Black Forest Cupcakes, Beet Dip, Progressive Overload

Last weekend was a busy one- I both attended a party and threw a party. It stretched my social stamina and by Sunday evening, I was all caked up and partied out. The party I attended was a first birthday (more on the food from that party below.) The party I hosted was a farewell party for my former boss and his wife, a couple in their 80s, who are now moving several states away to be closer to family. 

Over the last dozen years, the whole time we've lived in GA, they have been close family friends and bonus grandparents for our kids, attending all the holiday concerts and dance recitals and preschool graduations and grandparents' days at the kids' schools. For the last couple of years, my daughter has visited Mrs. C almost every weekend and learned to quilt from her, a very special activity that they enjoyed together. They are a big part of our life. All of this to say that this farewell was bittersweet, and I hosted a Happy/Unhappy Hour for them and a bunch of our former colleagues. 

Happy hours or tea parties are much easier to host than full dinners and just as much fun. We kept it quite simple with a menu of drinks/ snacks/ cake. For the celebratory dessert, I went with cupcakes instead of cake for easy serving. I considered many different flavors and then landed on a oldie but goodie that I haven't made in a while- Black Forest Cake. It was prompted by the jar of Trader Joe's syrupy Amarena cherries that I was hoarding in my pantry and jonesing to use. 

Those of us who grew up in urban India likely have a nostalgic fondness for Black Forest cakes- likely the first "fancy" pastry that any of us encountered, with chocolate cake soaked in syrup, a whipped cream topping with chocolate shavings and a cherry on top. This delightful NYTimes article covers how this German confection has improbably found popularity in different cultures in all corners of the world. (I posted a black forest cake recipe in 2005 and another one in 2015, so perhaps this is a once-every-decade thing for me?)

Black Forest cupcakes

1. Make chocolate cupcakes. I used this recipe mostly because it makes 16 cupcakes which was the number I needed. (I knew Stef back when I lived in STL and she is truly creative with her flavors as well as being a rigorous recipe tester.) Cool cupcakes completely.

2. Make cherry filling (I used frozen cherries and made the cherry filling from this recipe). Cool the filling completely.

3. Fill the cupcakes- I used a paring knife to cut a cone out of the top of each cupcake, and lopped off the tip of the cone to leave just a disc. Then I filled the cupcake with a heaping tsp. of the filling, and covered it back up with the disc. It doesn't look terribly tidy but will get completely covered by the frosting.

4. Top with whipped cream (I used this recipe) and a preserved cherry.

To really tick the black forest boxes, what would have good in addition to the above is (a) soaking the cupcakes with a kirsch- cherry syrup mixture, and (b) topping the whipped frosting with chocolate curls or shavings. But the cupcakes were delicious! It was my first time making filled cupcakes and they are so easy and good. 

With the leftover lopped-off cupcake tips and filling, I made two sundaes for my daughter and her friend.

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The other thing I made for this happy hour that ended up being a huge hit was a beet dip. I first tasted it a few weeks ago when another friend brought it to a potluck. I love beets ("dirt candy") but they're not a favorite in my household and not a vegetable I buy regularly. 

This dip is a revelation, though, with raw beets blitzed with nuts and some terrific Middle Eastern flavors like pomegranate molasses. (I found a bottle of pomegranate molasses in the local international market quite easily.) It is so easy to make, looks beautiful, and is a total crowd-pleaser. 

The recipe for this beet dip comes from the NYTimes Cooking section but is subscription-only; however, it is available on some blogs, like here and here and here. 

• You can see from the links that any kind of nuts can be used here- almonds, pistachios, walnuts. I used walnuts and thought they were perfect. 
• I reduced the amount of olive oil drastically but otherwise followed the recipe closely. 
• For the yogurt, I used homemade plain yogurt that I hung up to thicken slightly. 

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Our Brazilian friends threw a birthday party for their baby boy, and there was some GOOD food to be had, all of it made from scratch by one of their mothers. This lady is aspiring to do some small-time catering and she would certainly make a success of it. 

For lunch, there were trays of Brazilian Style Shepherd's Pie called Escondidinho, or "little hidden one". The vegetarian version had veggies and tofu sauteed in a mushroom sauce. There were also several flavors of brigadeiros, beautiful little treats made with condensed milk, and a lime cake. It is truly a treat to eat lovingly prepared homemade food. Also a treat to go to a birthday party and eat something other than pizza! 

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In today's moment of fitness, I will talk about a concept called progressive overload, a key principle of strength training. It is a proven method to improve strength and gain muscle mass by gradually increasing load on the muscles over time. Doing just a little bit more than you did before. 

Let's take an example of one muscle group- biceps, the major muscle of the upper arm. Say we want to gain muscle mass in the biceps and get stronger. A typically exercise for the biceps is the bicep curl, a very recognizable exercise. 

There are different ways to use progressive overload to strengthen the biceps:

• Increased intensity (probably the most common): gradually lifting heavier dumbbells. You may start with doing 8 repetitions of bicep curls with 8 lbs dumbbells in each hand, then a couple of weeks later, you may progress to doing the same with 10 lbs dumbbells, then 12 lbs and so on. 
• Increased volume: gradually increasing the number of reps or sets of an exercise. You may keep the weight the same but go from 8 repetitions to 12, or 1 set of 8 reps to 3 sets of 8 reps.
• Increased frequency: gradually increasing the number of training sessions per week. Over a period of months, you may go from doing bicep curls once a week to twice to three times.

This works on the principle of adaptation. Your body keeps adapting slowly to the controlled overload/stress you introduce by building muscle tissue (as well as the connected ligaments and tendons), by improving the neuromuscular connections, etc. Doing it slowly and steadily minimizes risk of injury and results in sustainable progress. 

Can progressive overload continue forever? Beginners tend to progress quite fast but of course it isn't feasible for gains to continue in a linear fashion forever. A time will come when progress is very slow and incremental and you plateau with your bicep curls- you can't do any more reps and/or can't increase the weight you are curling. 

What then? There are many options:

• Maintain: If you are satisfied with how strong your biceps are, just keep lifting at the same level to maintain muscle mass.
• Change up the exercise: Instead of conventional bicep curls, try a variation like hammer curls, reverse curls, or curling an EZ bar. Challenge your muscles in a slightly different way.
  
• Change the focus: Instead of focusing on strength, shift the focus to another aspect of fitness, like doing power curls, which train explosive strength. 
• Focus on recovery: If a plateau occurs at a time when you should be reasonably progressing, consider taking a week off (deloading), or increasing recovery time, and then getting back to the routine. 

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What's a great new recipe you've tried recently?