Slow Living in February - Romanticizing winter ✨ Cotswolds countryside | Victorian Puzzle Purse ✨

Romanticising life and restoring my creative energy in wintertime - spend a day with me exploring beautiful Cotswolds countryside, making a Victorian puzzle purse, walking through magical streets of Oxford and baking a chocolate cake for Valentines day (on a random Wednesday).
I'm trying to find little ways how to restore my creativity and feel like myself again.

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Art Prints:
www.dariamundi.com
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EASY CHOCOLATE CAKE RECIPE:

This was a completely improvised cake, but it turned out really well!

150g plain flour
50g pure dark cacao powder
60g white sugar
60g brown sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
100g of yoghurt or sour cream
75g melted butter or oil
100g milk

Whisk eggs and sugar, then add melted butter, yoghurt and milk. (I used dairy free ingredients, but regular dairy will work even better).
Sieve flour, cacao powder, baking soda and powder into the wet ingredients, add a pinch of salt and mix very well.
Preheat the oven, place into a cake tin and bake for 30-35 mins at 180C/ 355F

Espresso soak:
Make a double espresso or about 80ml of strong coffee, mix in 1 tsp of sugar and 1 tbsp of whisky (optional)
When the cake is out of the oven, pour coffee over the cake and set aside to cool down.

Cream frosting:

200g cream cheese
90g whipping cream
65g sugar

Mix cream cheese with sugar, then add whipping cream and whisk until soft peaks. When the cake has completely cooled down, spread the frosting on top and let it set for about 1h. That's it! :) You can decorate it with raspberries on top, or any other berries would do. It lasts about 4 days in the fridge.

I used dairy free ingredients which I never used before for this frosting, so my frosting in the video didn't quite behave as I expected. I you use regular dairy or familiar alternative ingredients you've already used before, you shouldn't have this problem!

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Son de Flor 40% winter sale during February! Use my code DARIAFEB for extra 5% off (affiliate link):
https://sondeflor.com/#dariashew

Buy me a coffee:
https://ko-fi.com/dariamundi

Music: Epidemic Sound
Get 7 days free of Epidemic Sound here
https://share.epidemicsound.com/02b8i1

Find me on Instagram:
www.instagram.com/dariashew

Filmed on: Sony A7 IV
Edited with: Premiere Pro CC
Music: Epidemic Sound

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key words: english countryside, cotswolds, oxford, romanticising life, slow living, restoring creativity, victorian puzzle purse, daily life of an artist, finding joy in winter, wintering, the art of wintering #cozyliving #wintering #victorianpuzzlepurse valentines day diy, third space, con of living in the countryside, dealing with negativity

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Time Stamps:

00:00 - 00:25 Intro
00:26 - 03:37 Cotswolds Walk
03:38 - 06:47 Puzzle Purse Tutorial
06:48 - 10:13 Oxford Walk
10:14 - 17:17 Talking About Creativity
17:18 - 19:20 Puzzle Purse Continued
19:21 - 23:17 Chocolate Cake Recipe
23:18 - 26:43 Puzzle Purse Painting