Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery

Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery takes up two stalls at Serangoon Garden Food Centre. They bake their breads and cakes on the premises. Business is very good, with long queues during lunchtime. Their goods are super fresh since turnover is high.

Old-school buns and cake

I really miss this kind of old-school bread and cake. They’re so refreshingly unpretentious. No fanciful names like “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Bacon”. And what’s “Mount Fuji Swirl”? Oh, it’s kaya bun? Say lah! Why waste our time playing “Guess What’s Inside The Bun?”

Hamburger bun (luncheon meat), S$0.70 each

There were so many of my childhood favorites here: butter & sugar, cheese, coconut, red bean, kaya, hot dog. In the end, I picked two most favorites — luncheon meat and curry (potato).

All the buns are made using the same sweet and airy dough. The “hamburger” comes with a surprisingly thick slab of luncheon meat. And the curry was generously stuffed with curried potato. Hubby and I each had two buns for the price of one BreadTalk bun! Now that’s what I call priceless!

Walnut cake, S$0.80 per slice

I was expecting the walnut cake to be buttery. But it turned out to be more chiffon-like instead. The cake was lightly flavored with coffee, and was richly studded with walnut, chocolate rice, and sesame seeds for extra crunch. The texture was light, yet very nutty. Tastes like what Mom would bake, if Mom could bake.

How I wish there could be more old-school bakeries like Serangoon Garden Bakery. Sadly, many of them (those in HDB estates) are morphing into BreadTalk copycats. The buns look similar, but taste like inferior imitations. Sigh. Instead going for a half-hearted attempt at modernization, why can’t they just stick to doing what they did best?

Serangoon Garden Bakery & Confectionery
49A Serangoon Garden Way
#01-45/46 Serangoon Market & Food Centre
Singapore 555945

Tue to Sun: 6.30am – 5pm (earlier if sold out)
Closed on Mondays

Many of us grew up eating pandan chiffon, so the words “chiffon cake” usually conjures images of a green, fluffy cake. Well, chiffon cake no longer just comes in monotonous green. Check out the latest Tried & Tested feature for some of the best and most interesting chiffon cakes in Singapore! Click here to read the full story.

How rich and how good?

Rich & Good Cake Shop is an old-school bakery in Kandahar Street. I’ve heard many rave reviews about their signature Swiss roll. Since I happened to be in Kampong Glam today, I went to look for it.

Their Swiss roll comes in a mind-boggling array of flavors, including mango, strawberry, chocolate, blueberry, coffee, green tea (though not all might be available at the same time). I bought kaya and durian as these two are their bestsellers.

Kaya roll and durian roll, S$6.50 each.

Their Swiss roll is very distinctive. While most cake shops have thick and fluffy rolls, Rich & Good’s rolls are long (about 30cm/12″) and skinny (about 5cm/2″ in diameter).

After you slice them up, they become dainty Swiss roll slices. Great to serve at a tea party!

Kaya roll, sliced.

Now, for the taste test. Although dense in texture, the sponge cake is very fine, soft, moist, and eggy. The fudge-like kaya isn’t too sweet, but could definitely be more generous in amount.

Overall, it tastes very old-school, very toothsome, and definitely very more-ish!

Durian roll, sliced.

The durian roll certainly smelled and looked tantalizing, with durian pulp spilling out as I sliced the cake. However, the heavy durian scent is rather artificial, most probably pumped up with durian essence. Also, there’s a strong, slightly unpleasant after-taste that I don’t exactly appreciate.

Well, the rolls were rich and good, but I thought they could be richer and better. Good enough to drop by if I happen to be in the vicinity, but not if I have to make a special trip.

Rich & Good Cake Shop
24 Kandahar Street
Singapore 198887
Tel: (65) 6294 3324

Mon to Sat: 9am – 5pm
Closed: Sun & PH

Chef Judy Koh, founder of Creative Culinaire

Thanks to the generous folks at Discovery Travel & Living Asia who organized a special cake decorating workshop at Creative Culinaire, we got to try our hand at being cake bosses for 3 hours!

Besides members of the media, food bloggers were also invited. Elaine of Divine Essentials was there too, and I asked Keropokman to come along as my baking buddy!

Piping a "sunflower" cupcake!

I happily accepted this invitation because I’ve attended a basic cake making course by Chef Judy Koh at Creative Culinaire before, about 3 years ago. Chef Judy has extensive experience in this field, and is highly regarded in the local baking industry. Most of all, she’s a very friendly instructor who readily shares her knowledge.

Base layer of sunflower petals.

Our lesson started off with something simple – sunflower cupcakes!

Piping white chocolate into "ladybug" shells.

Chef Judy showed us how to make chocolate ladybugs using commercial ladybug chocolate moulds.

Ta-da! So cute!

Pipe a layer of orange buttercream petals, place an Oreo cookie in the center, then pipe a second layer of petals. Place a chocolate ladybug on top, and it’s done!

Our workstation.

After the demo, it was our turn to try our hand at piping sunflower petals! Here’s our workstation (for four participants) all laid out for us. The cakes had been pre-baked and cooled, otherwise we’d be there till the next morning!

My sunflower cupcakes!

We each got to practise on 2 cupcakes. These are mine. Nice or not? Which one looks better?

Very attentive students!

After the warm-up session, we moved on to more challenging stuff, like decorating a whole cake!

Check out the industrial-sized cake mixer in the foreground of above pic. The balloon whisk is nearly as big as a human head!

Demonstrating how to cover a cake neatly with fondant.

Decorating a whole cake is much more complex as it involves glazing the cake, rolling out fondant, covering the cake, and cutting out fondant shapes to decorate the cake.

Oh no, our workstation's so messy!

After the demo, it was our turn again!

Cake artist at work.

Even though most of us were doing this for the first time in our lives, our cakes turned out quite nicely. In fact, some participants seem to be natural-born cake artists!

Here are our creations, and I’m going to play “Name the Cake”!

A Garden in Spring

This design won a prize – a cookbook by Chef Judy Koh!

Blooming Stars

A Tale of Golden Daisies & Pink Hearts

Blushing Sweetheart

White Beauty

This one’s my favorite! *thumbs up*

The Divine Miss E

This is Elaine’s creation. Isn’t it absolutely sweet?

Cheery Blossoms

This is Keropokman’s design. I like it very much. It’s such a sunny-looking cake! And so neat too, not like mine.

Starry Starry Night

Here’s Chef Judy’s creation. So stunning and dramatic, don’t you think?

Flower Power!

After showing you all the beautiful cakes, I’m very embarrassed to show you mine, cos I think it’s the ugliest one. I was going for a random, scattered flowers look, but didn’t pull it off. It’s true that less is more!

Oh well, I just have to resign myself to the fact that I have no flair for cake decorating. I’ll just stick to stir-fries.

But still, it was massively fun, and we ALL had a BLAST! Like Chef Judy said, cake decorating is very addictive, and I must add, very satisfying as well.

For those who wanna try your hand at cake decorating, you can check out Creative Culinaire’s website for their course schedule. Besides cake decorating, there are also cake-baking, bread-making, muffin/cupcakes, chocolate-making courses, as well as seasonal baking workshops.

A big thank-you to Creative Culinaire, Discovery Travel & Living Asia, and Weber Shandwick for the invitation and hospitality.

Tampopo's signature desserts - whole orange jelly and Scoop cake.

While at Tampopo to review their famous Black Pig Shabu Ramen for Tried & Tested: Ramen, we also tried out two of Tampopo’s much-raved about desserts.

Whole orange jelly, S$5.80++

For the orange jelly, they scooped out the flesh of a large navel orange, and filled it with soft, cloudy jelly that has small chunks of sweet orange flesh.

At first, I wasn’t quite used to the near-mushy texture of the jelly. But the jelly was totally bursting with pure, zesty, and intensely orangey flavors! It wasn’t too sweet, and tasted very natural, ie, no artificial flavor.

Mmm…it was so delightfully refreshing, we scraped the orange cup clean of every jelly molecule!

Scoop cake, S$6.00++

I really marvel at how the Japanese take something that’s not their invention, and take it to the next level. Normally, any cake with such a large proportion of cream puts me off. But like the orange jelly, the Scoop cake was just as irresistible.

Suffice to say, I was already floating around blissfully in cake heaven after just one bite. It’s hard to imagine how a simple assembly of fluffy sponge, lighter-than-air Chantilly cream, and fresh fruit could be so delectable, but it really is!

If it’s just the cake you want, go to the basement where Tampopo Deli is located. Besides the Scoop cake, they also have other Japanese-style cakes and pastries, the most sought-after of which is the cream puff. Apparently, the cream puffs are all snapped up once a fresh batch is produced every hour, so go stalk the deli if you’re game to try.

Tampopo (Liang Court)
177 River Valley Road
#01-23/24 Liang Court Shopping Centre
Singapore 179030
Tel: (65) 6338 3186
URL: http://www.cfc.com.sg/

Barracks - no army rations here.

Occupying the premises of a former army barracks, House is a lifestyle concept that houses (sorry, I couldn’t resist) a spa, cafe, and bar. This is how the cafe’s name comes about. But this is also where any association with an army camp ends, for Barracks resembles nothing like a military mess hall. From chic, quirky decor down to stunning food presentations, our experience at Barracks was a total revelation. This is one canteen that soldiers would happily dine at everyday!

Clockwise from top: Beetroot Beat, S$8.50; Pei Pa Herbal Tonic, S$12; Mint Berry Fix, S$12

This lunch was a food-tasting session organized for four other food bloggers and yours truly. Helmed by Resident Head Chef Ho, Barracks’ recently updated menu is full of refreshing, unique ideas, and the trio of non-alcoholic cocktails that kick-started our meal reflected just that.

Inspired by the paper prata, Barracks’ Skinny Pizza crust must be the thinnest and crispiest ever! Forget about thick, bread-like pizza dough. You can throw melted cheese and tomato paste out of the pizza equation too. Barracks wants to completely revolutionize the pizza, hence their “thinnovation” – the Skinny Pizza. There’s also a Skinny Pizza outlet at Suntec City serving just pizza and soup.

Chorizo Almond Skinny Pizza, S$18

There are 12 kinds of pizza combinations available. Essentially, each 12″ Skinny Pizza is a super thin and crispy cracker, first baked, then topped with cooked ingredients and fresh arugula (rocket) leaves. We got to sample 4 pizzas. The Chorizo Almond was a clear winner – everyone loved the combination of smoky chorizo, crunchy toasted almonds, roasted garlic, grilled bell pepper, olives, and fresh grated parmesan.

Ahi Taki Skinny Pizza, S$24.00

While I love the Chorizo Almond, the pizza I went absolutely ga-ga over was the Ahi Taki! First, the crust is lightly smeared with mashed avocado, then generously topped with seared fresh tuna, port-wine soaked raisins, plump pistachios, avocado slices, and roasted tomatoes. Brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Most definitely a thought-I’d-died-and-gone-to-heaven moment, which I haven’t had in a while!

If you don’t fancy pizza, it’s also available as a salad. Currently, the Ahi Taki is available only at Barracks and not at Skinny Pizza, Suntec City.

Curry Chicken Babaganoush, S$15

For something spicy and exotic, we had a Middle Eastern-inspired creation. A dip made primarily of mashed grilled eggplant, baba ganoush is spread over the crust, then topped with mildly-spiced curry chicken, chopped hard-boiled eggs, onion and fresh coriander. Very exotic and very nice indeed!

Wild Truffled Mushroom, S$18.00.

Truffle lovers will love this! Roasted portobello and truffle oil generously adorn this Skinny Pizza, but alas, it failed to entice me, because I’m not a big fan of truffle (the mushroom, not the chocolate kind).

We were told that the recipe for the pizza crust has been improved upon since it was first launched. Indeed, we were very much impressed with the taste and texture, and especially how it managed to stay crispy till the end.

Old-fashioned American Sliders (Bleu cheese & bacon), S$22

Bigger and more luxe than White Castle sliders, there’s a choice of 5 toppings for each pair of mini burgers. Pictured above is the Bleu cheese (brie) and bacon, which I didn’t get to try.

American sliders (Cheddar cheese & bacon), S$22.00.

But I did get to try and enjoy the Cheddar cheese and bacon sliders! Pretty ordinary burgers, but although medium well done, the beefy patties were juicy and the lightly toasted buns soft and chewy.

Sweet potato & truffle fries

Accompanying the sliders were these golden beauties. Those are no ordinary shoestring fries; they’ve been tossed in luxurious truffle oil! But I could only detect a faint truffle taste, and both the sweet potato and truffle fries went limp pretty quickly.

Bay Prawn Capellini, S$22.00.

One of the “House Proud” dishes, the capellini is accompanied by some very plump and crunchy prawns! I thought the sauce was lovely – a light prawn bolognese with braised baby leeks and a hint of chilli. But I’d have preferred if the noodles had been more “wet”, ie. more sauce, please!

Herb Crusted Lamb Rack, S$32.00.

The lamb is gorgeous! Well, that’s what the others said anyway, because I was slow and only managed to grab a teeny bite-sized piece and it turned out to be gristle.

Moroccan Spiced Baby Chicken, S$19.

I didn’t detect much Moroccan spice, but the half portion of baby chicken had lovely crisp skin. Even the breast meat was super juicy and tender! Those crispy strips are yam, and underneath the chicken are baby bok choy and tomato-berry chutney.

One-meter-long Sausage, S$25.

That’s one loooooooooong sausage, one meter long, to be precise. Available as chicken, beef, or pork, this is fun for sharing and will certainly make for great conversation!

Finally, it’s time for desserts! Under the direction of pastry chef Sarah Tham, the desserts at Barracks are a medley of hearty American-style cakes and East-West fusion creations. Some of them are even served in mess tins to reflect the location’s military heritage. How quaint!

Barracks Strawberry Shortcake, S$9.50

Not quite your old-fashioned version of sponge cake sandwiched with whipped cream and fresh strawberries, this is a slightly different interpretation of strawberry shortcake. That’s vanilla bean cream to pour over the cake. Yes, there’s really specks of vanilla bean in the cream. So much nicer than whipped cream, IMHO.

Guiltless Chocolate Almond Cake, S$12.

Why is this guiltless? Well, for those who want to stay off carbs but still wanna indulge, this dense cake is flourless and gluten-free. Hmm, really? What about the sugar and milk chocolate?

The BBC (Banana, Brownie, and Cheese), S$12

Call me looney, but if I’m gonna indulge, I’d rather go the whole nine yards for The BBC, which is da bomb! I went bananas (again, I couldn’t resist) over the crispy banana strudel liberally sprinkled with freshly grated cheese, and the gooey, dark chocolatey brownie hidden underneath.

MMM - Mango Marshmallow Melt, S$10

But my top pick is the MMM! Maybe cos it has my favorite fruit – mango! MMM is a delicious concoction of chunky fresh mango, mini crunchy pavlova, honey, yoghurt, whipped cream and marshmallow. Do I hear you going mmmmm……?

Green tea tofu tiramisu, S$9.50

Normally I’m dubious of fusion dishes. If badly executed, things could go really wrong. And tofu with green tea and tiramisu? Alarm bells started ringing in my head.

Thankfully, they managed to pull it off. The firm, custard-like tofu – freshly made in-house – worked well with the light mascarpone and mild green tea flavor. In all, it’s a pleasant, airy creation that’s not excessively sweet.

Panna Cotta Agar Agar, S$9

Inspired by the Nyonya 9-layer rainbow kueh, this stunning dessert is actually alternate layers of creamy panna cotta and colorful agar agar. The refreshing agar and creamy panna cotta complement each other really well!

If you’re here in a large group, you’re in for a treat. Order the “Godzilla Box”, which is your choice of any 6 desserts, and you get 15% off! Isn’t that sweet?

Tiffin Punch, S$59

By now, you’d have noticed that besides taste, Barracks puts a great deal of effort into presentation. Like the Tiffin Punch, which is served in mini tiffin containers. Served on the side is sparkling champagne, which you add just before drinking for a zesty experience.

Refreshingly zingy!

What goes into the Tiffin Punch? Bombay Sapphire gin, lychee liquer, ruby red grapefruit, ginger slices, lychees, and of course, Mumm champagne. Sweet and refreshing, much like a lychee martini!

Tea, anyone?

This ain’t any ordinary tea. You have to be at least 18 to drink it!

This “tea” set is actually what they call Prohibition Long Island Iced Tea Party (S$55). In the teapot is gin, vodka, rum, tequila, cointreau, and lemon juice; in the jug is Coca-Cola. This innocuous-looking drink packed quite a punch!

Dining at Barracks, one can’t help but appreciate the details that go into every aspect of the experience – industrial chic interior, cosy vintage furnishings, whimsical antique plates, and visually stunning food presentation. But more importantly, we really enjoyed the food. For me, that is the most important factor, because without good food, ambience and presentation wouldn’t pull me back.

If it’s always this good, I’d most certainly return soon. I’m already starting to have recurring dreams of the Ahi Taki and MMM!

Fellow bloggers at this tasting session are: Camemberu, Hungry Cow, Ivan, and missyglutton.

Many thanks to our sweet and gracious host, Janet Lim of Spa Esprit Group, for the invitation and wonderful hospitality.

Prices stated are exclusive of 10% service charge and 7% GST.

Barracks @ House
8D Dempsey Road
Singapore 249672
Tel: (65) 6475 778
www.dempseyhouse.com

Ham & cheese on walnut raisin, S$7.20.

If I had to choose between rice or bread, it’s definitely rice. Yes, I’m a rice person. I get withdrawal symptoms from going without rice for more than two consecutive days!

Yet, after an unplanned visit to Freshly Baked, I found myself thinking of nothing but bread. Grabbing a late lunch, I’d expected nothing extraordinary out of a simple BLT on wholemeal bread.

But Freshly Baked’s wholemeal bread simply blew me away! Soft, fluffy, light, and so incredibly delicious that I kept pinching myself, “How is this possible? It’s nothing like the rough, stodgy wholemeal bread I’ve hated all my life!”

Freshly Baked by Le Bijoux is the baby of Chef Audrey Tan, who, in her own words, is a baker not much into style but more into substance. A woman after my own heart, indeed! No wonder I instantly felt so at home in her cosy, down-to-earth deli-bakery.

Seeing me so greedily enthusiastically enjoying my sandwich and taking photos, Audrey generously brought out samples of other breads for me to try.

One of her top-sellers, the walnut raisin loaf is soft and chewy, and neither too light nor too dense. Audrey says that she blends some of the raisins before adding them to the bread dough. No wonder each bite is bursting with flavor! It tastes like something Mom would make (if Mom could bake!).

Freshly baked ciabatta.

The airy ciabatta is another winner. It goes with just about anything!

Freshly baked baguette.

I can just imagine dipping slices of the crusty baguette into chicken curry. Yums!

Freshly baked dark rye bread with dried fig & cranberry.

Now, I usually shun rye bread because it tends to be heavy, but Audrey’s lighter version has converted me into a fan! Love, love, love the addition of dried figs!

Good enough to eat on their own, I was truly impressed by Audrey’s stunning breads. Made without any preservatives, they only have a shelf-life of 2 to 3 days. No worries! They won’t survive that long on my kitchen table anyway!

At lunch-time, the sandwiches are very popular. They aren’t that fancy, but consistently fresh and wholesome! Bestsellers are the BLT (bacon, lettuce, tomato), ham and cheese, smoked salmon, and corned beef.

I thought pairing savory shaved ham and Emmenthal cheese with the sweet walnut raisin loaf (see the 1st pic) was a stroke of genius! The unexpected addition of creamy avocado in the BLT (S$6.90) worked too!

Soups are also available ala carte or as part of a soup+sandwich+drink set, but personally, I’d rather skip the soup and pick a dessert! Hmm, no, make that two!

Freshly baked cakes.

Reflecting her personality, her cakes aren’t fanciful, colorful creations, but classic favs like tiramisu, apple crumble, and black forest chocolate Swiss roll.

Crunchy salted caramel choc tart, S$4.50.

This is a must-try! Although I’d prefer the tart crust to be thinner and more buttery, the salted caramel and chocolate filling was divine! Smooth and well-rounded flavors without being too sweet or jelak (cloying).

Cross-section of tart.

Forgive my clumsy cutting skill; I mangled the poor tart! The crunchy part of the tart comes from the delectable Valrhona chocolate balls. It was so fun munching on the crisp chocolate balls as they went pop! pop! pop! in the mouth!

Macaron, S$1.50.

Now, I’m not the best person to judge macarons, but the raspberry (purple) macaron I tried seemed like the real deal. It was crisp when I bit into it, but pleasantly chewy inside. The whole thing wasn’t too sweet, but there wasn’t much flavor either.

Chocolate banana crumble muffin, S$1.80.

This is basically a chocolate muffin, but embedded with slices of banana and topped with crumble for extra texture!

Marble cake.

I was also happy to see old-fashioned butter cakes like marble cake and sugee cake! Haven’t tried this yet! Next time!

Donuts.

The mini donuts looked so adorable I couldn’t resist stealing a shot!

Almond cranberry financiers.

This is another item I wanna try next time.

Oatmeal raisin cookies.

Ooh, is anyone thinking of cookies with ice-cold milk? I am!

Phew, going through these images, I realize there’s actually a mind-boggling variety of breads, cakes, and cookies churned out at Fr

eshly Baked. In fact, there are other items I didn’t shoot, as well as others that are rotated daily.

“Bijoux” means jewels in French. Yes, I’m already planning my next visit to discover what other gems there are at Freshly Baked!

Freshly Baked by Le Bijoux
57 Killiney Road
Singapore 239520
Tel: (65) 6735 3298
URL: www.freshlybaked.com.sg

Mon-Fri: 8am to 8pm
Sat: 8am to 6pm
Sun: Closed

The next thing I like is their mission. No, their mission isn’t milking the money out of customers, but rather, giving back to the community. A business with a heart. I like!

Another thing I like is they charge you S$0 for plain water. Indeed, one of their philosophies is “We don’t like being told to pay for plain water”. How refreshing in an increasingly “sorry we don’t serve water” trend!

Slow roasted pulled pork sandwich with soup of the day (S$8.90).

Great first impressions, but what about the food? At first glance, it’s a small selection of Western sandwiches, soups, salads, and desserts, but upon closer inspection, there’s a lot of local influences like the braised pork belly sandwich, obviously inspired by the Hokkien kong bak pau.

A less sinful alternative would be the pulled pork sandwich (picture above). Lovely torn slivers of tender pork shoulder dressed in sweet-savoury barbeque sauce. The menu says it comes with “slices of sweet potato”, but there were only two small knobs of it. The baby spinach leaves were also missing. Could it be that the 1/2 portioned sandwich in the combo set is a watered-down version?

The soup of the day, onion potato chowder (I think), was scrumptious to the last drop. Lovely balance between chunky and smooth, it was naturally sweet-tasting with bits of crumbly potato. Loved every bit of it! Also saw a huge pile of freshly sliced shitake mushrooms being prepped for the house soup. I’m making a mental note to try that next time.

Basil pesto chicken sandwich with Chinese Caesar salad (S$8.90).

More Asian elements in the Caesar salad, like the soy-sauce braised soft boiled egg, fried ikan bilis (anchovies) and peanuts, and sesame soy sauce dressing. Loved the quivery center of the eggs, but the dressing didn’t quite work for me.

The chicken sandwich was also a bit of a hit and miss. The grilled aubergine and chicken slices were rather bland, but the basil pesto pleasantly fragrant.

Dense durian mousse cake (S$6.00).

Many of Food For Thought’s cakes are supplied by talented home bakers, such as the dense durian cake. Indeed, it tasted very homey. No artificial smell of durian essence, just a naturally light whiff of fragrance from the durian pulp. The sponge was delightfully light. Just wished the layers of durian fresh cream had been thicker.

Though not outstanding, the food we had was creative, fresh-tasting, and reasonably priced. There’s also a great vibe here, no doubt from the happy, smiling staff. If I’m in the area, I’ll drop in to show my support for this charming, little diner.

Food For Thought
420 North Bridge Road
North Bridge Centre
#01-06
Singapore 188727
Tel: (65) 6338 8724
URL: http://www.foodforthought.com.sg/