Business
BY ASIA ARMOUR
Customers can nd Uncle Honey’s desserts in meat markets and some cafe-style restaurants across Houston.
COURTESY UNCLE HONEY’S
Uncle Honey’s owner Willie Richard II has more than three decades of experience as a baker.
COURTESY UNCLE HONEY’S
Sta ord bakery Uncle Honey’s seeks to uphold African American heritage
Tea cakes hold cultural signi cance among African Americans, Willie Richard II said.
Willie Richard II, a ectionately known by his fam- ily as “Uncle Honey,” started his business out of the desire to have his grandmother’s tea cakes again. He spent 21 years working in a wholesale bakery before being laid o in 2009. He said his faith guided him to realize his lifelong dream of becoming a business owner. “The Holy Spirit spoke back to me and said, ‘If you believe you could own a business like you believe you could get a job, you could have it,’” Willie Richard II said. He took this as inspiration to o cially open Uncle Honey’s Home Style Desserts in Sta ord in 2015. Looking back Tea cakes, which “have the crunch of a cookie and the u of a cake,” hold cultural signi cance among African Americans, Willie Richard II said. He said enslaved people learned to make tea cakes and passed on the recipes by word of mouth. He said they have long been a key part of celebrat- ing Juneteenth and represent the storied history of southern Black Americans. “We specialize not only in just what some people consider a cookie,” he said. “It’s more than a cookie—it’s heritage.”
From the oven Willie Richard II arrives at the store at 2 a.m. every morning to start baking, said Renae Richard, his wife. She said his dedication keeps her and all of their other sta inspired. Uncle Honey’s produces 80,000 tea cakes monthly, along with other desserts such as bundt cakes, pecan pies and banana pudding, Willie Richard II said. Some items are available at the store in Sta ord. These treats are also distributed in 13 cafe-style restaurants and meat markets in predominantly Black neighborhoods around Houston. These include B & W Meat Company and Watkins Supermarket, he said. The company’s tagline, “the best tea cakes in the whole wide world,” are indicative of Willie Richard II’s ambition to take his brand outside of Texas and across the globe, he said. “I’ve enjoyed the ride,” Renae Richard said. “Just to watch [the business] birth and grow, you see how God has taken it and done exceedingly abundantly above.”
COURTESY UNCLE HONEY’S
The Richards credit their faith for the sustained growth of Uncle Honey’s bakery in Sta ord.
ASIA ARMOUR COMMUNITY IMPACT
THOMAS TAYLOR PKWY.
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1250 Texas Parkway, Ste. J, Sta ord Facebook: Uncle Honey’s Home Style Desserts
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SUGAR LAND MISSOURI CITY EDITION
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