Nivea Stress Protect Challenge

It's the new year and lots of us are trying to honour our resolution of keeping fit by getting hot and sweaty, but did you know after heat from exercise, stress is the second biggest trigger for sweating? If you're wondering how that is possible let me paint a picture for you...

• You've got to deliver a presentation in front of the board of directors at your company 
• You're off to an interview for your dream job
• You have to get the kids to school and then go to work but the car won't start!

Seem stressful? Exactly! I'm feeling stressed just thinking about them! The difference between the sweat from heat and the sweat from stress, is that stress has a more rapid onset and smells much worse, making it harder to control. 
NIVEA Stress Protect is proven to minimize this stress sweat and helps reduce the formation of body odour.  It manages this with the help of Stress Protect Actives and Zinc Complex, which are teamed with avocado oil to help care and moisturize the skin.

I am the queen of getting stressed, (I would be lying if I said I didn't) I somehow always seem to get myself into a mental pickle and I'll get hot and flustered easily.  Throw that and me creating Holly Bell's cake from the Great British Bake Off into the mixing bowl, and you'd probably agree you've got a recipe for diaster!  Never the less I do love a good challenge and NIVEA* decided to really test my baking abilities by pushing the boundaries with a White Chocolate, Lemon and Macadamia Genoise Layer Cake.

If I'm going to be completely honest I read that I was required to make a cake and thought it'd be a breeze, but then I looked at the recipe! I had 5 stages to complete and I'm in no way lying I started at 12pm and finished at 3pm! It truly tested my patience.

As the time went on I started to get more stressed but not just about the cake baking, my boyfriend works split shifts he was going on a break soon and I wasn't done! I was getting in a mess about it all mainly because this was taking me far longer than I'd planned it to.  I know I mentioned 5 stages... well they were more like 5 stages of stress!

Stage 1 
The Mousse

I had to make the mousse first which is something I've never created before, so I'd started off trying so hard I kept reading the recipe just to make sure I'd got it right!

Stage 2

Genoise Sponge
Next was the Genoise sponge... my word! Non stop whisking and doing lots of bits at the same time was really stressful, I was really worried that the mixture didn't look quite right and that I hadn't made it correctly. 

Stage 3

The Lemon Syrup
Making the Lemon Syrup was by far my favourite stage.... purely because it took a few minutes and was the easiest! 

Stage  4

The Praline
I then had to make the Praline and for some reason I found this quite tough. I was extremely frightened I'd burn the sugar and was worried I'd not chopped the nuts up enough.

Stage 5

 The Cake Assembling
You'd think I'd be pleased it was nearly over but I Initially thought it looked awful and I'd made a mess of the cake, but the more I carried on the better it started to look.... the finish line was close!

The cake was finally done and I was ready for that well needed cup of tea. The teapot came out and my lovely friend and boyfriend joined me to indulge in the cake, to be honest I was truly worried how this was going to taste but to my surprise It was so yummy!

What do you get if you combine tea, a tea pot, vintage tea cups, great company and some delicious cake... you get an absolutely wonderful afternoon!

I look at those photos and can't believe I made that, I'd of never even given a recipe like this a second glance... let alone try to make it! I don't know what Holly Bell would make of it but either way I'm very proud of myself! 

I won't lie it wasn't easy and I was extremely stressed at points, but I still smelt fine after using NIVEA Stress Protect.  I recommend getting some as it's great for stressful or nerve wracking situations, you can purchase it now at Tesco, Boots and Superdrug: 250ml spray £3.29, 150ml spray £2.29, sticks £2,49 and roll on £2.03.

xoxo

*This is a sponsored post