Chocolate Amaretto Cheesecake

 

When your 90-year-old mother asks for cheescake for Mother's Day, you make a cheesecake. It's the law. It might even be in the Bible. I know this is not remotely pottery related! I couldn't even bake it in a stoneware pan - you need a springform pan for cheesecake. but I made a cheesecake, it was amazing, and I want to share it with you. 

Chocolate Almond Cheesecake

Crust

• 1/2 package of chocolate wafer cookies
• 3 Tablespoons packed brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup finely chopped almonds

You'll also need cooking spray

Cake

• 3 packages cream cheese, room temperature
• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 3 Tablespoons milk
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate morsels, melted in double boiler

Preheat oven the 325°.

Grind cookies in food processor to coarse crumbs. Melt butter in microwave (takes about 30 -45 seconds) Mix crumbs, butter, brown sugar, and chopped almonds well in batter bowl. Spray interior of springform pan with cooking spray. Press mixture into bottom of springform pan. Bake 10 minutes, then remove from over & place on cooling rack. 

Meanwhile, put softened cream cheese in bowl & beat with stand mixer or hand mixer until creamy. Add sugar & beat until uniform beige color. Add eggs, milk, and almond extract; beat until well blended. Mix in melted chocolate. 

Pour into crust.

Bake at 325° for 35-40 minutes (at least, that's what the original recipe said. In my oven, it was more like 45 minutes.) until the center barely jiggles. Turn off oven, crack open door but leave cheesecake inside for an hour or more, to cool slowly. 

Cover with foil & place in refrigerator to chill overnight.

Enjoy. I plan to have the last piece for breakfast! 

PS! I meant to mention, I swapped out the amaretto for almond extract, because we're an alcohol-free household. Tastes exactly the same!
Just seeing if you're paying attention. 😄

It just slipped out!

 

"Slipped" out, get it?? 

I've been making some rustic, torn-edge plates in class, aiming for a loose, spontaneous, almost found-object quality. My own work is pretty tightly thrown (not entirely on purpose!) and over-decorated, although I do enjoy letting the soda vapor have its way with the piece during the firing. There's a wide world of approaches to clay out there, and I wanted to give my students a taste of a different aesthetic. 

It sorta worked - they got the idea - but then another idea popped up in class, one I had talked about earlier: aesthetic tension. Sometimes what makes a piece intriguing is when two dueling aesthetics are mashed together! With that in mind, and because I can't help myself one the slip bottle is in my hand, I trailed some delicate flowers onto my meaty rustic plates. 

I have to credit a student for the poppies! I mentioned that I had been trying to figure out how to make a recognizable poppy with slip; I turned my back for a sec & when I turned back she had made 2 on the worktable! Victoria is a very talented sliptrailer (and formerly a cake decorator!) I learn so much from my students. 

These will probably not be soda-fired, since students don't have access to the soda kiln so it feels like cheating to use that method to finish my demos. SO, I am thinking, iron oxide on the back & edges, then shino on the front face. 

I'm excited about these & plan to make more at home! 

And Now For Something Completely Different

 

Well. Not completely. 

I watch a lot of cookie decorating videos. I started because they give me ideas for slip trailing, and they sort of became my stress relief. You can only watch so many cookie decorating videos before you want to try it yourself! 

It just so happens that this year I have more time than Christmases past (guess why) so now seemed like the perfect time. I mean, Christmas and cookies go together, right? 

I wanted to do something a little less stereotypical, so I chose a couple of images related to carols: In the Bleak Midwinter (the bare trees), and It Came Upon A Midnight Clear. The metallic highlights are cake paint; I might skip that step next time, and also the little churches need work - they are kinda janky! But overall I am quite pleased. 

I've posted the cookie & royal icing recipes over at Wicked Cozy, and some in-process pics. 

ACC: Let's Call The Whole Thing Off

For weeks now I have been both excited and stressed about the upcoming ACC Baltimore Wholesale Show. So much to do: Define the wholesale line! Take photos, create forms, plan a production schedule. Build a booth! (What space will I use to build it? To store it afterwards?) Will it fit in the Grey Lady? No? Okay, check out trailers. Where will I stay? 

I'd already paid the $400 upfront they ask you for, to hold your space. When the contract arrived, I put off reading it in detail, the way you do when you are stressed about something. (On the plus side, I tend to do lots of other things in the process of procrastinating. I got a lot done!) The first thing I noticed were the FEES. Some I expected: of course I'd have to pay for pipe* and drape or carpeting, if I was going to need it. (I wouldn't, because it's $256 to rent a 10x10 square of carpet. I didn't even bother to find out how much the pipe & drape was) But mother of dog: WIFI? It's $135 to access WIFI?? Before I had even finished reading the contract, the expenses were looking like this:

• $1200 booth fee (I knew about that, obvs)
• $65 "facility fee" Wut? Just make it part of the booth fee, you knew there was going to be a facility involved, the show doesn't take place between dimensions. 
• $40 Membership fee. Um, okay, I can see that, I guess.
• $135 for the freakin' wifi, WTF
• $301.80 Mandatory labor to unload the truck/trailer. FUCK THAT NOISE 
• Electricity: $95 for 500 watts...that's FOUR bulbs. $120 for 1000W. That's not more than I expected but...it's an indoor show. Everyone is going to need lights! Just be honest and roll it into the booth fee. 
• Exhibitors are not permitted to use power tools to erect their booths: must hire labor from the hall to do that, so who even knows how much that would end up costing.  

I know some of these are requirements of the hall, but that doesn't actually matter to me: what matters is a show that I could barely afford to do before got pushed into the prohibitive range by a bunch of hidden costs. If these expense were stated upfront, as the booth fee was, I would never have applied.  Nor are these expenses stated anywhere all in one place - I really had to go looking for them. I admit I side-eye the organization a bit, about this: making it hard to know what the real costs are until after the deposit is paid, surely results in more forfeited deposits. Hey-hey-hey, money for nothing, right, ACC?

And - icing on the cake - I asked for my booth not to be on the perimeter. Guess where they put me? If you guessed on the perimeter, you win! That wouldn't have been enough to cancel,but it was enough for make me feel a little dubious, even before the additional expenses.

Man I am bummed about this. I've lost my $400 deposit - of course - but also what I had hoped was a way to really grow my business. And it seems I never finish learning how much I have to learn. 🙁

I know there is a bright side here - hey, now I can relax and enjoy the remainder of my break, and just make pots - and I will focus on it shortly. I just need a minute to process my disappointment.

Oh hey, Happy Festivus! Perfect: it's the airing of grievances!



*When I first typed this, I typo'd it to "pope and drape." Like, no wonder it's spendy! His time is valuable. 😀

Great Idea!

You can never tell where your next great idea might come from, although Pinterest is a good bet. That's where I got this one. It was on a blog dedicated to Christmas projects - I think?? It's in French and I am, sadly, unilingual despite growing up in Maine where half the population speaks French. (Well. Not half. About five percent of families speak French at home.) I've often wondered why nobody here wigs out about all the signs reading "Ici on parle Francais" the way they do elsewhere about the Spanish equivalent. I guess it's just what you're used to.

ANYWAY. Enough about my linguistic deficiencies, moving right along. THE IDEA! is this:

In the original, it was a suggestion to make your own gift wrap. I think it would be great for texturing slabs or
printing with slip or glaze.
Quick, somebody try it & send me a photo!

Today I am throwing. Lidded casseroles for sure, perhaps those days-of-the-week mugs I mentioned, some jaunty jars and a cake stand for an order. Though yesterday still felt like summer (until the sun went down!) I am beginning the last of my Christmas orders. If they don't get 'em by mid-November, they don't want 'em!

Finally Finished!

You've probably heard me say that pottery is artwork that is only really finished when it's in use. I love when people send me pictures of the ware, finally finished! My friend Ellen recently sent me this one:

The colors look great together, and I am especially proud that the plate shrunk to exactly the diameter of a standard cake, U.S.

Thanks Ellen!

Quick Hits

First, here's the fired piece from my earlier post. It's a measure of how pleased I am with this plate that I don't even mind that it cracked on the edges - I know why it cracked, and I know I achieve this glaze result again.

Second, I recently had occasion to make a cheesecake. I used to make cheesecake pretty regularly, but that was before merely thinking the word "cheesecake" caused me to gain five pounds. Those were the days, my friend! But never mind that. For the first time when making a cheesecake, I had a standing mixer to help, and boy did it help. A much lighter result.

I swear I am going somewhere with this.

In addition to making a better cheesecake, the mixer made a beautiful pattern in the cake batter. I want to capture this somehow with slip:

To Do Today

Today is the last day of August, and the start of Labor Day weekend - the cultural if not the astronomical end of summer. It's been a busy summer, not always in the ways I would have chosen, but I am trying to get my time back until control. With that in mind, I'm utilizing that old favorite tool of mine: the to-do list.

I unloaded a kiln on Wednesday, which never stops being fun and exciting. Thursday was sorting, pricing, packing, and delivering pots to Monkitree, Portland Pottery, and Kennebec River Artisans.

This was a ^10 firing; I've been alternating between ^6 and ^10 all summer, as it turns out that no, I can not go the whole summer without making new inventory in order to focus on the glaze conversion project. My bad! Nevertheless I am pretty much on schedule - still owe a few pottery Rewards, as well as the glaze books (of course!) but the upcoming ^6 firing will hopefully be the last of the 'test" firings, and contain more than half "real" work.

So! to the boats:

To do today:

• Scrape and grind kiln shelves. Six of my shelves are Advancers, which are crazy-expensive but necessary, as lifting the heavy regular shelves above my shoulders at arms length just had to stop. The Advancers need minimal grinding - an obvious perk - but not none. 
• It's a throwing day: cake stands are on tap (watch for a video!) and as well as pitchers and butterdishes.
• I still have pots that need homes from the last firing, so I will be preparing pots for delivery to The Artisan's Barn, Summer Island Studios, and the Bay View Company.

New Items in the Pottery Shop!

As long as they are this time of year, the days are not nearly long enough. I've been working pretty much steadily since I got up this morning around five, and it's nearly seven now, and I can see there are things on my list that are. not. going to happen. I did manage to finish some butter dishes, take some photos, and get to the gym - which accomplishment was promptly negated when I ate a hefty slice of my prop! Seemed a shame to waste it. :/

I also got my Kickstarter thank-you cards signed and ready to go out, spent a little time navigating around Glazemaster, and listed a few items on my website. Click the captions to see more photos or to purchase.

Set of Four Dessert Bowls, $120

White and Silver Striped Mug, $36

Blue and Russet Cake Stand, $125

I've still got berry bowls to trim, and promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep.

Yessss!

As of last night, my Kickstarter project, the one I have been posting about all month, reached its funding goal! SO happy and relieved! I can finally exhale the breathe I took on March 7th. Kickstarter is an all-or-nothing deal: if you don't reach 100%, you get nothing. But that's not gonna happen, YAY! 

I've really had to push myself for the duration of this project: self-promotion is not my strongest skill. (I was the one who came up with "Fine Mess Pottery: It Doesn't Suck That Much" as a slogan, remember?)

The project is still active and taking pledges; there are still plenty of glaze notebooks, teabowls, casserole dishes and cake stands to be had. I'm told there's a flurry of activity in the last two days of a project: if so, that's all to the awesome. Lots of Kickstarter projects create "stretch" goals once they reach their goal, but it's not in my heart to ask for more when people have already been so generous. (On the other hand some of the rewards are really good deals! Glaze notebook, anyone?) Obviously I can find a use for additional funds, but I have what I need to do what I need. Thank you.

On to the actual project!

The Back Stretch

Man, time flies! It has been 15 days since I launched my Kickstarter campaign, which leaves 15 days more for me to meet my goal. I'm 32% funded now, which is not bad, but Kickstarter funding is all or nothing: I've got to get the full amount, or none. I'm in the dreaded "lull" period now, which everyone warned me about, and it's making me crazy, which everyone also warned me about.
I know this can get done. If every visitor to this blog  pledged just one dollar, funding would be complete in less than a week. If every visitor pledged $5, I'd be done in a day and a half.

Since I already sound like the pledge drive, I might as well go full PBS and tell you about the Reward levels:

• Backers at the $5 level will receive a porcelain pendant necklace on a leather cord. This is a $15 item!
• Backers at the $10 level will receive a thank you card based on an original design sketch, and your name on the Many Thanks page of my website.  
• A $25 pledge pre-orders a teabowl from the test firings, as well as a thank you card made from an original design sketch, your name on the Many Thanks page of my website.
• A $50 pledge gets backers a thank you card based on an original design sketch, your name on the Many Thanks page of my website, and a mug in one of the new designs.
• For $100, backers get  an original watercolor design sketch, matted and ready for framing; your name on the Many Thanks page of my website; a mug in one of the new designs; and a personalized thank you card.
•  A $500 pledge(just throwin' it out there!) pre-orders a cake stand complete with cheesecake made by me, frozen and shipped to you, and also the thank you card and website mention.
  

There are more but I'll leave off for now.

I also want to thank the many helpful readers who have directed me to resources which will help me in my quest to re-formulate my glazes for ^6 reduction soda. I know I can do this and I appreciate your help. It's going to take a bunch of test firings, out of which there will be very little salable ware, which is why I am looking to crowdfund this effort.

As you know, I'll be sharing everything I learn here. And I wasn't being a wise guy: a pledge of a single dollar will make a difference. Seriously, thanks for any help you can give.
The campaign will be active until April 6th.

The Magic Twanger

I had another moment of clarity yesterday. That's two in a few short months! Keep em coming.

It went like this: I was in class trying out paste-slip decorating with a pastry bag, like cake decorators use. (More on that later.) My first efforts were a little sloppy, as were all the others, but the first ones more so. It crossed my mind that they appeared to be deteriorated, or weather-worn or...images flicked through my mind of crumbling Corinthian columns; tattered lace dresses with the beads coming off; Miss Havisham's wedding cake. Opulence decayed. Twang!! I heard, or rather felt the deep chord in my brain: my magic twanger. Suddenly it made sense. Why nothing will do but soda firing: I live for the pots that come out with parts of my careful decorating softened and undone by the vapor glaze. Why so many of my photos are images of decay.

Why soaps, the more elaborate the better; because, the moment you use a soap, however fabulous it may be, it immediately begins to dissolve.  Why gardening, even - what is a garden except a monument to the cycle of decay and regrowth?

My Magic Twanger is the Second Law of Thermodynamics! This feels like discovering that your fairy godmother is in fact the goddess Nyx (perhaps not coincidentally born of chaos) or that your Secret Santa actually is Santa. Or, you know, Oprah.

The Law of Entropy doesn't account for all of it, of course: there's still the connection to bright, over-decorated, frivolous things sweets and circuses, which is a huge aspect in itself. Maybe I have more than one magic twanger, or maybe it's just highly nuanced. But still. I have to think some more about this. Entropy.

Things that make you go hmmmm. If you're me.

It's a Fine Day to Mix Glaze

That's not a thing that you'll hear me say too often, but circumstances have conspired to make this the perfect glaze-test mixing day:

1. I have my new digital scale to test out!  It's a 7001DX, which I got at bigceramicsstore.com; it was only about $50 with the shipping. (If you click the link it's about 3/4s of the way down the page.) Since it has a 7000 gm capacity, I think it will speed up my glaze mixing considerably, and offer fewer opportunities to screw up a whole bucket of glaze without even realizing it until I unload a kiln full of ruined pots. Not that that has ever happened to me, but it seemed like only a matter of time, when I had to weigh out ingredients in several increments.
2. Val Cushing's  handbook arrived in the mail today; you would not believe the wealth of information in this spiral-bound volume. I'm so excited to read through it I can hardly sit still! Professor Cushing offers this book for $28, which includes shipping; you can get your copy by sending a note and a check to:
   
   1497 Water Wells Rd.,
   RD 1, Box 236 Alfred Station NY 14802,
   607 587 9193
   
   And - icing on the cake - Professor Cushing signed my copy! He says he likes the name Fine Mess Pottery. :) The book is also available at Amazon, if you prefer to shop electronically.
3. I have a test firing coming up with Liz Proffety, a mid-coast potter I met through a Watershed event. Liz fires ^6, I fire with soda: together we are like chocolate and peanut butter. Two great tastes that taste great together: Cone 6 soda! I plan to use the Cushing handbook to re-formulate some of my glazes to see if firing to a lower temperature will work for me. As always, I will share my results here. 

Look at the time! At my latitude, daylight hours pass quickly this time of year, and it's well to make the best of them. 

It Worked: Peppermint Mocha Soap

Well, that was fun. Now back to our regularly scheduled program.

Already in progress! I am making bigger things today, baskets and pitchers and maybe a cake stand or two.

A Whole Lot of Making Going On

In the yard, the kiln is firing, finally, after I loaded it last week and then discovered I didn't have enough propane to fire it. It's been long enough that I can't quite remember everything that's in there, so was pleasantly surprised when I looked in the spy t o recognize a platter - I can actually see the glaze trailed design. I tried to take a photo but all my attempts are orange blurs. But it was cool, take my word for it.

In the studio, I'm working on perfume bottles. It's been years since I made perfume bottles; I'd forgotten how much I love them. I think I stepped away from them, not entirely consciously, because I couldn't sell them for what I need to get to make the work worthwhile. It's very discouraging to make what you know are good pots, that you then have to sell for a song, or not at all. So my recent decision to seek higher end venues has had an immediate and beneficial creative result. I also have coffee jars and vegetable steamers drying, and more cake stands on deck.

In the kitchen, I am making candy! Tomorrow is the opening night of Portland Pottery's annual Holiday Show and Sale, and I've volunteered to bring chocolate-dipped pretzels. (Also to be the bartender, but that is because I am so awkward at parties, and having a job makes it easier.)I was thinking I would make extra batches to give as gifts, but...nah. I really enjoyed making the first batch, but now I'm done with them. Unlike pottery, once a year is plenty of candy-making for me.

And in my head? I can't stop making soap. I suspect it will be a candy-like experience, and once it's done and the urge is satisfied, I won't want to do more; but who knows? What I know is I want to now. In classic fashion I have no interest in an easy melt-and-pour version, oh hell no. It's palm oil and lye and waiting for trace and all that other rigamarole, or bust. It's probably too late to make Christmas gifts, but I am right on time for Valentine's Day!

Drive-by Post: Cake Stand Edition

Remember the cake stands I made using the Quarter Trick? I got one out of the last firing, and - hallelujah - no cracking, warping, or other misfortune befell it! So I guess it works: Quarter Trick, 1; Kiln fuckery, 0! Just kidding!! The score is more like Quarter Trick, 1; Kiln Fuckery, 1 million. But the tide has turned now!

This piece is now for sale at the Portland Pottery cafe. It can be yours for a mere $80 plus shipping.

What's New in the Studio

I've got cake stands drying; these are the ones I made with the quarter trick last week. So far, so good: no cracking or warping [knocks wood.]

And I've got serving baskets, a couple of which morphed into colanders:

Aaaaand, my newest shape: stoneware steamers!

They work (I hope they work!!) Like bamboo steamers: put them on the rim of a cook pot of water, and boil the water. The steam is forced up into the lidded piece, and the vegetables therein cook. Each piece also has an underplate, so the steamer doubles as a serving dish. I got the idea using my bamboo steamer and wishing it looked nicer and didn't have that funny smell.

It seems like it should work: steaming is not like putting a piece right on a burner, and if you put the steamer over the water and then bring it to a boil...well, I'll say again: it seems like it should work. In any case I can't wait to take one of them for a test drive!

The Quarter Trick, Revisited

Thanks to my cyber-buddy and fellow potter, the fabulous Emily Murphy, for passing on the idea of the quarter trick, which came to her via Jordan Taylor of Stony Meadow Pottery. The original purpose of the trick was to divide the mass of clay for a large platter into two pieces instead of trying to power-center the whole lump at once,  to better judge the thickness of the center/bottom of the piece, and to improve compression with the aim of discouraging cracking.

While I have not had a problem with platters cracking (warping, yes) my cake stands are another matter. I found that I could only get a cake stand that wouldn't crack by throwing the plate and the stand in two parts and assembling at leatherhard. Since there aren't infinite, random things that cause center cracks (much as it may sometimes seem so!) the cause sort of has to be insufficient compression, differences in thickness, or water absorption. It seemed like I was compressing enough - I spent what seemed like a silly-long time at it - and I know to never leave standing water in a pot while I am throwing. I did find that it's difficult for me to judge whether the thickness of the plate within the ring is the same as the thickness of the plate without. Enter the Quarter Trick!!

I weigh out 5.5 pounds of clay to make the plate part of the cake plate, which wants to shrink to 9" to fit a standard cake diameter, so needs to start out about 10.5", with my claybody. A cake stand is best thrown upside down. I throw what is basically a pie plate, with tallish sides and without the wide rim.  Compress the living daylights out of the floor of that puppy, then place a quarter into the center.

Next, I plop a 3-lb ball of clay in the center, right on top of the quarter, center that, then open down to the quarter and pull up the ring. I can then remove the quarter and smooth the spot - taking the opportunity to compress a bit more, for luck - the wire it loose.

The piece will ned to dry to quite leatherhard before removal from the bat (tx, Captain Obvious) but will need only minimal trimming at the edge. A rubber rib works well to smooth the top surface.

Sweet, Sweet Life

One of my winter projects has been to design lines of work. I originally conceived it as a marketing tool, but it has turned into a delightful creative challenge: to create well-designed functional shapes which communicate a consistent sensibility. My plan was to design two, Cottage and Lodge, but that has morphed to three (and a fourth percolating...this is getting out of hand!) The third is Sweet Life, and is related to some sundae dishes and banana split boats I was making last summer.

With Sweet Life, I am focusing on special-occasion, celebratory pieces: a punch bowl, a cake stand, wine goblets, latte cups. Also some bowls and plates, of course. I am looking for a festive and somewhat formal feel: think summer-wedding-reception. I haven't selected the glaze recipe yet, but it will be an icy clear, with greenish tints where it interacts with the soda.




My plan is to launch it with a gallery show of the bigger pieces and sets - I have a place in mind but haven't asked yet, as I feel like I need to go in with at least a few finished piece before making the approach.

The Lodge line is coming to me fairly easily, facets and tenmoku and flashing slip. The Cottage line I am having a bit more trouble with: I can see the glazes - iron yellow, oribe, and soda-cobalt - but though I've tried some shapes for bowls and mugs, nothing gives me that jumping-up-and-down feeling when you know you've got it just right.
If it seems like I have a different project every week, well, I guess I do. ADD is a blessing and a curse! I definitely haven't abandoned vessel sinks, for example; there's just not much more to say about them until they are at least out of the bisque.

Test Drive

I've been obsessed with dessert pots lately -- cake stands, sundae cups, banana split boats. I got the first of the series out of today's kiln load, and immediately had to try it out. The dessert, a Mississippi Mudcake, was exactly what I envisioned when I made the piece.
I often say that functional pottery is artwork that is only complete when it is in use. I was glad for the chance to finish this one off.