Cheesecake tutorial

This tutorial have been an online workshop at cdhm, and you’ll find many tutorials on the member pages. Hope you will try it. It is great fun, and there are many filling possibilities if you don't want to use canes. You can make cherries or blueberries instead.

Materials you will need:

• Polymer clay (I have used Fimo soft, but use whatever clay you are comfortable with)
• Translucent
• Beige
• White
• Yellow
• Green
• Red
• Gloss varnish
• Brush for varnish
• Pigments or chalk in color ochre and burnt umber
• Brush for pigments
• Long cutting blade
• Black tiny sand from railroad shop
• Sandpaper medium coarse
• Kemper rose cutter set. Using the smallest
• Fruit canes ready made. Banana, strawberry and kiwi.
• TLS
• Pasta machine
• Lid with small striped pattern. Top of glue bottle or Amorall.
• Cocktail sticks
• Talcum powder or cornstarch
• Oven
• Oven thermometer
• Paper (parchment)
• Tile or other work surface
• Optional cake stand and plate

We will start to make the crust for the cheesecake. You might put on the oven so it is ready to go.

Mix 35%white, 35% translucent, 25% beige and 5% warm yellow. Put it trough pasta machine several times or kneed by hand. Last pass should be on nr 5 setting on pasta machine.
Cut out a round shape with the smallest rose cutter.
Take a new piece of the mixed clay about 7 cm long also pressed trough a pasta machine on nr 5 setting.  Cut it to shape so it will fit around a lid with small striped pattern. (I am using the top of a Amorall spray bottle or similar). Dust the lid with talcum powder or cornstarch.
Press the clay strip firmly on to the lid to make good marks in the clay. Release and lay on flat surface.
With your long cutting blade cut it long enough to go around the circle.
Cut it about 5mm high.
Make a slant cut on one side.
Make wholes in the round shape with a cocktail stick.
Take TLS on a cocktail stick and lay it all around the circle.
Press the clay strip carefully onto the circle using the cocktail stick as guide.
When you meet the ends, cut the excess off making a slant cut in the opposite direction to the first.
Try to get a neat seam.
It’s not very important because this is where you will cut off your cake piece later.
Take your pigment brush and dust the pie shell with ochre first. If you want it to have some more brown spots, brush a bit with burnt umber as well.
Take some clay and make tiny crumbles that you bake along with the pie shell. This makes it so much more realistic at the end. Bake the pie shell and crumbs for 15 minutes on recommended temperature for the clay you are using. While this bakes we will make the filling and top decoration. Make sure your hands are clean.
Take a small piece of white clay and the same amount translucent. A 50/50 mix. You also need a tiny bit of warm yellow clay. Make sure it is tiny or it will overpower the mix. This is to simulate the egg yolk that’s in the cheese mix. Mix this well and put it aside.
Cut the canes for the top or gather them if already cut. You will need about 15 kiwis, 10 strawberries and 6 bananas. This will vary all on how you will lay it the on pie. Cut a bit more for extra safety.
Take the crust out of the oven and let it cool slightly. Make a ball of the cheese mix and press it into the pie shell. Make it almost full, but leaving a bit so there will be space for the fruits.
Brush some TLS on top of the cheese mix so the cane slices will stick.
Take a cocktail stick and dip it in TLS. Not too much, just a little. This will act as a tweaser or an extra hand of some sort. It will grip onto the cane slices. Start with the kiwis and lay it in an overlapping pattern all around the cake. Last kiwi slice you will tuck under the first to make it look pretty and perfect.
Use the cocktail stick and put on a bit of TLS on the lower end of the kiwis. This will make the strawberries stick more easily. This is a bit tedious.
Lay the strawberries in an overlapping pattern.
Put on a bit of TLS on the lower end of the strawberries.
Last circle is the bananas.
We will make a whole strawberry to put on top of the pie. Mix about 90% translucent with 10% red clay. Make a ball and shape it into a cone by rolling it in the palms of your hand. Lightly coat medium coarse sandpaper with black railroad sand. Roll/press the strawberry into the sandpaper. It might loose its shape, if so form it back to a cone. The sands simulate the little seeds on the strawberry.
Take a cocktail stick and press it into the top of the strawberry. Mix a tiny bit of translucent and green. Make two snakes.
Lay them crosswise
Press them into the hole in the berry. Carefully put it in on top of you fruits with a little TLS underneath.
I put a piece of parchment paper on top and bake it for about another 15 minutes. The reason I put the paper on top is that I think the canes will discolor less. This doesn’t have to be like this in your oven. Experiment!
Cut the pie where you made the ends meet when making the crust.
Varnish the fruits with gloss varnish. If you want to make the inside crust a bit browner, take some ochre pigment with a bit of the varnish and dab it on with a cocktail stick.

Display on plate and cake stand and if you want to, you can glue on the little crumbs for the extra touch of realism.