Meet Christopher’s Bakery. The Texas-based company creates many desserts, but it is known for its signature Vanilla Wafer Cake. The story behind this cake and the bakery starts with Christopher Harris, the inspiration for this business. Like the cake, the story has layers.
The beginning of this business started earlier in Miami, in the Harris family home. Courtenay Harris – Christopher’s older brother and owner of Christopher’s Bakery, remembered the moment when the Vanilla Wafer Cake was synonymous with Christopher’s joy.
“Our father, a teacher by day, would often bake his secret-recipe vanilla wafer cake at night to give to friends for fun. Christopher loved to taste the batter before it went into the oven, but even more than that, Christopher loved the noises our father made when he would attempt to crush vanilla wafers by beating them with a rolling pin. It made Christopher laugh so much. Unfortunately, Christopher died at the age of 11 in 2003 from a grand mal seizure as a result of epilepsy.
Courtenay decided to honor his brother’s memory through his favorite dessert – the Vanilla Wafer Cake and opened Christopher’s Bakery in 2016. It’s only right to keep Christopher’s spirit alive by offering something to the world that he, himself, loved so much,” Courtenay Harris said.
This delicious Vanilla Wafer Cake is traditionally made with Courtenay’s father’s recipe of vanilla wafer cookies, pecans, shredded coconut, raisins and dried cranberries but can be customized to the consumer’s liking. The bakery also creates Southern classics like pound cake, red velvet cake, caramel cake and more.
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