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“I just love eating cake,” says Yeen Veerasenee, the self-taught baker behind Thai-inspired bakery Khanom House, which has just opened in Chippendale.

Cakes are Veerasenee’s specialty, and he’s become well-known for them on the weekend market circuit. Since 2022, he’s become a fixture at the Summer Hill and Kirribilli Markets, where he sold slices of delicate black sesame chiffon cakes, rich Thai milk tea Basque cheesecakes, and creamy coconut and pandan swiss rolls under the name The Baking Lists.

“I really committed to going every weekend and taking on feedback and improving, and [the stall] became a lot busier,” says Veerasenee, who juggled home-baking with a part-time barista role at A.P Bakery.

“It was time to take it a step further.”

Khanom House is the next evolution of The Baking Lists and Veerasenee’s first bricks-and-mortar venture.

It’s a simple, bright blue corner cafe selling sweets inspired by different chapters of Veerasenee’s life: from eating boiled Thai desserts in his childhood home on the western outskirts of Bangkok, to learning about Ukrainian honey-cakes from a neighbouring stallholder in Glebe.

The space is small and sunlit, with wood benches to sit on, a couple of chairs outside, and a pastry cabinet packed full of beautifully presented treats, like slices of strawberry shortcake, thick brown butter and chocolate chip cookies, and pandan custard doughnuts along with other favourites from the market stall, which finished up in mid-December.

Veerasenee suggests first-time visitors should order a slice of chiffon cake in the pandan or black sesame flavour. “It’s always very light, fluffy and fresh, with whipped cream instead of buttercream,” he says.

Veerasenee says this project feels more personal than The Baking Lists, and that’s partially due to the name change. “Khanom” is the Thai word for dessert and, for Veerasenee, it brings up memories of sitting with his grandmother Rojana in their open-air kitchen, learning to make khanom tom (glutinous rice cakes filled with caramelised coconut and palm sugar filling).

“It’s a little bit like the texture of mochi, but we boil it in water, roll it in coconut shavings and eat it straight away when it’s still warm,” he says.

Since migrating to Australia in 2015, Veerasenee has been teaching himself the precise art of baking through books, YouTube tutorials and online classes. But his grandmother didn’t need an oven (“They’re not common in Thai kitchens,” says Veerasenee) and she didn’t need a recipe.

“She just watches, waits, tastes and senses what to do,” Veerasenee says. “I didn’t appreciate it until I went away for a few years, that this is where [my passion] all started. From my grandmother and my auntie, who have been doing this for years.”

Open Wednesday-Sunday

15 Meagher Street, Chippendale, instagram.com/khanomhouse.syd