German Vanilla Pudding With Sugared Gariguette Strawberries

It's been such a fun week.

As you all know, last week I shot my first wedding of the year. It was a gorgeous day, and we had the perfect weather for it. Bruce helped out and together we ended up with 2500 images between us. Thank goodness for memory cards and digital cameras... can you imagine trying to shoot a wedding with film?! I'm just going through the photos now, deleting some of the blurred ones, and I've highlighted 190 that could end up in the final cut, but might need further culling. Bruce has done the same, and together, we should end up with roughly 300 photos. 

 

The weather has been glorious for the past 4 days, and we should be getting a high of 30˚C today in London. The summer heat makes me think of my childhood and this pudding is one of those things I always associate with gorgeous hot weather. It's so easy to make and the flavour combination of the vanilla with the strawberries and the strawberry syrup is one that can't be described easily. 

I don't know how many of you know about this recipe, but every German that's worth their weight in pudding knows the basic recipe to this by heart. It's something you just grow up with. Making the strawberry syrup was always the fun part for me, watching all that strawberry juice ooze out of the strawberries by just adding sugar. As for that flavour, it's what I imagine liquid gold to taste like, better than any honey, and in combination with the vanilla, leaves you with the satisfaction of a taste bud sensation like no other.

I was lucky enough to get my hands on some Gariguette strawberries from a French market that came to London for the weekend selling all sorts of gorgeous fresh French produce - it's one of the highlights of summer and one I look forward to every year. Gariguette strawberries are one of the most flavoursome strawberries - but of course you don't have to use Gariguettes, you can use absolutely any strawberries for this recipe.

I also meant to buy some strawberry plants for my window boxes and can you imagine what a delightful surprise I had when I saw plants with pink flowers? The hybrid is called Red Ruby and I can't wait until it starts bearing fruit. Although I wish it would just keep flowering all year round.