Mowielicious

My French Wedding

It's been a mad week. It's been absolutely crazy, exciting, fun, adventurous, happy, emotional, stressful... and I have to say: I've enjoyed every second of it. 

It was Anita (Bruce's cousin) & Gerald's wedding last weekend in Nantes, France, and Bruce and I were invited. Not just as guests but as photographers. I was pretty anxious about how the day was going to go and how the photos were going to turn out, but it all turned out to be much better and much more fun than I thought. I got to meet a lot of Bruce's family for the first time and they are some of the nicest people I've ever met!

The wedding was lovely, from the dress that Anita's mother made, to the traditional South African flowers and the traditional French Croque en Bouche wedding cake - it was all just stunning. We ate, we drank, we met new faces, we took loads of pictures, we laughed and we cried.

I can't actually show you any of the pictures of the actual wedding, only because the bride and groom haven't seen any themselves yet, but I thought they wouldn't mind if I posted some of the foodie pictures I took for now. Stay tuned for more soon.

If you like these pictures and know anyone getting married that's looking for a photographer (or two!) and might be interested, I'm looking to expand my wedding portfolio and I would really appreciate it if you could put us in touch - I'm willing to travel too! Thanks so much! 

The Gelato of Rome

I visited Rome last weekend for the first time and it was absolutely gorgeous - I had such an amazing time! 35°C by 10am everyday and not a cloud in the sky for all 5 days! The heat was lovely and a welcome change, not only because we've hardly had a summer here in London again this year, but if you remember from my post last week, I could feel the seasons changing to autumn before I left. So, what better to do in the heat of Rome than cool off by stuffing myself with gelato?! Bruce and I must have had every flavour imaginable, seeing as we had it for each of the 5 days, 3 times a day. I know, Mowie-isms to the extreme, but what can I say? It was just so yummy! And of course I couldn't help taking pictures of them all. Clockwise from top left: pistachio & limoncello, chocolate & nutella cream, blackberry & plum, lime & mango, prickly pear & melon, tiramisu & caramel.

 

 

Whereas I stuck to taking pictures of food only, Bruce went trigger happy and took some absolutely stunning shots of all the famous landmarks, as you can see above. Do visit his website, Cunningeye.com to see more of his amazing work. 

As for my baking, I will resume my crazy antics this weekend. All I can say is: expect lots and lots of chocolate!

Orange & Ginger Biscuit Posset Verrines

Orange posset is one of those desserts that instantly takes me back to my childhood. My Grandmother would whip up these beauties in no time and we'd eat it warm, straight out of the pot. I'd been craving it recently and had been putting off making it for quite a while now, but we had guests over last night and I thought I'd indulge myself and experiment on them:

The original recipe is really only meant to be the posset on it's own served in glasses, but I felt it needed something more, and I happened to have some ginger biscuits lying around, so I thought I'd turn it into a verrine instead.

They should only really be eaten after they've cooled and set properly, that's when the textures come alive and add so much more to the experience: the light, zesty and fresh fluffiness of the cream is a perfect balance to the crumbly, spicy and hard texture of the base. Ramekin happiness!

Recipe after the jump.

 

Wholemeal Banana Bread With Walnuts

There's something extremely comforting about banana bread, wouldn't you agree? The same can be said about freesias. The scent of both of these, either separately or together, fills me with a restless yearning, an expectation of wholesomeness, of the promise of summer, and of something more, perhaps of hope, I think.  

This recipe is a little concoction I came up with recently and it's a real goody. I love mixing wholemeal flour in with normal flour in almost everything I bake - pancakes, bread and cakes. I feel it adds more substance to what I'm creating and of course it makes for a healthier option. So feel free to substitute it with normal flour if wholemeal isn't your thing, it works just as well. 

Recipe after the jump.