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How to throw a royal wedding party: 22 canapes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen

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A common buffet for the royal wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton? Perish the thought. The 600 guests invited to attend the nuptials at Westminster Abbey in London on April 23 will retire to Buckingham Palace to dine on canapes. Ten thousand canapes are being prepared for the gathering.

Which raises the question: What, exactly, is a canape?

It would be too easy to describe a canape as simply another word for an appetizer, for a canape must have style and panache to spare. We turned to the L.A. Times Test Kitchen archives and found this delicious definition: ‘Canapes are bite-sized hors d’oeuvres made by assembling different ingredients on bread or a bread-like base (‘canape’ is the French word for ‘couch’), though these days the definition can be stretched. The interplay of colors, textures and flavors is what makes a canape attractive and intriguing ... ‘

As the royal wedding draws nearer, the media have gone into overdrive tracking down every little tidbit about the preparations. Apparently, it was reported at one point that guests would be treated to a -- gasp!-- buffet at Buckingham Palace.

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Oh, the horror.

Instead, CNN reports, a team of 21 chefs will prepare nearly 10,000 canapes for the affair: ‘There will be 10 or 12 savory varieties and five or six sweet ones. Some will be hot, some will be cold -- and all have been approved by the prince and his bride-to-be.’ People magazine has some more detail: The canapes will includes plenty of variety, such as smoked salmon on a beet root blini, confit duck-leg terrine with smoked duck and pear chutney, and quail eggs with celery salt.

After these festivities, a smaller group of close friends and family will move on to a formal dinner.

Did you get an invite to the Royal Wedding? Neither did I. I guess we’ll just have to throw our own Royal Wedding party. Here are 22 recipes for canapes from the L.A. Times Test Kitchen.

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And here’s to a long and happy marriage for William and Kate. I only wish that Princess Diana could be here to see it.

RELATED:

--Royal Wedding fans choose a blue cake. Yuck.

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--The latest on the royal wedding cake

-- Rene Lynch
Twitter / renelynch

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