(mis)adventures in cheesecake making

First off, we didn't get home from work last night until 8:45. And then I had to make a cheesecake for Ellery's birthday today. Oh mylanta, as the kids used to say. So Alfred went upstairs to exercise and I got working. I was on the phone with my mom for a few minutes, then she said she'd let me go so I didn't make a mistake with the recipe. (Actually, Mom, I did forget to put sugar in the crust, which I was making while talking to you. But then I just barely had enough sugar for the filling, so if I had put some in the crust I would have been a little short for the filling. So it was ok in the long run.) I got it all made and in the pan, then went to get the foil out of the cupboard (to wrap around the pan to bake it in a water bath, of course) and:


I knocked 2 of the baking dishes that were stacked next to the foil onto the floor, and one of them smashed. And I mean smashed! That shit was everywhere! If you click on the picture you can see it, there were pieces on top of and under the green pan, in between other pans still in the cupboard, I even stepped on one in front of the fridge, which is like 5 feet away. And it only fell like 18 inches! I had to get the vacuum out because there were so many tiny pieces that the broom was missing. It sucks cause I really liked that dish, it had a rubber top and was just really nice. To make myself feel better, I poured the little bit of graham cracker crumbs I had left into the little bit of cheesecake filling that was left in the bowl and ate it. It was yummy. And in the end, this gorgeous creature resulted:


Look how nice and level the top is! The water bath worked its magic, baby. And you can see some of the raspberries that are at the bottom of the cheesecake. Then I worked some magic of my own this morning, and we have this:


Who says I can't decorate cakes? Well, I say that, but I can make a cheesecake look nice! I'll have to take a picture tonight when it's cut, I bet it will look cool with the raspberries at the bottom.