Breads And Bakes 😍

Did you know that scones originated in France and not England? I didn’t, and I was tickled to learn that since the English adopted scones as part of their teatime routine with clotted cream and jam, the French vehemently refuse to blaspheme their scones with clotted cream, choosing to stick with butter and jam instead.

Nailing multiple French classics in one fell swoop, Mr Madeleine also bakes up a trio variety of scones if madeleines, focaccia or sables aren’t your thing.

The classic plain scone is the only savoury offering at the moment ($2.30 each), whereas the other two are sweet and fruity. The scones here are made with French butter, and they’re really really light. These literally melt in your mouth. They’re perhaps one of the best scones I’ve had, although I admittedly don’t seek out that many scones to try.

I was really pleased to hear that you can also request some customisations, as these items were all baked in small batches. If you don’t like raisins, or maybe none of the current flavours appeal to you and you have a suggestion, feel free to ask! I’ll definitely do that the next time I drop by for more baked goods!

Operating out of a takeaway-only unit in a HDB estate, this bakery certainly serves up more than just their namesake madeleines. In addition to a variety of classic and creative local-flavoured madeleines, Mr Madeleine also offers freshly baked focaccia breads, scones, cookies (or sables) and even focaccia pizza.

Everything is freshly and lovingly prepared with lots of heart each day.

We couldn’t resist trying one of the focaccia loaves. With a handful of flavours on the menu, it was pretty hard to pick as they all looked and smelled delectable! We settled with the Cheese Focaccia. We didn’t get to enjoy it immediately, so we brought it home in a tight cling wrap seal. Although savoury breads arguably taste better when they’re warm, we couldn’t resist cutting a slice and biting into it as is. Turns out, the cheese focaccia was still super delicious! It was fluffy, soft, and the cheese taste didn’t overpower the rest of the bread, but complemented it rather well. I can’t even comprehend how good this would be fresh out of the oven, or heated up in the toaster (never the microwave!). I’m really looking forward to returning to pick up a loaf of the curry focaccia, as it sounds heavenly, and to get me some of the focaccia pizza!

As a retiree, the head baker and owner of Mr Madeleine isn’t the most social media savvy, but what he lacks in social media skills, he more than makes up for in innovation, creativity and enterprise. He continually reinvents his menu, and is always open to constructive comments and suggestions. Highly recommend checking this place out for very affordable high quality bakes!

Hidden in the Everton Park neighbourhood is an unassuming bakery that opened to little fanfare. It’s founded by a retiree who decided to chase his dreams and pursue his passion for baking at Le Cordon Bleu. Enter his brainchild - Mr Madeleine.

Mr Madeleine specialises in madeleines, as the bakery’s name suggests. It’s a small, takeaway only setup located in a HDB estate, but boy do they serve delicious madeleines. With 7 different flavours on the menu (price varies), we had difficulty choosing which to try. We settled on the peanut butter, coconut gula melaka and dark chocolate chips, although there were other interesting flavours like teh tarik and classic citrus calling out as well.

A local brand of madeleines we’re probably all familiar with is Delifrance, but the similarities at Mr Madeleine and Delifrance end at the shape and name of the baked offering. Mr Madeleine’s rendition is aromatic, light and buttery. I particularly enjoyed the dark chocolate chip and peanut butter flavour, although the peanut butter taste could be a little stronger. The coconut gula melaka was a bit of a miss for me, but I appreciate the creativity in a local spin on the French classic.

The madeleines are all made with premium European butter, and are also perfectly accompanied by a cup of hot coffee or tea. They might not be the cheapest, but they’re far from the most expensive. Given the high quality ingredients used, I definitely think they’re worth the price and highly recommend dropping by! I’m personally looking forward to returning to try the other flavours (and other baked stuff - read: focaccia and pizza!!!) as well!

Second failed trip to YY Kafei Dian for their traditional donuts but couldn’t go empty handed so we ended up with Kaya buns and a sponge cake to share.

Originally thought this was a butter cake, but it was more spongey and soft. It had a lovely springiness and moistness that caught us by surprise! Much nicer than we expected. There was also a gula melaka fragrance that wasn’t overpoweringly sweet. Overall a very very yummy cake and I will be sure to get it again (if I can’t get the donuts 😂)

I thought I wouldn’t have any more reason to review BUNDT but apparently my numerous rave reviews caught the eye of my friends and one went so far as to order an assorted handful of black cocoa brownies for me, intending to assemble them together as a birthday cake knowing how much I liked their baked goods.

So what happened to the supposed brownie cake? Looks like I wasn’t alone in my previous experience regarding preordering of items.

Then again, if you read BUNDT’s updated Store Policy, a pre-order does not necessarily mean you’ll get your item although the kind people at BUNDT endeavour to fulfill your preorder as best they can. So don’t be disappointed just because you pre-ordered an item and your order was acknowledged.

Despite that, I’ve got good news for you:

1. The Chocolate Chip & Sea Salt Black Cocoa Brownie is flawless. Not too sweet, intensely chocolatey, with a good amount of sea salt granules to provide contrast. I enjoyed the crunch from the baked exterior, chocolate chips, and sea salt which were embedded in a moist, dense brownie. Solid bakes for sure.

2. Burpple reviews are read and noted. So you can be sure the owners are aware when you have feedback, and clearly know whatever you feel about the place. Try to read all their FAQs, Store Policy, How To Order guidelines before attempting to order :)

So here’s why I braved the Sunday crowd at BUNDT - the mini banana breads. I had a regular banana bread with jumbo dark chocolate chips and a double chocolate banana bread with walnuts (chocolate base with jumbo dark chocolate chips for a double dose of chocolate).

The smell of the loaves were heavenly and many were still being freshly cling wrapped. I can see why these banana breads are so popular - they’re incredibly moist and soft, plus they definitely aren’t stingy with the chocolate chips. I really really love the double chocolate banana bread, it’s got so much chocolate it’s more like a rich chocolate cake with lots of chocolate chunks and some pieces of mushed banana. That said, you can still taste the banana in the bread pretty strongly! The walnuts provide a nice contrast to the chocolate with some crunchiness, and aren’t all that bitter. I’m not usually a fan of walnuts but I think they’re a great match in this loaf!

Not sure if it’s because we ate it a few hours later but the bananas did taste a teeny bit fermented. Probably best to enjoy and savour ASAP or refrigerate. Nonetheless, we enjoyed the banana bread very much though I’m not sure if I want to make a return visit on a weekend with such long queues and possible disappointment.

Honestly I haven’t tried Fong Sheng Hao in Taiwan so I can’t really compare, but if you’re a bread monster like me, you’ll probably love their bread.

We got a few different items to share: pork floss toast, spicy pork toast and peanut toast set with the signature drinks - milk tea and black tea.

Pork floss toast:
My least favourite out of the three, I felt that the taste of the pork floss didn’t meld that well with the omelette, mayo and sweet bread. It wasn’t overly dry as meat floss goes, but the floss bits spilled out of the toast quite a fair bit so this was also the messiest toast to eat.

Spicy pork toast:
A recurring favourite for us. The spicy pork toast is like a moist juicy slice of bacon with spicy sauce. We haven’t tried the non-spicy version but the spicy one suits us just fine. It’s not all that spicy since there’s also mayo in the sandwich. The omelettes in all the savoury sandwiches are fluffy and just the right consistency for sandwiches - not too dry nor too runny.

Peanut toast:
One of the specials is two pieces of toast with creamy peanut butter sandwiched in between, with another layer of peanut butter AND crushed peanuts with sugar granules sprinkled generously on top. If you love peanut butter or peanuts, this is the toast to go for. I really liked the combination of the sweet milk bread with the slight savouriness of the peanut butter, plus the crunch of the peanuts and bursts of sweetness from the sugar granules. Think muah chee but essentially with peanut butter sandwich toast instead of sticky kueh.

To cater to the Singapore market, Fong Sheng Hao has a few local offerings in their menu made with their signature milk bread.

We tried the Kaya butter toast, which comes with lots of ooey gooey Kaya and a generous slab of butter between soft milk toast. The toast is served warm, so be prepared to see Kaya and butter flow out when you pick it up. I actually really like the texture of the toast, as it was crispy but still soft inside. The milk toast also imparts its own subtle sweetness and milkiness to the sandwich. Fortunately the Kaya they use isn’t too sweet. Overall you get a coconutty taste, with some sweet milkiness and a little saltiness from the butter - all on a crisp yet fluffy toast. Yums. I dare say I like this toast more than the regular traditional brown bread!

The teh c is also nice. The tea aroma is not too watered down, and kosong also wasn’t too bitter.

Try this for a Taiwanese spin on our local coffee shop breakfast.

Back to BUNDT again - this is quickly becoming a weekly habit.

Their Instagram mentioned brownies would be out at 9.30am but at 8am there were a handful of flavours that were already out and in the process of being packaged. Pictured here is the chocolate chip with sea salt brownie, which is subtly sweet, a little salty, with a whole lot of chocolatey and cocoa goodness. The brownie is moist and delicious as ever, with a slightly crispy crust giving way to a soft interior. So so so good.

This was one of the less fancy flavours they have, but simple is good and you can’t go wrong with chocolate and sea salt in baked goods!

How to pass up the opportunity to buy Hiap Joo’s famed banana cake even if I love their buns? Banana cakes are usually out of the oven early, but we were there on a Monday - the only day their banana cakes come out at 12 noon. Note that they don’t accept any pre-orders unless you order more than 20 boxes. When we joined the queue at 11.45, there were already 15 people ahead of us and we missed the first batch of cakes that came out of the oven. Waited another 20 minutes for the second batch at 12.20 and got our hands on these warm, soft, moist and springy banana cakes. Admittedly these don’t have a strong banana taste, but they’re light and super moist. Just skip the small box (5 slices) and buy the large ones with 10 slices!

While Hiap Joo is known for their banana cake, I think the buns are the real star of the show. That’s what the locals say too - Hiap Joo actually started making buns but added on banana cake to their repertoire to keep up with demand.

Snatched up a few buns while they were fresh out of the oven and these traditional buns were so delightfully soft with a slightly charred crust. The otah filling was delicious, a little on the hot side for those who aren’t used to spicy food, leaving a tingling feeling in your mouth after. But it’s nothing a few more mouthfuls of their other delicious buns can’t cure!

Exactly how many muffins did I buy?! 🤭

I dare say this was the best out of them all. I even enjoyed it more than the chocolate one as I found that the espresso flavours brought out the banana flavour even more, plus the slight bitterness provided a delicious contrast to the sweet muffin. I wasn’t expecting the melty gooey goodness inside even though this was kept overnight, and it’s good even without reheating! Totally recommend getting this if you see it on the menu!!!