Tahira Christensen’s baking business started with some Pinterest boards, YouTube videos and a sweet tooth.
The Seabrook resident opened Scrumptious Houston in August 2020 along NASA Parkway. Prior to that, she was a home-based baker, then worked from a commercial kitchen.
Christensen started getting comfortable in the kitchen as a child, she said.
“I’ve always been a baker,” she said. “Since I was 9, my mom hasn’t baked anything. I do all the baking.”
The shop offers a rotating menu of cakes, cheesecakes and cupcakes, which can be purchased in-store by the slice. Banana pudding and pecan pie are two of the most popular cheesecake flavors, Christensen said. About 30 varieties are in the rotation and change depending on the season.
Current offerings available to order online, for instance, include an apple pie cheesecake for $50. Another popular item is Christensen’s dessert mashups, known as “piecaken,” that come in rotating flavors: The latest, last available for $11 a slice in late September, combines pumpkin cake, cinnamon cheesecake and pecan pie into one dessert.
Customers are not likely to notice much chocolate on the menu, but fruit lovers will have plenty of options to choose from, since Christensen said she creates desserts in flavors she likes best.
“I’m really baking for me, but I’m trying to find other me’s,” she said.
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Still, Scrumptious Houston can cater to the needs of virtually any customer. Desserts can be made sugar free, dairy free and gluten free, and customers can contact Christensen via email about custom cakes and other desserts.
Christensen shares the space with Niche Catering, where private chef and caterer Nicole McEachern offers customized menus for events; various to-go meals are available for takeout in the cooler next to Scrumptious Houston’s baked goods. Additionally, Bay Area dessert lovers looking to pick up tips from the self-taught baker can participate in cupcake classes at the facility, the next of which will take place Dec. 11.
The Missouri City native aims to expand the business with more cheesecake flavors and open in more locations in the coming years—Austin and San Antonio, to name a couple.
“I want to be this crazy, line-around-the-building place eventually,” she said.
