Spice-roasted Pineapple Cheesecake

April 16, 2019 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Firstly, I would like to apologise if this ends up all over the place in terms of the written content, and if there will be a lot of typos and grammatical errors. I was up at 3:45am this morning to get ready to be out of the house at 5:30am for an early Visita Iglesia Pilgrimage with the ladies from our neighbourhood association. Visita Iglesia, or known as the Seven Churches Visitation is a pious Roman Catholic Lenten tradition to visit seven churches on the evening of Maundy Thursday or Good Friday and recite the Stations of the Cross. Until the 1970s, pilgrims recited all fourteen stations in every church, but the more recent form is to pay two stations per church visited. We visited seven churches in the province of Batangas and Tagaytay. This was the very first time I’ve ever been on a Visita Iglesia Pilgrimage and the beautiful churches that we have in the Philippines astounded me.

Moving forwards, yes I am well aware that it is only a Tuesday but today is a very special day for Amcarmen’s Kitchen! I asked my followers over on Instagram to guess why it is a special day, and shared some throwback pictures that were posted on this day from the past as clues. Unfortunately, no one took part in guessing what day it is today *sad face*

AMCARMEN’S KITCHEN TURNS 5 TODAY!

I say this every year, but I will forever be thankful for all the support from my family and friends. Thank you to the friends who have encouraged and praised my dishes ever since before Amcarmen’s Kitchen was born. Thank you to that one specific person who gave me that push I needed to actually start up my own blog. We don’t talk anymore just because we saw too many things differently, and thus unfortunately are not friends anymore. Thank you to my family and friends who have been there to gobble up the results of my cooking adventures. Of course, a very big thank you to my Mom as well for many things. The main being for teaching me how to cook the basics; it was from here that I developed my skills and techniques in cooking, and expanding my knowledge of various cuisines across the globe. And of course, for (sometimes) being the one that actually preps and cooks the food!

One day, can’t remember when anymore, I was scrolling through Instagram and came across this recipe for a Pineapple & Passionfruit Cheesecake by Ben Milgate and Elvis Abrahanowicz on SBS Food. I immediately knew that this was the cake that I was going to whip up for the 5th anniversary of Amcarmen’s Kitchen. I changed the recipe up a bit, firstly by incorporating the spice-roasted pineapples that I experimented with at the beginning of the month for my nice cream. I really loved the flavour profile of it and so I decided to use that into the cheesecake. I’ve left the passionfruit out only because I could not find any at the markets or supermarkets around my area. If you have passionfruit on hand then by all means add it to the recipe. For the base, I’ve swapped out the Anzac mix and just crushed up some ginger nut biscuits. The fiery, gingery flavour works super well with the spice-roasted pineapple.

PREP TIME 25 MINS | COOKING TIME 1 HOUR 20 MINS | SERVES 8-12

INGREDIENTS

For the spice-roasted pineapple

1 large pineapple, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
5 pcs whole cloves
3 pcs star anise
2 cinnamon sticks
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 & 1/2 tbsp Tequila or Vodka (optional)

For the crumb base

300g Ginger Nut Biscuits, crushed
100g unsalted butter, melted
1 tsp salt

For the cheesecake mixture

Spice-roasted pineapple purée
500g cream cheese, softened
200ml cream
2 large free-range eggs
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
Juice of half a lemon

METHOD

Spice-roasted Pineapple: Preheat oven to 220C (425F or gas mark 7).
Toss the pineapple, sugar, spices, and everything nice (liquor) in an oven-safe baking dish. Sorry, I could not resist not say that!
Roast in the oven for about 20 minutes. Once done, set aside to completely cool down before puréeing the pineapple. Set some pineapple chunks aside for decoration later.
Crumb Base: Meanwhile, add the crushed ginger nut biscuits, salt, and melted butter together in a medium-sized mixing bowl. Mix together until well combined.
Grease an 8-inch spring-form cake pan and line it with parchment paper. Cover the outside of the pan with tin foil. Press the crumb into the base of the cake pan. Set aside in the fridge for about 15 minutes to set.
Turn the oven temperature down to 130C (250F or gas mark 1).
Cheesecake Mixture: Using an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat, on medium speed, the cream cheese and sugar together in a large mixing bowl until smooth.
With the mixer running, add in the eggs and cream, mixing for a further 2 minutes.
Pour the mixture into the prepared spring-form cake pan, evenly covering the biscuit base, then drizzle over the spice-roasted pineapple purée. Use a skewer to gently swirl the purée through the cheesecake mixture.
Place the cake pan in a water bath and bake for 1 hour, or until just set. Allow to cool down to room temperature and then chill in the fridge for about an hour before serving.
Decorate: Just before serving, top the cheesecake with the crown of a pineapple, and with the remaining spice-roasted pineapple chunks.
Serve and enjoy!

BON APPÉTIT

– Ally xx

Amcarmen’s Kitchen

November 29, 2015 amcarmenLeave a comment

Hello Everyone! Before I begin, I just want to say that this post won’t be as detailed and properly written as the previous two I’ve posted. When I say properly written, I mean like very sort of, professionally done. Those two were actually 3^rd and 4^th year university projects and thus had some sort of professionalism towards the way I wrote – yes, I copied word from word everything I wrote from my research booklet. So would that be considered as plagiarism? My tutors would say so *insert smiling face with tears of joy emoji*

Anyway, as you all know (if you’ve read the about me section of my blog at least once), I started Amcarmen’s Kitchen on April 16, 2014, and if you have been following since the very beginning, you’d remember how tacky my blog was for the first year and a half of its existence. Then a few months ago, back in June, I decided that I wanted to redesign my blog. I am still using a free theme supplied by WordPress, and I will be sticking to it just because it’s clean and minimal which I like, and it’s default colour theme already expresses me as a person, and as a designer. With this, I have based all my other design deliverables on this colour theme.

Before I continue, I also just want to say that I recently started what I want it to become into an annual series, a food bloggers edition of Auguest. If you head on over the the Auguest tab, or click here, you can read more about what this is all about. Also, if you are reading this and are a cook, food blogger, or instagrammer, please contact me if you want to be a part of next year’s Auguest series! My contact details can be found below.

Branding & Logo

When I finalised the reimaging and rebranding of my blog, I decided that I needed a logo to represent the new theme, The Third Culture Foodie. In a nutshell, the theme is based on me being a third culture kid and really diversity is really what I am about. Having lived and studied in Australia, I have learnt that it is a highly multicultural country in both race and food offered. This is why I know a lot of dishes outside my roots and why I am always interested in learning new dishes from different cultures. Therefore, the logo is pretty much self-explanatory and related back to everything that I have just said.

Business Card

I first got the idea of making business cards when I attended a talk on the Business of Food Blogging, hosted by General Assembly. I met a fellow food blogger, Brendon from Brendon The Smiling Chef, that night who gave out business cards and I even said to him that that was such a great idea to get, not only your contact details out, but to also promote your blog when you meet new people. So, when he held a Food Bloggers Instagram Meet Up at a restaurant in North Strathfield a few months ago, I made sure to get some cards printed out to give out to the other food bloggers at the event, all of which, except for Brendon who organised it of course, I had never met before.

At that time, I had a much simpler business card design which basically just had my logo and name on one side, and all the social media links and contacts on the other. I did this very quickly just so that I’d have something to hand out on that night. Since then I’ve decided to redo my business card and came up with the designs above. Basically, one side of the business card is unique in a sense that it will feature a different recipe – well, not the full recipe, just a list of ingredients and then a bit.ly link to the full recipe on the blog. I was thinking of printing 5 different recipes for my business cards.

Quotes

This was something that I had only started recently when I decided to have monthly themes on my blog. When the new month kicks in, I post a quote on my Instagram page to let my followers know of the upcoming theme on the blog. It’s no brainteaser really as they quite obviously state what to expect. The quotes aren’t original; I usually just do a Google search for some quotes and usually pick the funniest or wittiest ones.

Social Media

You can find Amcarmen’s Kitchen on Facebook and Instagram – please support by following my social media pages 🙂

Website

Before I end, I just want to say that looking back at everything with Amcarmen’s Kitchen, I’ve realised how much time and effort I’ve put into, not just my cooking, the styling, photography involved in shooting my dishes, and producing a blog post 3 times a week, I also put a lot of time into the design of my blog and keeping up to date with social media; not to mention with the cookbook coming along as well! Not many people realise how much time and effort goes into running a blog.

Sneak Peak: Amcarmen’s Kitchen Cookbook

I know some would’ve just scrolled through to see this part of the post because you’re all excited about this; I do thank those who took the time reading and going through everything else. Anyway, I have mentioned this to a handful of my closest friends before, like a really really REALLY long time ago, and I’m hoping that the wait will be over soon! I’m currently in the process of redesigning my cookbook for the nth time and I did say to some that I had planned to get this out by mid this year (which obviously didn’t happen), but I am hoping that I can get this done by early to mid 2016. For now, enjoy this 4-page preview. My first cookbook (when it does eventually get printed), will feature 50 of my most favourite recipes!

– Ally xx

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

July 26, 2015July 26, 2015 amcarmen2 Comments

Hello Everyone! Today will be quite different as I will not be a Review Sunday on the blog. Basically over the weekday, I was nominated by Sarah Jane Gonzales from misscraftychef for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award. Make sure that you go check her blog out for some fun food and travel posts!

The rules:

Thank the blogger who nominated you with a link back to their page
Put the award logo in your post
Answer the questions the blogger has sent you
Create 10 new questions for other bloggers to answer
Nominate 10 new people to participate

Questions for me:

What is your favourite childhood memory?
I myself don’t remember this but my mom told me that when I was little, I would put all my toys in the fridge and that I would play with the onions instead. I would take the onions and roll them across the narrow hallway into the bedroom that was directly opposite from the kitchen. Apparently this was my idea of fun.

What is the biggest compliment you have ever gotten?
“I’m going to help you review your cover letter and your portfolio, and make sure that it is the best because you deserve to be employed by the best.” This was probably the biggest and latest compliment that I got from my boss from my last internship; it’s nice to have someone believe in the work that you do.

What do you do first thing in the morning?
Well if it’s the very first thing in the morning, that would be picking up and wearing my glasses. If I were to skip a few morning routines following that event, then it would be to make breakfast, or brunch depending on what time I get up in the morning.

List 5 things you are most proud of?

First of all, I am proud to finally be a graduate of a Bachelors Degree in Design (Graphic and Environment/Spatial Design) from the University of New South Wales
Secondly, I am actually quite proud of my cooking skills and how I’ve improved so much over the course of 4 and a half years. Basically, when I left home and started university, I barely even cooked, now I can pretty much tackle any recipe I want to
I am also very proud of my blog and how far it has come. There is definitely more room for it to grow, but I am proud that I have been able to keep up with my blog over the past year and a half
I may not look like it, but I am quite proud of my physical fitness. I may be curvy in some areas, but I can hike and go climbing for several hours. I think the best I’ve done to date is 18.69km in 5 and a half hours with an equivalent of 82 floors climbed.
Lastly, I am proud of the continuous support from my family and friends that surround me. They have encouraged me to follow my dreams and not let the jealously and negativity of others put me down.

What is the best thing about blogging?
In all honesty, I started my blog out of pure procrastination because I did not want to do my uni assignment during that time over the Easter break. Now that blogging has grown out of a procrastination, and is more integrated into my daily routine, the best things about it is that I get to meet new people through my blog no matter where they are in the world. Even though we’ve only met in the virtual world, I hope that someday we can get in touch with each other and meet in person whenever we are on each others side of the world.

What music do you listen to when you blog if any?
Sometimes I don’t listen to music when I blog, but when I do, I have a playlist of songs that I just play in the background throughout my day, whether in the shower, cooking in the kitchen, or just need to play music in the background when in a quiet room by myself. My playlist consists of music from various artists such as Fall Out Boy, George Ezra, Sam Smith, I Prevail, Breaking Benjamin, Milky Chance, and Hozier – I know, quite a range of genres.

What is the one thing you couldn’t live without?
As cliché as this will sound, I don’t think I will be able to live without food. I mean, of course people can’t live without food, so I guess more like the idea of not being able to cook the food that I love. Yes, that’s probably what I couldn’t live without.

Is there anywhere you really want to visit?
I am an outdoorsy kind of person, and I don’t mean the sight-seeing type, but more like getting in touch with nature, and hiking kind of girl. So places like the Grand Canyon, or even just National Parks in the NSW region or anywhere in the world would be my cup of tea. However, I would also like to visit South America, the Caribbean, and Europe, especially France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Switzerland.

What would you like to achieve by the end of 2015?
I would like to be employed before the end of 2015, more specifically a job that can integrate both graphic design and my love/passion for food. That would, ideally speaking, be my dream job.

Describe yourself in 3 words
Designer, Eater, Explorer.

My questions:

What does a perfect day look like to you?
What was your dream job growing up?
What is a skill that you would like to learn and why?
If you had to choose to live without one of your five senses, which one would you give up and why?
What is your perfect pizza?
What is your most embarrassing moment?
If you could live forever, how would you spend eternity?
Where do you see yourself in five years?
What’s your greatest achievement and how has it shaped you?
How would your friends describe you?

I nominate:

Marissa: maiyummy
Yana: theusualingredients
Serena: rusticplate
April: thethinkitchen
Olga: oceanviewkitchen
Jane: janespatisserie
Geri: springtomorrow
Grace: treatyourselftoday
Jhuls: thenotsocreativecook
Diana: heycakes

Hope you ladies don’t mind the nomination and hope can find the time to answer the questions above 🙂

– Ally xx

Vermont Maple-Pecan Cake

April 16, 2015January 7, 2019 amcarmen4 Comments

Hello Everyone and welcome to a very special post as today officially marks the 1-year anniversary of my food blog! I started up this food blog exactly a year ago during spring break, and instead of slaving away on the many assignments/projects I had at that time, I decided to spontaneously start up a blog, out of pure procrastination really. Since it was quite spontaneous, I didn’t quite put much effort into it in the beginning, as in I wasn’t bothered to purchase my own domain name, and buy a theme and customise it. I wasn’t sure of how long I’d be able to keep up with this blog (because I have tried many times and failed). I am happy that I am able to finally keep one up and running, posting 3 times a week, almost.

For the next few months or so, I will work on developing an aesthetic and a colour scheme for my blog that reflects who I am as a person – not just one who loves to cook and is passionate about all things food, but also my personality and my design style. The pink and brown was sort of a “yeah that will do for now” because it fit the default theme that I picked (which was more like “I prefer this theme that the others I’ve seen”). Anyway, so to celebrate my blog turning 1 today, I decided to bake a cake for this occasion. I wanted to bake a citrus poppyseed cake at first but for some reason, lemons were nowhere to be found in every supermarket and market that I went to. Instead, I found another recipe that stood out to me – Vermont Maple-Pecan Cake. Why I chose to attempt this cake was because I already had maple syrup in the fridge and CREAM CHEESE; like who could say no to cream cheese?!

The quantities from the original recipe that can be found on Taste of Home, makes two 6-inch round cake layers, but since my baking pans were about 8.5-inches, I decided to double the recipe until I realised that I should’ve tripled it when I poured the batter into the pans; they barely filled halfway. So I made another batch to top them off. Therefore, the quantities below have been tripled from the original to make two 8.5-inch round cake layers. Once again, Happy Anniversary to Amcarmen’s Kitchen!

PREP TIME 20 MINS | COOKING TIME 20-25 MINS | SERVES 8-10

INGREDIENTS

For the cake batter

2 & 1/2 cups plain flour
1 & 1/2 cup buttermilk*
1 cup toasted pecans, roughly chopped
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup maple syrup
170g unsalted butter, melted
1 & 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted

For the frosting

1 package (250g) cream cheese, softened
100g unsalted butter, softened
1 & 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
4 tbsp maple syrup

Toasted pecan halves, to decorate

*I could not find any buttermilk at the supermarket, so I made my own by using a tablespoon of white vinegar for every cup of milk. Set it aside for about 5 minutes for the milk to react to the vinegar. You can also substitute the vinegar for lemon juice.

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180C (350F or gas mark 4).
Grease two 8.5-inch cake pans with a little butter and set aside
For the cake batter: Combine the plain flour, sugars, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the buttermilk, butter, syrup, and vanilla, and stir into dry ingredients until just combined. Fold in chopped pecans.
Pour into the prepared pans and bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing the cakes from the pans to wire racks to cool down completely.
For the frosting: Using an electric handheld mixer, beat the cream cheese, butter, and maple syrup in a small bowl until smooth. Then beat in the confectioners’ sugar.
Assembly: Place one cake layer on a serving plate and spread with about 1/2 cup of frosting. Top with the second layer of cake and frost the top and sides of the cake. Decorate with toasted pecan halves and store in the fridge before serving. Enjoy!