ASHTON, Ill. (WTVO) — Katelyn and Keri are sisters in Ashton who have found how to turn their passion of baking in to a full-blown business.
The bakery is called CheeseKake Ko and it specializes in creating cheesecakes with a variety of flavors, ranging from traditional cream cheese to strawberry to innovative combinations like s’mores and apple cider doughnut cheesecake.
“It’s amazing being able to work with your sister who you grew up with all your life and baked and did easy bake oven with all your life, it’s incredible to be doing it together now in the real world,” said Katelyn Glavac.
“We’re so grateful for the opportunity. I mean it’s a dream,” said Keri Creason. “We literally wake up, it doesn’t feel like we’re coming in to work. It’s like we’re hanging out.”
Katelyn and Keri mentioned that their bakery is a family affair, with several family members involved in its operations. Their mother left her full-time job to join the business, and their father, who is now retired, now serves as the delivery driver.
They showed us how they make their New York-type cheesecake.
It all starts with making the crust.
“Our graham cracker crust are the most popular crust that we typically use for a lot of our cheesecakes,” said Keri.
Katelyn prepared better to be melted while Keri crushed and grinded the crackers. Keri then added the butter before the sisters sent the crust off to be baked.
“We bake these at 350 degrees for seven minutes,” said Katelyn.
“This (next) step is making the making the actual cheesecake batter,” she said. “We grab our cream cheese, sugar, flour, lemon juice, salt, vanilla, and we’re going to combine it all together to make the most important part of the cheesecake.”
“It’s super important that you do the ingredients in the correct order,” said Katelyn. “Cheesecakes are like a science.”
With the batter done, it’s time to add the flavors that make each cheesecake unique.
“This is going to be our coffee extract and it’s going to make our batter taste like coffee,” Katelyn showed while pouring the extract into the batter. “We’re going to give that a little mix.”
Now it’s time to pour the cheesecake over the crust and then send it off to be baked for several hours until perfect.
Once cooled, the cheesecake is decorated, cut, then decorated some more before finally being done.
The sisters say they take great pride in their work.
“We take a lot of pride in all the work that we put into this and all the people that come and love it and we love it,” Katelyn said.
“And we get to do it together,” Keri said.
Customers can preorder cheesecakes online or by phone, and they have the option to build a custom cheesecake from the display case.
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Dining and Cooking