Partying With Cheesecake as Excitement Grows For Our New Wisconsinmade Website!

Excitement grows daily at my office, Wisconsinmade.com. We're moving into a new store-front! Soon our familiar, comfortable website that we've been using for the past ten years to help Wisconsin artisans and small businesses distribute their creations to customers will transform into a state-of-the-art web store.

After a long year of planning, designing, programming, and data-transferring, now we're in the final phases of testing and tweaking. Linda, Wisconsinmade's creator, is working nearly non-stop checking and re-checking that every aspect of the new website looks and functions as it should. Like the artisans we work with, Linda has high standards of quality, -she won't give the signal to switch over to the new website until it meets her high expectations. She reminds me of the master chef of a gourmet restaurant moving rapidly from station to station, checking the sauces, inspecting the vegetables, tasting the soups and adding sprinkles of seasonings. The amazing thing about Linda is that despite the tremendous pressure, she's so nice about everything. Thus, our office has a bit of a festive mood, like the excitement of going to a big concert.

Now in Wisconsin, as everywhere else, big occasions are celebrated with delicious food and drink! We've begun talking about chilling the celebratory champagne, -ours is a small office which means we won't need too many bottles. And we've begun discussing the party menu. Gourmet cheese will definitely be on our party table, thanks to a surprisingly speedy cheese master we partner with.

You see, late Monday afternoon Renee was testing the ordering process on the new website. She was having fun web-shopping and sending mock orders to artisans. Then, first thing Tuesday morning, her job-share partner, Nina, had the job of calling the artisans to verify that they had received Renee's orders and that the order instructions read as Renee had intended. Of course, Nina was also canceling each order, explaining that it was just a test. But luck shone on our little office, - I heard Nina say, "What? You already sent the order? The cheese is on its way?..Wow, you are speedy!..Oh, that's all right, we'll enjoy the cheese."

So with that inspiration, and because we need a picture of a prepared recipe to post on the new site, I am making Cranberry Cheesecake Cups. Wisconsin is a big grower of cranberries, and some of our artisans turn cranberries into delicious relishes and toppings. Some have sent us recipes using their toppings. I get the fun job of preparing the recipes, taking their pictures and putting the photos on the site. I know, it's work, but someone has to do it. So here is a picture of Cranberry Cheesecake Cups which I made and brought into the office to share.

Click on 'Continue reading...' for the recipe. 

Cranberry Cheesecake Cups

• 24 vanilla wafer cookies
• 1 jar Urban Processing's Cranberry Topping
• 3 8-oz. pkgs. cream cheese, softened
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 2 tsp grated lemon peel
• 3 eggs

Line 24 muffin cups with paper liner; place one cookie in each. In mixer, beat cream cheese, sugar, and lemon peel until light and fluffy. Beat in 1 egg at a time. Spoon 1 Tbsp of cream cheese mixture into each cup. Top with 2 tsp of cranberry topping and another Tbsp of cream cheese mixture. Dot with topping and swirl gently. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes or until set. Cool. Makes 24.

Here's a picture of Nina enjoying a cheesecake cup. We all really liked them!!! They tasted like creamy cheesecake, but they had an intensely wonderful flavor of sweet cranberry. I'm surprised at how simple they were to make, - I made them in 20 minutes! But they look like a fancy dessert. I'm definitely keeping this recipe and will likely make the cheesecake cups for a holiday dinner or brunch.

Here's the secret ingredient that turns these cupcakes into a gourmet food:

Gourmet Sweet Cranberry Topping

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And here's a whole basket of cranberry goodness!!!

Gourmet Cranberry Baker's Gift Basket

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Beautiful centerpiece desserts can be easy when you have them delivered. Here are some of our favorites:

Suzy's Four-Flavored Cheesecake Sampler

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Grandma Olesen's Carrot Cake

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O & H Danish Layer Cake with Butter Cream Icing

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Receive $5.00 off the purchase price of any Wisconsinmade.com product by entering this offer code with your order: FLOG1008. Offer expires November 1, 2008.

Comments

[Lisa's Chaos]

Cranberry cheesecake cups?! They sound yummy!!!

[cristie]

Thanks for the comment, Erika! Yes, I was surprised at how the cranberry topping made such a delicious difference. In fact, my finicky 9-year-old who insists she doesn't like cranberries loved these cheesecake cupcakes and wants me to make more. They're so easy that I'm sure I will soon.

[Erika]

Wow! That sounds fantastic. I was just thinking to myself that I needed to track down some fresh cranberries- but that spread and the cheesecake sound great!