you're good ..
that "whiteness" is just the "sap" from living tissue that's "wetting the cinnamon" .....am sure those white spots will continue - and will get larger ...all's good
it will take awhile for the cuts to "harden" ...you will see a visible change ...looks a little like a "dried transparent film"
yeah you can paint terra-cotta ...but if using traditional paint-and-bucket type paint is used, ya might mess up the "drying" properties of terra-cotta .....
spray paint will work - look into: "textured spray paint" or "fleck spray paint"
