Thinking outside the box for holiday desserts?
Consider these two options, from two of the oldest dessert purveyors in the Midwest.
If it’s kringle you seek, you can head north — to Wisconsin — for the old-world varieties baked fresh daily (try 7,000 kringles each day) by O&H Danish Bakery (with locations in Racine, Sturtevant and Oak Creek). Run by members of the Olesen family for the past 73 years, the bakery is renowned for its old-fashioned, traditional, oval-shaped kringles (36 layers of flaky pastry each), bread puddings, coffee cakes, cakes and more.
This holiday season, O&H is offering up a limited-edition Christmas Cookie Kringle, made with butter cookie filling and frosted with icing and festive sprinkles. It’s $25.99 and available for shipping around the world at ohdanishbakery.com, if a road trek is not in the cards.
“Christmas is our favorite time of year at O&H Danish Bakery, and being a family-owned business, we love being able to share our family’s holiday traditions with our customers,” said Eric Olesen, the third-generation co-owner of the bakery.
Closer to Chicago, Eli’s Cheesecake is offering some holiday “edible art” for a very good cause.
In a collaboration with critically acclaimed Chicago artist Nick Cave, Eli’s is now offering a set of 10 cheesecake “cuties” (tiny chocolate-dipped cheesecake bites) inspired by Cave’s recent MCA exhibit “Forothermore.”
Each “cutie” was designed by Cave, with each tiny square boasting a different color, flavor and symbol “mimicking images used in the exhibit’s Spinner Forest.” Each design conveys a message of “Love and happiness equal peace,” according to the official announcement.
“This rainbow package contains an extremely delicious collection of life tenets chosen and designed by myself and created by the extraordinary team at Eli’s. ... I see these tenets as guideposts as well as filters that warm and connect us to each other,” Cave said via statement.
All net proceeds from sales of the set will benefit the Facility Foundation, the multidisciplinary creative hub created by Cave and his partner Bob Faust to help support underrepresented artists with scholarships, exhibits and commissions.
The 10-pack is $125 and includes next day shipping. Available online only at elischeesecake.com.
