Mowielicious

German Pflaumenkuchen (Plum cake), Poached Plums And My New Website

I've been thinking a lot about balance recently.  

It started when I read the first chapter of Eat, Pray, Love. This book has been on my reading list for so long now, and I finally started reading it a couple of weeks ago. It's one of those books to be savoured because it's written so simply and beautifully that it makes me want to read it really slowly, hoping it will never end. But at the same time, I would love to read it as fast as possible because it's so enjoyable. It mainly deals with the issue of finding balance in ones life and it got me thinking about how unbalanced my life is and how I need to start changing that.  

 The interwebz also seems to be full of posts surrounding this theme as I discovered in my reader last week, almost like a collective subconscious moving towards the ideal way of life: Leo's (very brief but succinct) a brief guide to life and letting go of fake needs, Sarah's on the importance of having space, and a CNN article, be polite and put your smartphone down.   

 It also made me think about you, dear reader: how balanced is your life? And if it is quite balanced, what are your secrets to maintaining that balance?

 

On another note, I do have something very exciting to share with you this week: my new website, mowiekay.com has just gone live and I'd love it if you could take a look and let me know what you think.

  
In other news, I'm off to Montreal soon, which I'm very excited about. I've been once before and loved it. The food scene is amazing over there, I'll be meeting up with the fabulous Mayssam of Will Travel For Food and we've already got a lot planned. I was just wondering if any of you have been (or perhaps live there) as I'd love it if you could share some tips with me on what you think I should see, eat and do. I'd love to hear your suggestions.

As for this week's baking, it's a plumtastic medley of recipes: plum cake on a yeast dough with fresh thyme, plum cake with two bases and topped with ground coriander, and plums poached in vanilla and orange blossom water. Can you tell that I might have bought just a few too many plums?
 

I do love baking with plums as they macerate beautifully,  so much more than any other stone fruit, exuding almost all their juices, tainting the cake underneath into gorgeous shades of pinks and reds. This is why it's important to have thicker bases for plum cakes otherwise the juices just seep through to the bottom leaving the cake too moist to serve properly. I've used different flavours, spices and herbs for each recipe and you can omit these if you'd prefer, but I think they add amazing flavours to each of these recipes.

Happy Baking! 

 

Spiegeleierkuchen (Fried Egg Cake) And A KitchenAid Mixer Giveaway

 

It's been a crazy two weeks.

I've been working really hard trying to finally set up a website for my photos. Who knew that creating a website was not only so different from creating a blog (and by no means as easy), but that it demands so much attention to detail (which I love!)? So I've been tirelessly editing, formatting, looking through old photos (and taking new ones) for the website. After such a long time, and so much work, it's all come together and my site should be up and running in the next two weeks - exciting! There's still some work to be done, but I'm nearly there. I can't wait to show it to you all.

 

 

Apart from all the fun new photos I've been taking for the website, I've also been taking loads of people shots too. I've been approached by a few readers that wanted a few portraits and full body shots, either for their portfolio, for modelling agencies, or some just needing photos of themselves for their websites, blogs and families. It's definitely something I enjoy doing, as I love taking photos of people, and I'll be sharing them with you soon.  

 

 

And through all the work, I've been baking almost every day, trying out new recipes, experimenting with old ones and just baking for the sake of comfort eating (I tend to do that when I'm overworked). Today's post is something I've been meaning to share with you for a while now. It's called Spiegeleierkuchen, which is German for Fried Egg Cake. It's one of those things that I grew up loving as a child, and I was always so fascinated by it because it really did look like a whole bunch of fried eggs on a cake. It's actually vanilla pudding cream spread over a cake and topped with apricot halves and covered with gelatin (I've used a vegetarian Agar alternative). I used freshly peeled apricots for these, but you can use canned apricot halves which work just as well.

 

I'm also giving away another Candy Apple Red KitchenAid mixer this week. For a chance to win, just leave a comment below. The giveaway is open to everyone worldwide, one winner will be picked at random and notified by email. The closing date for this giveaway is the 23rd of August 2010. Good luck!

 

 

Guest Post by Souvlaki For The Soul: Potato Doughnuts with a Rosewater Icing

Yesterday, my Blackberry & Ginger Granita guest post was published on Souvlaki For The Soul. Today, I'd like you to all welcome Peter to my blog, with his beautiful (and pink!) Potato Doughnuts with a Rosewater Icing.

I remember the first time I stumbled upon Peter's blog, it actually wasn't one of his food posts, but a travel one, his Koh Samui post to be exact. I was awestruck by his travel photos until I discovered he was also an awesome food blogger/stylist/photogrpaher too, and that was it, blog-love at first sight.

Over to you Peter: 

I've been wanting to present this creation for quite a while now but never found the right opportunity to post it. As soon as Mowie asked me to provide a guest post on his blog I knew this "celebration doughnut cake" would be perfect.  It's sweet, it has flowers and is quite striking in appearance. A little like Mowie actually! Check out these stunning flowers Mowie shot recently.  (Also I have to give credit where it's due.  The idea for presenting this cake came form Heather's blog-thanks Heather!)

It's not really a cake in the traditional sense. More like a "grand presentation" for an intimate affair.  I made the doughnuts using a dough enhanced with russet potatoes-the potatoes have a low moisture content and produce a soft texture. And the icing has one of my favorite flavours-rosewater.  I know not everyone is a fan of rosewater-but if you are, you are going to love the floral flavors of the icing.  The doughnuts were deep fried and in this instance I chose to use rice bran oil which is quite healthy, has a high smoke point and is free of those nasty trans fats.  The final touch is to stack the doughnuts on top of each other on a cake dish and decorate with red roses.  I hope you like my "celebration doughnut cake".