Loving B Bakery

Tucked in a quiet corner of Bussorah Street, its easy to miss this tiny, understated cafe. But there's nothing simple or understated about B Bakery's manjara chocolate cake. It is a painstaking creation of chocolate sponge layers, enveloped between rich chocolate ganache and a lemon curd layer. The lemon penetrates through the chocolate layers, giving the entire dessert a wonderful tangy flavour.


The tiramisu was also light, moist and fluffy, leaving me one happy customer. The best part of it all - the price. Two gorgeous slices of cake and an iced mocha for only $12. Definitely value for money.
It's truly the perfect spot to chill, relax, survey the damage and count your shopping bags after a satisfying day of trotting down Haji Lane!

Sweeet factor: 4/5

B Bakery
15 Bussorah Street

Ode to my dad, the epicurean

I know this blog has so far been about sweets, but it is X'mas, so do indulge me.
And trust me, the subject is remotely relevant. Because my dad is what he believes to be a true gourmet. (the rest of us prefer the term "wolverine")
So much, that X'mas shopping for the man was a true headache and quite a nightmare, cos apart from food, I had no idea what to get him.
My dad's a real guy's guy who has few pleasures apart from the tasty.
How is he a real rock of a man?
Let me count the ways:
1) Real men don't use cologne.
I opened dad's wardrobe recently to find three very familiar half-full (evaporated) bottles of expensive cologne.
One was a birthday gift from my sister's ex-boyfriend. (she is now married with two kids. the elder boy is almost 6 years old)
The other two were also birthday gifts, from when dinosaurs still roamed the earth.
The caveman's theory: Why use pricey cologne when you can use $5-a-can of deodorant from the supermarket?
Real men think it's more sensible to let Hugo Boss and Ralph Lauren go to waste and pay an extra $5 for Lynx from the supermarket.
So, cologne for X'mas is OUT.
2) Real men wear cotton
Dad has, in his wardrobe, stacks of unworn new shirts and even boxes of new underwear - a feeble attempt by mum to transform a real man into a metrosexual.
But real men don't wear underwear with other men's names on them. Who's Calvin?
And linen shirts? No way. Silk? You are out of your mind.
Cotton please.
Better still if they're not ironed. Bonus if there are holes in them.
So, shirts for X'mas is OUT.


3) Real men are strong and silent.
The phone rings.
Dad answers. Listens for ten minutes. Hangs up.
Mum yells from the kitchen: "Who was that?"
Real man: "Your brother."
Mum: "So? What did he say?"
Real man: "Nothing."
Mum later finds out her brother, who has not been in touch with the family for months, had secretly gotten married overseas, was expecting a child, and needed our help.
But in the world of real men, unless someone won the lottery, everything else is "nothing".
Brevity is a virtue.
Just in case you think my dad's a real Neanderthal who doesn't communicate his feelings, let me assure you that sometimes, he can get all emotional.
It is a common occurence to hear him say: "Who is that >$&*#^ who cut into my LANE??!?"
So to all the real men out there (including the one sitting motionless on my couch pretending not to hear the phone), a very Merry X'mas.
Enjoy your gourmet chocolates!

Merry X'mas, one and all!

What's a Christmas holiday without good food?
But cos it's the season to be jolly, forgiving and all things sweet, I shall not be reviewing any sweets today.
Suffice to say, as long as you're surrounded by family, friends and loved ones, even the plainest cereal cracker will delight your tastebuds and warm your soul.

So, to one and all, a very merry christmas and happy feasting!

Fruit Cake

Yippee! It's that time of year again for rich colourful fruit cakes, brandy-soaked puddings, and yummy eggnog drenched in alcohol!
One of our X'mas creations is this yummy fruit cake covered in nuts.
The gorgeous reds and greens definitely put us in the mood to be jolly!

Our Baker's Tip: Here's my twist on the traditional fruitcake. Top a lemon-flavoured butter cake with honey, mixed fruits and almonds and you've got something new for the festive season.

Pineapple Cake

Nothing fancy about this recipe - just a modest, unfussy pineapple upside-down cake. Traditional in its simplicity, yet extremely satisfying.
Loved it.

Our Baker's Tip: A quick fuss-free recipe. Mine's a little plain but there's lots you can do to decorate this - use walnuts, glaced cherries, macadamia nuts and dried apricots.

Oscar's

If you're craving fine sweets after 11pm, head to Oscar's Cafe and Terrace at Conrad Hotel for tiramisu.
The 24-hour cafe has a limited supper menu, but lack of variety is made up for with quality.
Apart from ice cream, the tiramisu is the only other dessert available, but it's definitely a treat both for the eyes and the palate.
I like this one cos it's rocking with alcohol. Moist, fluffy, and not too sweet.
The biscuits and strawberries provided the perfect icing.

Sweeet factor: 4/5

Oscar's Cafe and Terrace
2 Temasek Boulevard
Lobby Level
Conrad Centennial

Lemon cream cake

Our thoughtful baker used low-fat milk in this recipe and lemons cos she, too, can tell that I'm losing something fast - my waistline!
Anyway, although our perfectionist baker wasn't too pleased with her own creation, picking on the texture of the lemon cream, I found it pretty yummy and appetising. Four others who tried it agreed with me!

Our Baker's Tip: Who says butter cakes have to be boring? Slice the cake in half, fill with lots of lemon curd, slap lemon butter cream on top and jazz it up with lemon slices and you've got a brand-new cake!

Ah Yat Abalone

Ok, the pastries and bird's nest with mango sago (below) at Ah Yat were not bad, but get real. Who goes to a Chinese abalone restaurant for desserts?


So I'm gonna make an exception on this blog and include some savoury stuff for once.
Well, it was my birthday dinner after all. So, indulge me la.
Anyway, I'll just let the pictures do most of the talking.
For $78++ per person, we had:


Super yummy soupy xiao long bao (Chinese dumplings).


Double-boiled shark's fin with chicken and Matsutake mushroom. No tiny shreds of crab meat disguised as shark's fin, but chunks of the real thing!


Stewed South African abalone with Japanese sea cucumber and mushroom.
Cooked to perfection, the sea cucumber literally melts in your mouth, and the abalone was tender and fragrant.


Deep-fried smoked duck with red wine.


Pan-fried cod fish in XO sauce. Love the fried garlic and shrimp that were added as toppings.


Stir-fried shrimp paste with broccoli.


Baked pork rib with honey sauce.
The meat was extremely tender, yet not too fatty. The sauce was a tad salty though.


No birthday meal is complete without noodles, so we had Japanese vermicelli soup. In all, it was a super satisfying birthday meal.

Sweeet factor: 5/5

Ah Yat Abalone Restaurant
Allson Hotel
101 Victoria Street

Chocolate Walnut Cake

Check out our fudgey yummy gorgeous chocolate walnut cake! We're mighty proud of it cos the aroma of the chocolate was absolutely heavenly, it was jammed pack with fresh walnuts, and the cake was dense and sweet.
Yikes, there goes my DIE-T!

Our Baker's Tip: This chocolate ganache (ie. the cake topping) was a little of an experiment, combining a recipe for icing and a recipe for frosting. It's just cream, bittersweet chocolate and icing sugar!

Drinks at Aerin's

Ok, all those sweets have put my waistline in serious trouble lately, and so, I'm declaring the start of my DIE-T from today!
Anyway, was at Aerin's today, and despite the to-die-for spread of desserts (including their signature die die must-try baked apple and rhubarb pie, their recommended carrot cake and double chocolate fudge cake), I resisted and had only a mint hot chocolate.
Just a drink, but it was good - topped with thick froth and not too sweet, with a hint of mint. And palatable despite the strange greenish hue!
Will work on that waistline and be back for more real sweeet stuff!

Aerin's
252 North Bridge Road
Raffles City Shopping Centre
#B1-11/12

Peaacchy!

Fruit pastries are the best way to satisfy our craving for something sweet without going over the edge. Not too rich, not to sweet, yet not too tangy.
We didn't feel a tad guilty having this right after dinner!

Our Baker's Tip: A simple twist to a simple butter cake - arrange peach slices just before the cake is fully baked, and then scatter a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and ginger on top and you get a lovely caramelised texture.

Bittersweet Chocolate Cake

We're in love with a chocolate-coffee combination, so this recipe was right up our alley. Our mocha cake smelt heavenly out of the oven, and was rich, moist and soft.
We preferred ours more bitter and less sweet, so instead of chocolate, we were piling on the coffee powder!

Our Baker's Tip: To make it even more bittersweet, you can use espresso powder instead of instant coffee powder (which I used) to give a more bitter taste.

Chocolate Ginger Cake

We've been baking mostly brownies and cookies lately, so thought we'd go back to basics and bake a real good old fashioned chocolate cake.
Our chocolate ginger cake turned out nice and moist. The bits of crystalised ginger also gave it some extra ooommpph!

Our Baker's Tip: Instead of ground ginger, you can actually finely chop up a ginger root (skin it first, of course) to get a richer ginger flavour.

Cookies!

After a two-week hiatus, our happy baker is back! And boy, is she back with a vengeance - making up for lost time with a MotherLoad of cookies in one day!
The first tray out of the oven contained crunchy rich chocolate peanut butter cookies.
Comfort food that will take away all your blues.

Our Baker's Tip: If you want extra crunch, toast the chopped peanuts on an aluminium-lined tray in the oven for about 5 to 10 mins before putting them in the batter. Alternatively, you can use chopped up honey-roasted peanuts for a little caramel sweetness.


The second tray out of the oven - yummilicious chocolate almond cookies, which has both dark and white chocolate, plus plenty of crunchy almond slivers.

Our Baker's Tip: It's amazing how rich and fragrant unsweetened cocoa powder can be, especially if you're using a good brand like Hershey's - which is what I used here. But it's good news for chocolate lovers all round!


The third and final tray out of the oven was a tangy zingy citrus delight - our favourite orange cookies. Definitely a nice break from all the rich chocolate and nutty stuff.

Our Baker's Tip: Fresh oranges are such versatile building blocks. From bars and brownies to cakes and the simple, unfussy orange cookie. The tiny candied citron pieces as decoration add a little zing.

Cedele by Bakery Depot

Must admit I'm not much of a pancake person, but the caramelised banana pancake at Cedele was so irresistable, I actually had the whole thing for dinner.
The bananas were not just added as toppings but were mixed with the batter and cooked with the pancakes, so that they were slightly burnt and crispy on the outside.
Drizzled with rich sweet chocolate sauce, and topped with yummy ice cream, it was a sweeet and satisfactory meal-cum-dessert indeed.

Sweeet factor: 4/5

Cedele by Bakery Depot
501 Orchard Road
#03-14 Wheelock Place

Chocolate hearts

Who says you can't find good desserts at kopitiams? And I'm not talking about the usual hawker fare such as ice kachang or cheng tng.
Chocolate Hearts - situated in the same Toa Payoh coffeeshop as Botak Jones and Il Piccolo - serves waffles with belgium chocolate, brownies, and chocolate fondue complete with marshmallows, kiwis and juicy fresh strawberries.
The waffles are crispy on the outside and soft on the inside, and the generous serving of chocolate sauce is thick and rich.
But don't expect too much in terms of presentation - they're small on frills but big on taste.

Sweeet factor: 3.5/5

Chocolate Hearts
970A Toa Payoh North

SwissBake

Famous for their puffs and pastries, SwissBake is one confectionary that I'm glad to say, hasn't compromised in quality despite having expanded to seven outlets islandwide.
One of my favourites is their beef pie. The pastry is fragrant and not too thick or hard. Plus, the pie is chock full of ingredients such as carrots, mushrooms, onions and beef. The filling is not too dry, and the gravy, absolutely fragrant.
And don't leave the bakery without buying home some mini curry puffs and sticky chocolate puffs. The Takashimaya outlet offers a one-for-one deal in the evenings!

Sweeet factor: 4.5/5

SwissBake
Takashimaya
Ngee Ann City
#B2-04-07

PeraMakan

For lovers of Peranakan food, this is your paradise. Previously situated at Joo Chiat, this cosy homely restaurant, which serves to-die-for authentic and affordable nonya food, has since moved to Keppel Club.
But one thing remains unchanged - owner Kelvin Lee's dedication to serving only the best.
Some must-trys include the tender beef rendang - which melts in your mouth, the babi ponteh, and the Nangka curry with prawns.
And once you're done with the spicy, you have to save space for the apom berkuah (coconut pancakes served with banana sauce). The flawless combination of fluffy pancakes and smooth, luscious banana sauce makes for the perfect sweet end.

Sweeet factor: 4.5/5

PeraMakan
10 Bukit Chermin Road
Level 3, Keppel Club

The simple life

This restaurant has been at Wheelock Place for some time, but I've never been tempted to walk in cos the thought of paying more than $10 for hawker food just doesn't sound right to me.
Made an exception today (cos of a sudden craving for "teh") and my conclusion is - do NOT ever make another exception.
The hyper-diluted "teh" absolutely did not satisfy my craving.
And when the gula melaka ($3.90) arrived, my heart sank. The sago had a strange gooey consistency. The coconut didn't taste fresh, but powdered.
The saving grace was the prawn mee ($11.90) my friend ordered.
Huge prawns and generous slabs of pork were served on a bed of noodles, in fragrant broth.

Sweeet factor: 1.5/5

The Simple Life
501 Orchard Road
Wheelock Place
#02-18

Sun with Moon

photo courtesy of bpacker

Trust the Japanese to come up with the kookiest of presentations - a tofu cheesecake cooped in a cage. But aesthetics aside, this tiny slice of dessert packs a punch, and I highly recommend that you save some space after dinner for it.
It has a very smooth consistency that isn't too rich or cloying. There's also a hint of lime, which gives it a pleasant tangy aftertaste.

Sweeet factor: 4.5/5

Another dessert worthy of mention is the green tea tiramisu, which scores with its light and fluffy sponge and whipped cream combination. Light, and extremely pleasing.

Sweeet factor: 4/5

Sun with Moon Japanese Dining and Cafe
501 Orchard Road
Wheelock Place
#03-15/16/17

Il Piccolo

Panna cotta and tiramisu in a heartland kopitiam? That's right.
Il Piccolo, which sells restaurant-standard Italian food at hawker prices, has joined Botak Jones in this little corner of Toa Payoh North.
In fact, this heartland enclave - one of Singapore's best-kept secrets - has become a mini cosmopolitan food hub of sorts, with Japanese, Thai, American, Italian and local fare.
We tried Il Piccolo's sweeet offerings today, and were suitably impressed.
The panna cotta was extremely smooth and light, and not overly sweet.
A tiny complaint, though, was that we would have preferred just a hint of milk, not half a carton.

Sweeet factor: 3/5


Same complaint for the tiramisu - the taste of milk was just too strong. I would have opted for alcohol in place of milk!
But for kopitiam prices, who's complaining?

Sweeet factor: 2.5/5

Il Piccolo
970A Toa Payoh North

Double dose of goodness!

Half the fun in baking is exploring. The other half is opening the oven and being greeted by the scent of heaven.
We had double the dose of fun today.
When you combine sugar and spice, you really do get all things nice (corny! heh). Yup, our cinnamon walnut brownies were a real treat.

Our Baker's tip: Cinnamon in anything just smells heavenly. So go ahead and double the amount of ground cinammon needed. For an added twist, try ground ginger or ground all-spice.


And our brownie oat chewies turned out quite a wonderful surprise as well.
They may not be the prettiest of creations, but they were definitely big on taste.
Our cookies were drizzled with delicious chocolate, and the oats made them soft and chewy - just the way we like it.

Our Baker's tip: To add a little more crunch to these, you can vary the recipe by adding raisins, dried citron peel or chopped nuts.

Cookie monsters r us

It's a good day - Two successful yummy cookies emerging from our oven in a single day.
Our double peanut cookies turned out crunchy and not too crumbly. The added dash of chopped peanuts also gave them a bonus ooomph!
Bakers are definitely happy people, we're convinced of that!

Our Baker's Tip: When baking with peanut butter, always use creamy peanut butter. It's easier to cream and won't spatter all over you. For the crunchy nuttiness, add chopped peanuts.


We're back with our "green" recipes!
We bought way too many oranges for our zesty orange cake and orange marble cake last week that right now, the fridge is still overflowing with vitamin C.
Can't possibly let those fresh oranges go to waste, can we? So what do we do?
Bake some orange chocolate chip cookies, of course!

Our Baker's tip: I'm partial to a chocolate-orange combination but for a vanilla twist, you can substitute the dark chocolate chips with white chocolate chips instead.

Apple Cranberry Almond delight!

We were a bit apprehensive when we first saw this recipe.
Kinda ambitious trying to pack so much into one cake, don't you think? But we were mighty pleased with what emerged from the oven.
The fragrance of the apples and cranberries was heavenly, and the flavours blended and complemented each other really well.
Bonus - this cake is chock-a-block with antioxidants!

Our Baker's tip: Be generous with the dried cranberries here. These soury bites help to give a certain pizzazz and a lot of colour to the tart apples.

Choc Chip Cookies

Enough of fancy-nancy-schmanzy recipes for us.
We thought we'd go back to basics and bake some good ol'fashioned familiar comfort food - chewy chocolate chip cookies.
Good on the tastebuds, great for the soul.

Our Baker's Tip: If you like these cookies chewy like I do, don't overbake them but remove them from the tray the minute they're out of the oven while they're still a little soft.

Sweet and sour squares

Cross an old fashioned chocolate brownie with a tangy orange sponge cake and what do you get? Chocolate orange squares! (duh!)
This creation basically sprung up from all the left-over ingredients we had from our past few baking projects, and it turned out pretty ok.
That's what we call "recycling". Cakes can be "green" too!

Our Baker's tip: I'm such a fan of these marbled cakes now that I know how easy it is to do. For this one, divide the dough in half and dollop one half checkerboard-style on the pan. Add cocoa to the other half and fill in the gaps. Then swirl your spoon all over the mixture in fancy patterns.

Thumbs Up for cookies!

The recipe book called these Thumbprint cookies because you're basically supposed to use your thumb to dent the cookie's middle, before filling it with jam.
But because we jammed them full of nuts and raspberry sweetness, we prefer to name them Jammy Nut Cookies!

Our Baker's tip: The fun part about these cookies is you can fill in any type of jam you like. I used raspberry, but you can also try marmalade, blackcurrant or strawberry.

A dose of Peel Fresh

Feeling Fresh and Fruity, so we got busy in the kitchen today with our excess storage of tangy oranges in the fridge, and came up with some zesty orange squares.
We used double the dose of fresh orange peel than what the recipe called for to add some extra flavour and kick.

Our Baker's tip: The recipe calls for store-bought orange juice but for a more fragrant orangey smell, use freshly squeezed oranges instead.

We're going Bananas!

We've been hit by the Brownie Bug lately.
What to do? The last one was so satisfying and got such encouraging reviews from our friends that we just couldn't help ourselves.
Today, we discovered a bunch of too-ripe bananas lying around, so well, we thought we should put them to good use.
Throw in a good dollop of peanut butter and ta-da! Peanut butter banana brownies!

Our Baker's Tip: Don't know what to do with bananas which are slightly over-ripe and bruised? Turn them into brownies! Their mushiness and moistness is perfect for banana-based brownie consistency and texture.

Mocha Almond Brownies

Boring chocolate brownies? NOT!
We were in the mood for a lil something extra to perk us all up, so we thought why not throw in some good old java and nuts.
We were bouncing off the walls after a dose of mocha almond goodness!

Our Baker's Tip: I used instant coffee powder for the mocha taste. For more caffeine oomph, you can try espresso powder instead.

Square is the new Round!

It's one of those "fat" days, you know. Yet, we couldn't curb our craving for something sweet.
So we decided to try and bake without butter. Yup, you read right. Zero butter.
Add some pineapples. Throw in a handful of walnuts. Cut them up into tiny bite-sized pieces, and what do you get?
Gorgeous, yummy yet healthy pineapple walnut squares.
We like!

Our Baker's Tip: For a non-butter cake, this one remains surprisingly moist, mainly because it uses a whole can of pineapple and its juice.

Spike-D at Big O

It was named one of the top five favourite desserts by The Straits Times, Life! Eats in 2004.
And now, three years later, it's definitely still one of my hot favourites.
Called the Spike-D, this tiny dome of chocolate and durian heaven does not disappoint.
You'd think the combination would be too cloying but it's modestly light, and my plate was empty despite having had a really full dinner just minutes before.
A deserving award winner indeed.

Sweeet factor: 5/5

Big O Cafe and Restaurant
501 Orchard Road
Wheelock Place
#02-04/05

Buffet at Marriott Hotel

Buffet dinner at the Marriott Cafe was satisfactory with fresh prawns, crayfish and oysters for starters. Though the cooked food was just so-so.
Naturally, the sweeet selection of desserts was the highlight of the night. Variety was plentiful with cheesecakes, green tea tiramisu, chocolate mousse, and even chin chow.
Hate to admit that I was too stuffed by that time to try every single one.
But I couldn't resist the coffee chocolate mousse that was rich and smooth - A sweeet end to a decadently sinful dinner.

Sweeet factor: 4/5


The tangy and sour raspberry almond jelly was also a welcome contrast to the rich foods we had. The almonds were fresh and crunchy, and the jelly, light and refreshing.

Sweeet factor: 3/5

Marriott Cafe
320 Orchard Road
Singapore Marriott Hotel