It's almost the end of April, everyone is getting ready for summer and guess what had to happen? Today it snowed in Zurich and Luzern. Can you believe it? Just two days ago I was looking at summer vacations and trying out old and new swimwear. I try not to despair and complain, just let the dreams of sunlight and sunkissed skin take place in my mind. With one more month before spring semester finishes, I cannot wait for some free time to continue this amazing journey of blogging and creating.
Last week was spent in my home country, celebrating Easter with family and friends, making a lot of happy memories and trying new flavours and things. My newest accomplishment was giving a go at Pilates reformer. If you know me well, then you know how I praise pilates for everything and anything, from sculpting a fit body to making you feel sane. It was only when I went to a specific Pilates targeted studio that I managed to get the full benefits of this type of exercise. Pilates mat was the general practice for a lot of years, until Pilates equipment or Reformer came to the surface. Not to say that it was something innovative, as Joseph Pilates had actually practiced and developed Pilates with a similar equipment or set of equipments.
In the beginning I was a bit sceptical, as with everything that becomes a huge trend very quickly and people seem to forget about the former trend that was successful before the new one came to life. So, it took me some time to test this one. While I was in Greece, I managed to go for a trial session to see what it was really like, before I could judge it. It was something entirely different, but also very similar to Pilates mat. I cannot explain it. I was really happy with it, the way I could train every muscle of my body. However, I do see it as a step further from Pilates mat for people who know already how to engage their core and breathe accordingly to the Pilates principles. Other than that, it was fun as hell!
Before leaving for Easter holidays, I had created a chocolate cake with some added nutella that I had in my cupboard and wanted to get rid of (don't tell my boyfriend hehe). The result of this experiment was a very moist and chocolatey cake that I topped with extra icing sugar and paired with some fresh strawberries I had bought the day before. If you have some free time to spare, an urging need for chocolate and a few spoonfuls of nutella left in the jar, you can make this delicious cake that everyone will have a hard time rejecting.
Chocolate buttermilk cake with Nutella
ingredients (for a 20 cm diameter round pan)
250 gr flour
30 gr unsweetened cacao powder (good quality)
110 gr butter softened in room temperature
300 gr sugar
2 eggs
240 ml buttermilk
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-5 tablespoons of nutella
a toothpick
for serving: icing sugar and some fresh strawberries
how do I make it?
1. In a large bowl, shift the flour and cacao and mix together with salt and baking powder until well combined.
2. Put the softened butter in another bowl (if using a standing mixer use its own bowl) and mix really well with a hand mixer or a standing one until the butter has become very soft (for 1-2 minutes max). Add sugar and continue to mix for another 2 minutes. Start pouring inside the eggs one by one and continue to mix until both eggs are incorporated into the mixture. Finally add the vanilla essence and mix again.
3. Transfer your flour mixture from the first step into the butter and eggs mixture by putting three small doses inside and mixing at the same time. In this step you can start adding your buttermilk as well. One time you add the flour mixture and the next some of the buttermilk, until you have put both in the final mixture.
4. Preheat your over to 170C. Prepare your baking pan and once it's ready, carefully pour in the cake mixture. Take a spoon and add 4 to 5 tablespoons of nutella on top of the cake mixture. With a toothpick start mixing the nutella with the mixture, making circles or any other shape you want. The point is to have fun.
5. Once you think you're done with mixing (don't overdo it), bake your cake for 25 to 30 minutes.
6. Take your cake out of the oven and let it cool for at least 20 minutes or more. It will be very moist and runny if you don't let it cool first before serving. When it's time to serve, cut the desired piece of cake, top it with some icing sugar and add some fresh strawberries.
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