The origin of the tiered wedding cake

There are three things that cannot be missed at a wedding: the groom, the bride and the cake. 

In 1840, Queen Victoria decided to wear a white dress at her wedding with Prince Albert. Since then, the brides choose the white colour for their special day. The traditional wedding cake is also white to symbolize virginity and purity and to reflect the wife's virtues.

A wedding cake can have different flavours, forms and textures. But there is one thing that all of them have in common; they have tiers. To be exact, the traditional wedding cake must have three tiers. Why?

It's a girl

Today, London woke up with great news.

The Duchess of Cambridge, in less than three hours after she arrived at the Lindo Wing, has given birth to a girl. The princess, who is fourth in line to the throne, was born at 8.34 am with weight 8lbs 3oz.

London Marathon 2015

More than 38,000 people have taken part in the London Marathon last Sunday. Since the first time that it took place, on 29 March 1981, around £716 million have been collected.

From Greenwich to Buckingham Palace, the runners went over 26.2 mile (42.2km). This event was instituted to commemorate the Greek soldier Pheidippides who, in 490 BC, run 25 miles (40 km) from the battlefield near Marathon to Athens to announce the Greek victory over Persia. In the present, this would be the same distance as the length of the Victoria line, twice.

And this year runners not only participated in the race to raise money. Some of them also made of it the most important day of their lifes.

Shakespeare in love

Shakespeare in love, a 1998 film, was directed by John Madden and starred by Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow. It was one of the most successful English films of all times. The movie is placed in 1593, a period in which William Shakespeare was suffering from writer's block. It is a story about true love and love about theatre, so bringing it on the stage seemed like a natural fit. 

Last year, it was the 450th anniversary of the birth of the English author, so it was the perfect moment to perform this adaptation. The chosen theatre to bring Shakespeare back to the West End was the Noël Coward. This stage was only about one mile away from where the playwright worked so, probably, he walked pass this theatre many times in his life to get to the Globe Theatre, in Southbank. 

The premier was the 23rd of July of 2014 and today, 18th of April, the curtain dropped for the last time. The play was really fun, from the beginning to the end, with some romance, tears and love. And all of this is possible thank to the work of one of the largest companies ever seen on a play on the West End with 30 performers and a dog.

Happy Red Nose Day!

It has been 30 years since Richard Curtis and Lenny Henry founded Comic Relief. Maybe they did not think about the importance of that decision, but nowadays, this British charity has became the major one based in the UK. Thanks to all the hard work, Comic Relief has raised over £950 million in all these years.

How can they do that? Very simple. The Charity has the "Golden Pound Principle". It means that every single penny donated, it is spent on charitable projects. The workers, and costs are covered by private sponsors. So, when you make a contribution, you know that your money is not going to be wasted.

Besides, Comic Relief organises two big biennales. Sport Relief and Red Nose Day. 

Today, and since it was first launched in 1988, is Red Nose Day. Every two years, people have the opportunity to have fun at work, home, school or uni while they help the needed.

Baileys or Bailey's

Baileys was created by Gilbeys of Ireland and it was introduced to the international market as the first Irish Cream on 1974. The idea was very simple. They put together Irish whiskey, cream and some herbs (obviously the recipe is a secret) and they made a millionaire business.  

Nowadays, the trademark is owned by Diageo, a British multinational. This company is currently the world's largest producer of spirits and one of the major manufacturers of beer and wine. Some of its products are Guinness, Kilkenny, Jonnie Walker, Cardhu, Smirnoff, Gordon's, Captain Morgan or Pimm's.

But, how is Baileys linked to London? Diageo is headquartered in London but this is not the important fact. The name of this alcoholic drink was inspired by the Millennium Bailey's Hotel, a building placed in the 140 Gloucester Road, Kensington. It was established in 1876 and it took its name after its owner, the Member of Parliament Sir James Bailey.

Chinese New Year

The 19th of February was the Chinese New Year celebration. This means that from now we are living in the Year of the Sheep. This animal is a symbol of peace, harmonious co-existence and tranquility and it is also the representation of the Arts.

The Chinese Zodiac says that babies born this year (or people who were born in 1967, 1979, 1991 or 2003) are clever, polite, kindhearted, wise and indecisive.

Outside Asia, London's Chinese New Year celebrations are the largest. Last week, as every year, thousands of curious joined London's Chinese communities on this festivity. On Sunday, all of them walked along Trafalgar Square and Chinatown, where the main festivities took place.

55 Boadway

Not always the artists and their work are well recognized. The best example from Art History is one of Michelangelo's masterpieces, the Last Judgment. This marvelous fresco, done between 1536 and 1541, was partially modified due to the Council of Trent. Paul III and the Roman Catholic Church had condemned, at that time, nudity in religious art. For that reason, the great mannerist painter Daniele da Volterra, known as Il Braghettone, was hired to cover the genitals of Michelangelo's work.

Coming back to UK, the American-British sculptor Jacob Epstein did some controversial pieces. In London, it is possible to see some of his works like Rush of Green and W.H.Hudson Memorial, both of them placed in Hyde Park, or Ages of Man. But it was on 1929 when censorship and social pressure influenced Epstein's work.

Above the entrance of the London Underground Ltd headquarters, popularly known as 55 Broadway, Epstein designed the sculptures Day and Night. His work was considered controversial and indecent because, according to the censors, the small figure, the Day, had a "big" penis. Epstein agreed to remove from the naked statue one inch and a half. This is the length that the censors thought was acceptable and decent. 

London Underground will move to its headquarters this year and 55 Broadway, placed in St James's Park, will be a residential building. Whatever the case may be, it is still possible to enjoy the interesting front of this building.

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the musical

London has the flavours, sounds and laughs of Spanish because Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown (known as Mujeres al borde de un ataque de nervios), the musical, finally started. From the 12th of January until the 9th of May, the Playhouse Theatre is going to be the capital of Spain. 

This fantastic film, directed and written by Pedro Almodóvar in 1988, won five Goya Awards, including the best film. But this crazy story was appreciated not only in Spain, because it also won awards and nominations all around the globe and it put the Spanish director on the international map.

This masterpiece occurs in the 80's. In that moment, Madrid was a city full of colours, music, fun, freedom and "mad people" like all these women.

Regent Street Christmas Lights

At 5 pm, coinciding with the switching on the lights in Regent Street, Christmas officially started in London. From 12 am to 6 pm, the street was closed to traffic and all the visitors could enjoy all the activities that the hosts prepared for the entire family. 

The event was presented by Jamie Theakston and Emma Bunton, from London's Heart Breakfast, and it was promoted by the film Night At The Museum: Secret Of The Tomb.

At 4 pm, the great show began with the live performance of Jessie Ware, The Jack Pack, The Jersey Boys and Union J. After them, Mark Owen, Gary Barlow and Howard Donald, from Take That, turned on the lights. The party season starts.

Remembrance Sunday and Poppy Day

Next Tuesday will be a day to remember and to honor all the members of the army who have died while they were in duty. The Poppy Day. 

And we celebrate it this exactly day to make it coincides with the end of the confrontation of World War I at the eleventh hour on the eleventh day of the eleventh month on 1918. After six hours, the armistice was signed in a railway carriage in the Forest of Compiegne, France. With the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, the 28th of June of 1919, the War was officially ended.

On the Remembrance Sunday, United Kingdom celebrates two minutes of silence. This period start and end with the firing of an artillery piece. In London, some of the main commemoration points will be held in Whitehall, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and the Big Ben.

Bonfire night

Today we are celebrating one of the most important festivities in the UK and some countries of the Commonwealth. Since the Gunpowder Plot, which took place on 1605, it is a tradition to commemorate the Guy Fawkes failure with fireworks displays. 

Imperial War Museums

The Imperial War Museums reopened on Saturday, to mark the centenary of the World War One, after completing the first phase of its plan. We had to wait six months but the £40 million project, designed by the architects Foster and Partners, is concluded. 

Prince William and David Cameron officially opened the IWM and the new "First World War Galleries" last Thursday.

IWM, formerly called the National War Museum, was founded on the 5th of March, 1917, and the museum was opened in the Crystal Palace by King George V, Prince William great-great grandfather, on the 9th of June, 1920. The Duke of York, later known as King George VI, reopened the IMW on Lambeth Road, its present location.

Keep Calm and Carry on

The Second World War officially started with the German invasion of Poland on the 1st of September, 1939. Two days later, United Kingdom and France declared war on Germany.

It was an uncertain year and the population lived under the threat of impending invasion. To maintain the morale, the British government designed, from the 27th of June to the 6th of July, three posters with a very simply style. The symbolic crown of King George VI, an effective font and a powerful slogan. 

Two of them were produced by His Majesty’s Stationery Office and posted in shop windows, public transport and notice boards across all Britain.

The Tour de France

The Tour de France, one of the world's biggest annual sporting events, arrived this Monday to London. The first stage of the competition took place last Saturday, 4th of July, from Leeds to Harrogate. The bikers departed on Sunday, 5th of July, from York and arrived to Sheffield after they went across 201 kilometres.

The third stage, and the last one that occurred in the UK, started in Cambridge, it passed through Essex and, after 155 kilometres, the competitors finished on the Mall, London.

The race went through some important landmarks including the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, Tower Bridge, Tower of London, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey.

The World Naked Bike Ride

One of the most original events took place yesterday in London. The World Naked Bike Ride is the biggest naked protest in the World. It's a celebration of the bicycle, the environment and the human body and a protest against the car, the oil dependency and the vulnerability of the cyclist. 

Over half a million journeys by bike are made every day in London, according to The Economist. But the capital is not a safe place for cycling. Between 2006 and 2011, 439 cyclists were killed in traffic accidents in Greater London. The worst year was 1989, when 33 people died.

In 2003 Conrad Schmidt conceived The World Naked Bike Ride. The first WNBR event in 2004 was a collaboration between the WNBR group and Manifestación Ciclonudista in Spain. That year, 28 cities celebrated this kind of protest. In 2010 it took place in 74 cities, in 17 different countries.

The first race of this year, in the UK, was celebrated in Portsmouth, the 24th of May, and it will draw to an end in Clacton, on the 19th of July. The London race had six different assembly points. The north side set off from Marble Arch, Regent's Park and King's Cross and they were merged together in Piccadilly Circus/ Haymarket. The two south columns, Clapham Junction and West Norwood, met at Vauxhall Bridge. And all of them plus Tower Hill riders converged on Westminster Bridge to reach Wellington Arch, where the race finished.

The International Day of the Book

Today, 23rd of April, we are commemorating the International Day of the Book. This event was celebrated for the first time on 1995 and it is organised by UNESCO to promote the reading. The exception is United Kingdom that helds the World Book Day on the first Thursday in March. That's because it is also St George's Day, the National Saint's Day of England. 

UNESCO did not choose that day randomly. The 22nd of April, 1616, the Spanish novelist Miguel de Cervantes died in Madrid but he was buried on the 23rd. Every year, to commemorate his work, Don Quijote is read during two days in Alcalá de Henares, the city where the poet was born. But also, Catalonia celebrates 'The Day of the Rose' since at least 1926. In that day it's a tradition to exchange a rose and a book.

Inca Garcilaso de la Vega and Josep Pla also died on that same day while Maurice Druon, Manuel Mejía Vallejo and Halldór Laxness were born.

They're gonna live forever. Oasis exhibition

Twenty years to the day since Oasis shot to stardom with Supersonic (released the 11th of April, 1994), a free exhibition dedicated to the English rock band opened in Shoreditch. Chasing The Sun: Oasis 1993 - 1997 is taking place at the Londonewcastle Project Space from the 11st until the 22nd of April. 

The showing takes us to their meteoric career through three albums: Definitely Maybe, (What's the Story) Morning Glory, and Be Here Now.

This exhibition includes original pictures taken by Jill Furminovsky, Paul Slattery, Tom Sheehan, Kevin Cummins, and Jamie Fry. The exposition also displays the instruments they played on their first few albums, awards, stage costumes, a Manchester City flag, vintage merchandise or Noel Gallagher’s handwritten lyric sheets.

The Coffee Art Project

Coffee and art have a strong bond. Do you know which one is it? 

The Coffee Art Project connects these two concepts with an excellent competition. Different artists created their unique masterpieces with the 'coffee' or 'coffee shop' theme. They could use diverse techniques as painting, photography, design, drawing, sculpture... 

The best artwork will win £1,500 and this work will appear on the labels of Coffee by Tate for 12 months. Another five shortlisted runner-up will receive a prize with value of £250 and also there will be a special London Coffee Festival Visitor Award. All of them will be announced on the 6th of April at London Coffee Festival.

London Ice Sculpting Festival

What can you do on a cold day in London? From Friday 10th until Sunday 12th January, lots of Londoners discovered the amazing things that can be done with a block of ice in The London Ice Sculpting Festival, placed in Canary Wharf.

10 teams and 20 ice sculptors from Africa, Belgium, France, Hungary, Ireland, Poland, Spain, Sweden, UK and USA competed in 3 different fields:

Freestyle, in which the artists made their free choice of design. The themes "River Life" for the Singles competition and "Fabulous Fashion" for the Doubles.

But the festival was, as well, a perfect occasion to know about the ice's art. There were free master classes to learn how to sculpt polar bears.