East-side cupcake love at Cakes n Cravings

PUBLISHED May 22nd, 2012 06:47 pm | UPDATED May 9th, 2018 03:13 am

A few months back we were over the moon to have discovered Swirls Bakeshop at Robertson Quay. Well good news for all you East-siders because you may or may not know that you your very own outlet creating little bundles of perfect cupcake goodness – Cakes n Cravings on Joo Chiat Road.

After an afternoon of snuffling out vintage furniture finds in the area (more on that another time), we were hungry. And there was only one thing we wanted – cupcakes. And so you can imagine our delight when there it was, smack bang in front of us, a cute little cake shop by the name of Cakes n Cravings. While on the shopfront it says cakes, breads and desserts there’s one thing specifically they should add on here – and that’s cupcakes!

As I bounded into the shop in excitement and the thought of cupcakes I became more excited when I saw one display cabinet with a brigade of perfect-looking cupcakes peering out at me…

and another with – cue complete escalation of excitement here – perfect looking mini cheesecakes. A double whammy woop woop!

But I told myself to not get ahead of myself. So many times had I been promised false hope only do have my cupcake dreams dashed. But not this time – no this time would be different.

Now the dilemma – what to choose? Gooey chocolate, chocolate cream cheese, chocolate ganache hazelnut, chocolate espresso, chocolate salted caramel, chocolate vanilla, banana espresso, banana ganache hazelnut, banana salted caramel, banana vanilla….oh my goodness my head was about to explode with cupcake choices! And that’s not even taking into account the specials that are on offer on rotation – like the carrot cupcake (think carrot cake in cupcake form – YUM) and a peanut butter and jam rendition. Hmmm at $3.30 each if I didn’t limit myself this was probably going to get dangerous.

So we opted for three cupcakes – the chocolate vanilla, chocolate salted caramel, a peanut butter and jam special and one cheesecake….

Each and every cupcake was of perfect texture – beautifully light and moist sponge, deliciously rich and naughty butter cream icing all lovingly baked and iced from scratch by Leny every morning for your pleasure. And you won’t find any colourings or preservatives. Just cupcakes baked by Leny who perfected her cupcake making technique while using it as a stress outlet while she worked for the IT Department at Citibank. See sometimes stress can be good otherwise we wouldn’t be enjoying her delicious cupcakes now. Thanks very much for that one Citibank!

I have to say that on this occasion the chocolate salted caramel was my absolute favourite. There is something just so more-ish about that lovely rich yet light chocolate base, with salted caramel butter cream finished off with a wicked, thick, salted caramel syrup that oozes down from the top as you make your way through the cupcake.

But wait! It doesn’t end there – the mini-cheesecakes are all a must here. All made with a lemon base, you can choose from salted caramel, vanilla buttercream with cranberry, blueberry, strawberry sauce, pineapple with toasted coconut or just plain cheesecakes. Again they are perfectly executed and at $4 each they certainly deserve to command a slightly higher price. So thick, rich and creamy it’s probably just as well they come in mini form and not a whole slice otherwise you’d be feeling VERY guilty. I can highly recommend the blueberry one but actually I think whichever one you opted for you’d be like the cat that got the cream!

Right now I’m cursing the fact I don’t live in or anywhere near Joo Chiat – not even East side darn it – but mark my words whenever I’m in the neighbourhood I know where I’ll be stopping for my cupcake fix – in the meantime I can just live vicariously through all you East-siders! 😛

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Written by Ms Demeanour