The Dukan Diet reportedly has Kate Middleton and J. Lo slenderizing. But is this high-protein, low-carb, four-phase diet really anything new? Calling Atkins and South Beach!

Now you can find out what all the hype is about. The English version of the decade-old French weight-loss bible The Dukan Diet: 2 Steps to Lose the Weight, 2 Steps to Keep It Off Forever, by French physician Pierre Dukan, MD, hits stores today, April 19.

Our friends over at Everyday Health asked nutritionist Kelly MacDonald, RD, to review the Dukan Diet, and lay out the pros and cons. Among them: "Though you may see rapid initial weight loss, it will mostly be from water and, later, from muscle mass. You'll also likely experience fatigue, moodiness, and other symptoms because the diet is so severely lacking in carbohydrates."

Click here for the whole Dukan Diet story from Everyday Health.

Seems Kate Middleton is having a Willy Wonka moment. Her image has turned into a Golden Ticket for a Somerset, England, man who claims he's not only spotted the soon-to-be Princess of Wales on a jelly bean, but he's selling the Kate-like Kandy on eBay!

When Wesley Hosie opened his jar of Jelly Bean Factory sweets, one mango-flavored bean stood out, he told The Telegraph. The speckles on the candy's surface had formed a pattern that created an image of Kate Middleton, flowing hair, Mona Lisa smile, and all. "She was literally lying there staring back at me," he told the paper. (Question: Wesley, what were you drinking with those jelly beans?)

Another man would have just popped the Kate-like candy in his mouth and gone back to watching the cricket match. But not Mr. Hosie, who has decided to take the jelly bean to the world, through eBay, where the starting bid will be 500 pounds sterling (about $800 and change). Next up, a Prince William chocolate bar?

Planning a wedding is enough to drive any normal couple to drink, much less the successors to the royal throne.

Thus, we won't fault Prince William and princess-to-be Kate Middleton if they need to sand away their stress with a cool pint of beer -- or four. If that's the case, the couple should order a keg of the aptly named Kiss Me Kate, a commemorative brew crafted by Nottingham, England's Castle Rock Brewery.

"Kiss Me Kate will be elegant, tasteful and British to the core," head brewer Adrian Redgrove said of the pale ale, which will be released about a month before the April 29 wedding.