A new treat shop with freshly made baked goods from countries across Asia and Europe has opened in downtown Hendersonville. The menu rotates and includes items like tiramisu, macarons and Thai tea cake — a tea chiffon cake with a soft ganache.
On March 4, Bake Me House, a bakery specializing in Asian desserts, debuted at 414 N. Church St.
Baker/owner Emily Roper runs the one-woman operation, whipping up time-intensive, carefully crafted desserts uncommon to the area, like Japanese cheesecake and matcha green tea cake.
Emily Roper is the owner and baker of Bake Me House in Hendersonville.
“I want to keep quality and pay attention to every detail of my desserts,” she said.
Bake Me House’s menu also offers various cookie flavors, such as matcha, red velvet, and brown butter Biscoff.
The Iced Thai-style beverages include authentic Thai tea, green tea, coffee and milk tea boba with tapioca pearls or brown sugar jelly.
Since opening, customers have become accustomed to lining up outside, waiting for the bakery to open. Bake Me House’s display case is full of assorted sweets, but has sold out of products daily, sometimes by early afternoon.
Double chocolate cake at Bake Me House in Hendersonville.
On March 13, loyal customer Marianna Antiveros returned to restock on desserts for her and her husband, adding a Bake Me House signature milk tea made with cream cheese mousse to her order.
She and her husband are friends and gym buddies with Emily Roper and her husband, Will, and became supporters of the new business early on. Antiveros said that while they’re healthy eaters, the desserts are too tempting to pass up.
“I like that I know the owners and know how hard they work,” Antiveros said. “We appreciate that they add a special touch to downtown.”
Bake Me House’s rotating dessert roster
Korean eclairs, basque cheesecake, carrot cream cheesecake, double chocolate cake, red velvet cake and crepe cake are several products that have graced Bake Me House’s display cake since the bakery’s opening.
The Japanese cheesecake has been the top seller ― and a favorite of Antiveros.
A Japanese cheesecake at Bake Me House. The bakery opened in March in downtown Hendersonville, offering Asian-style desserts and beverages and more.
“I’m not a sweet person, so for me to like cake, in general, is weird, but I like that it’s not overly sweet,” Antiveros said. “You can’t feel the cavities kicking in. It’s light, airy and it’s different. I’d never had Japanese cheesecake until here.”
Emily Roper said the Japanese cheesecake requires extra dedication and takes more than two hours to complete. It must be watched with a vigilant eye to make sure it bakes just right.
“We can’t find Japanese cheesecake around here,” she said. “It’s difficult. Technical. It’s hard to make the perfect texture.”
The differences between it and a New York-style cheesecake include the fact that the Japanese cheesecake is crustless, made with flour, and uses egg whites to give it a light and fluffy texture.
Will Roper said a customer has described it as “biting into a cloud.”
The rise of Bake Me House bakery
In 2014, Emily Roper worked in merchandise display marketing in Thailand while running a small-scale baking operation on the side. The startup bakery began in her condo in Bangkok, with family and friends as her first customers.
The business grew with her passion for baking, inspiring her desire to open a brick-and-mortar.
Emily Roper (left), the baker and owner of Bake Me House in Hendersonville, and her husband Will Roper.
“She loves feeding people, and she always had a dream of owning her own little bakery one day and made it happen,” said Will Roper, a local real estate agent.
Years later, Emily and Will Roper married and honeymooned in Japan, where the self-taught baker took an interest in Japanese-style desserts. She plans to return to take pastry classes to learn more recipes and techniques.
Now, settled in Will Roper’s hometown of Hendersonville, the entrepreneur can share her talents and skills with family, friends and community members from her first storefront.
Will Roper, who’s privy to tasting his wife’s creations first, said he’s become a big fan of the matcha green tea cake.
“It’s such a unique flavor, and you don’t find matcha anywhere around here,” he said. “It brings me back to my memories when we went to Japan, and that’s what I hope this bakery does for people. For anyone who’s traveled Asia, they probably have a special place for it in their heart, and you bite into things that Emily has made it takes you back.”
Matcha green tea cake at Bake Me House in Hendersonville.
He said Bake Me House offers treats that aren’t weighed down by sugars, which is typical of Asian-style desserts.
Emily Roper said one of her favorites is the Japanese cheesecake and the Thai-style coconut cake, which reminds her of home and is made with imported ingredients from Thailand.
From a home bakery in Bangkok to a brick-and-mortar shop downtown, Emily Roper is using global flavors and techniques to make a sweet living doing what she loves, and it’s earning high customer praise.
“That’s the joy of my life,” Emily Roper said.
Bake Me House
Where: 414 N. Church St., Hendersonville.
Hours: 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Tuesday-Friday.
11 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday.
Info: For more, follow Bake Me House on Facebook and @bake_me_house on Instagram.
Tiana Kennell is the food and dining reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times, part of the USA Today Network. Tips, comments, questions? Email [email protected] or follow @PrincessOfPage on Instagram/Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: Asian-style cakes, European classics on new bakery’s menu: What to try
