CheeseKake Ko. brings unique dessert flavors to Ogle, Lee, DeKalb counties and beyond

Katelyn Glavac and Keri Creason enjoyed playing with their Easy-Bake Ovens as children. The sisters would plug in their oven and play out their childhood fantasy of running a store, whipping up cakes in their toy oven and “selling” them to customers.

Fast-forward about 20 years and the Steward sisters have gone from easy baking to hard work, running their own business where they’re still making cakes and making their childhood dream come true – and just like when they were kids, mom Tina Glavac is there to lend a hand. The family owns CheeseKake Ko. – with a couple extra K’s in the mix for the sister’s names – in downtown Ashton, located just west of Rochelle in Ogle County, where the siblings cater to customers’ sweet tooth with their handmade custom cheesecakes.

It’s a business that’s evolved in less than three years, from Katelyn’s desire to make cheesecakes to opening a shop with her family in November in downtown Ashton. You won’t find any easy baking here – there’s a science to crafting the perfect cheesecake, and Katelyn and her family have mastered their method of making the decadent and delicious delights.

“I wanted to be good at something that not a lot of people were doing,” Katelyn said. “There’s a lot of science behind baking cheesecakes. We bake our cheesecakes in a water bath, because you want to keep a lot of moisture in the oven or else you’re going to have a dry, cracked cheesecake. Being able to understand how your oven works, how much moisture needs to be in there, and your flavors is important, otherwise it’s going to be flat, or super dry or gritty.”

The family of cake bakers have come up with about 200 different varieties of cheesecake since Katelyn sold her first one, with about 50 of them available from its custom order menu.

A handful are available by the slice at the shop when it’s open Wednesday through Saturday. The cakes are crafted, baked and then chilled for 24 hours before being cut into a dozen slices. Each one is made with special attention to make sure its taste lives up to its name, right down to the crusts and toppings, Katelyn said.

“We make any flavor we think of,” Keri said.

Choices range from simple varieties such as banana cream pie, lemon bar and red velvet to creations inspired by cereals and candies, such as Reese’s peanut butter cups, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Fruity Pebbles, Twix and Little Debbie Zebra Cakes. There’s even a cheesecake inspired by Sesame Street’s Cookie Monster – a blue cake with cookie crumbles, chocolate swirls and googly eyes.

Can’t decide which one you want? Try a cheesecake sampler, with several samples cut into small squares; small and large samplers are available. The store also sells cookies and cream puffs.

Katelyn began making cheesecakes during the downtime brought upon by the coronavirus pandemic. The restaurant she worked at, Flight Deck Bar and Grill at Rochelle Municipal Airport, had closed and Katelyn made use of her free time to take on the challenge of baking the perfect cheesecake. By the time the restaurant reopened, her talent for cheesecakes had taken off and she was able to get her desserts on the Flight Deck’s menu. As the orders and customers’ rave reviews grew, it inspired Katelyn to turn a part-time passion into a business, selling at pop-up markets, stores and other restaurants.

Eventually the demand to satisfy orders led her to rope her younger sister in to help her, and later their mother.

“I started making cheesecakes for the restaurant, and then we had a bunch of people asking where they were coming from, and whether they could order full cheesecakes from me,” Katelyn said. “I started to look into how to legally sell cheesecakes, and wound up getting my business license and getting ahold of the health departments to get food selling permits, and then I started selling a couple of cheesecakes a week. Then more people kept hearing about it, and more people were reaching out, and it started to get busy.”

Keri and Tina have enjoyed helping Katelyn grow the business.

“It works well for us,” Keri said. “All three of us have always had a passion for baking. If you would have said when we were growing up, or even five years ago, that this was a possibility, no way. It’s a dream.“

When they’re not busy at the shop they’re coming up with new creations, and no idea is too out there.

“We try to come up with new flavors to entice more people to come back for another flavor that sounds interesting to them,” Tina said. “We’re constantly thinking of more every day. We’re always wondering what we can come up with next. People like to see new stuff come out. When it comes out new, everybody’s wanting it.”

As the demand picked up, it became apparent that if they wanted a bigger slice of the local dessert market, they’d have to step up, and step into a storefront of their own. They found one – fittingly, in a place that also made a business out of slices: the former home of Main Street Pizza. The family worked during the weekends over five months, transforming the pizza place into their dream business.

Their hard work paid off. They were greeted at the grand opening with a line that stretched outside the front door, and business continued to be brisk; it wasn’t uncommon to see a crowded lobby with customers checking out the display case. Some went with their favorite, some tried something new, and others opted for both: a dozen different slices of sweetness.

The family chose Ashton for its central location to the business' wholesale locations, most of which are at stores and restaurants in Dixon, Sterling, Oregon, Rochelle, DeKalb and Rockford; elsewhere in rural Lee County, the Beaver Den Tavern and Grill in Paw Paw offers the cheesecakes.

“I never imagined it to grow as big as it did,” Katelyn said. “When it started to grow rapidly, we would always talk about it being so awesome if we had our own store. Now to be actually living it after not that long ago, it wasn’t a thought at first, but it quickly became a goal of ours.”

The store is a three-person operation, and Tina has enjoyed seeing customers try their treats and then spread the word about their cheesecakes.

“The most rewarding thing is when people come here and are like, ‘You guys make the best cheesecakes! No one makes cheesecakes this great,’” Tina said. “It’s very rewarding knowing that the time that you spent doing that is a good product. That’s what we want to do. We want to produce something that people like.”

By having a store, Katelyn has been able to meet more of the people who love her cheesecakes, something that she wasn’t able to do as much with online sales or selling to stores, and she’s come to enjoy meeting new faces and seeing familiar ones return – and the frosting on the cake? Doing something she loves with the people she loves.

“The best part of it for me, personally, is being able to spend every day with my family, doing what we love,” Katelyn said. “Baking has always been a passion of all of ours. Being able to do it, make money off of it and spending every day with your family is the greatest feeling.”

CheeseKake Ko., 906 Main St. in downtown Ashton, is open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday. For information or to order, find it on Facebook or Instagram @Cheesekakeko1, visit cheesekakeko.com or call 779-251-8464.