Shreya Agrawal

This week on Shreya’s Culinary Compass, Shreya Agrawal shares the perfect cake recipe for celebrating. Despite the cake’s decadent looks, the recipe is simple to follow.

Festive chocolate cake

This is the perfect cake for celebrating special occasions like birthdays and anniversaries. Decorated with strawberries and vegan marshmallows, it looks beautiful and is rich in flavor but it is very simple to prepare. 

Ingredients:

Cake:

Wet Ingredients: 

  • ⅓ + ⅙ cup water
  • ⅙ cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 2 ripe bananas

Dry Ingredients:

 

Decorations:

Syrup-soaked strawberries:

  • 7-9 chopped strawberries
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract

Marshmallows:

Chocolate Drizzle:

Instructions:

Cake:

  • Preheat the oven to 350 F.
  • Blend the wet ingredients using a stand blender or an immersion blender till smooth (I use an immersion blender).
  • Pour in the dry ingredients and whisk using an electric or manual whisk.
  • Line your springform cake pan with parchment paper and grease the edges with coconut oil
  • Add the batter to the pan and bake the cake for 40-50 minutes or until fully cooked.
  • Enjoy!

Decoration Preparation

  • Mix the ingredients for the syrup-soaked strawberries and rest in the fridge for 10-15 minutes.
  • Heat water in an electric kettle and pour the boiling water in a large bowl. Add the chocolate gems and coconut butter to a small bowl and place the small bowl in the boiling water to melt the chocolate and coconut butter. Once it is melted, you can drizzle the melted chocolate onto the cake and/or make designs with it on parchment paper and set them in the freezer to later add to the cake.

Assembly:

  • Cool the cake and drizzle with melted chocolate on the edges of the cake (if you haven’t already) and top with frozen chocolate designs that you set on parchment paper.
  • Stick mini marshmallows to the part of the cake that is topped with melted chocolate.
  • Top the sides or middle of the cake with strawberries.

 

Riding the fitness wave

Katharina Santos

City Surf Fitness offers fitness classes inspired by the everyday lifestyle and training of surfers by performing exercises on a stationary surfboard.

October 17, 2018

Yo duuuuude! Rad barrells out there! Whether it’s using apps, checking out new facilities or getting together with friends for a group workout, I’m always looking for new ways to make exercising an enjoyable experience. I recently had the opportunity to attend a 6:00 a.m. class at City Surf Fitness.

Let me start off by telling you that this was nothing that I have ever done before. City Surf Fitness offers fitness classes inspired by the everyday lifestyle and training of surfers by performing exercises on a stationary surfboard.

I went into this class with the intentions of posting trendy pictures of me and my friends standing on surfboards and laughing away the soreness from our intense and hardcore workout. However, I can’t say that I felt that way coming out.

The class started out on the right wave with a couple minutes of high intensity cardio. To me, this was the best part of the whole class in that it had me sweating and challenging myself the most. However, even though it was the most challenging, it didn’t involve the use of the actual surfboard.

After the cardio is where we got into choppy waters. The instructor spent the remaining time setting aside three to five minute for demonstration periods and 10-15 minutes to complete three to four reps of each exercise. The exercises included balancing on the surfboard and doing squats, leg raises and raised leg lunges.

But unfortunately, I was very disappointed on how I felt after I completed the workout, as the most intense part was the first five minutes. I didn’t feel accomplished or worn out afterwards and when I went home, I made sure to do about half an hour more of abdominal and leg exercises.

However, I did appreciate that a representative from City Surf Fitness Plano contacted me after my class, and when I voiced my opinion on how I thought the class went, she offered me another free class to give them another chance.

I will be attending a second class next week and I am looking forward to perhaps changing my opinion.

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