Lychee Rose Cake Lorong Ah Soo has once been one of the areas that is pretty notable for being a neighbourhood with quite an active cafe scene in the past — one of the very early F&B establishments that kickstarted that reputation in that neighbourhood being Ciel Patisserie, which had recently made its move to a new shop space at Thomson V Two. With Ciel Patisserie vacating its former space, it seems that yet another cafe has moved into the shop space that it used to occupy. Creme by Lele Bakery now takes the space that Ciel Patisserie was operating from at Blk 124 Hougang Avenue 1 — the space had pretty much seen quite a revamp ever since its days being Ciel Patisserie. While Ciel Patisserie adopted a largely white-coloured decor scheme that was clean and minimalistic, Creme by Lele Bakery had changed up much of all of that — the interior now features a largely pink and turquoise colour scheme, with booth seating and padded seats to provide patrons with a comfortable environment to dine-in at. The concept is opened in collaboration with the folks of Lele Bakery — for those whom are unaware, Lele Bakery is a brand that specialises in customised cakes that has operates a takeaway / order collection kiosk in a shop unit at Yishun Ring Road. Being a cafe that primarily serves up desserts, Creme by Lele Bakery serves up a variety of gelato and bakes that are stocked in the respective display chiller / fridge at the counter. For gelato, patrons can opt for between the various toppings that they have to offer — patrons can also opt to have their gelato to come in cups, cones, waffles (half or full) and brownie. Beverages offered at Creme by Lele Bakery includes the usual variety of espresso-based specialty coffee, a good variety of tea, as well as canned drinks.
Since the cakes were baked fresh on a daily basis and to be delivered from Lele Bakery to the premises of Creme by Lele Bakery, the cakes were initially not available when we made our visit to Creme by Lele Bakery in the early afternoon on a weekend — the cakes did eventually arrive Creme by Lele Bakery closer towards 2pm. Offering three different types of cakes and a Chocolate Tart, we gravitated towards the Lychee Rose Cake out of the three that was available for the day. It is not being described on the description card placed in front of the cakes at the freezer on what elements are featured in the Lychee Rose Cake — that being said, we do note that the Lychee Rose Cake is a three-tiered cake that comprises of rose-infused pastry cream, pastry cream and bits of lychee that comes studded amidst the pastry cream. It is also noted that the cake came in a hue of pink as well. Despite the size of the slice of cake, we thought that the cake was pretty manageable to have even for an individual diner — the cake layers were actually pretty light and fluffy; the pastry cream being light and smooth without feeling too dense nor airy as well. To be fair, the cake didn’t feel particularly sweet as well — the flavours can be described to be rather neutral; this is until when one gets to the pastry cream where the rose-infused pastry cream comes with a slight floral note, while the usual pastry cream would carry a light sweetness. The bits of lychee were a good addition to provide a bit of a bite for a textural contrast, though we did feel that the juices of the fruit did somewhat dilute the flavours of the cake a little overall.
Since there was some time in between us settling at Creme by Lele Bakery and the cakes being delivered to Creme by Lele Bakery, we had decided to also give their range of gelatos a try whilst waiting for the cakes to be available to order. There is quite an extensive selection of gelato flavours which are being offered at Creme by Lele Bakery — we eventually found ourselves settling for the Cereal & Milk Gelato which is a rather breakfast-y flavour to go for. The texture of the gelato at Creme by Lele Bakery us pretty sticky like how it should be; it also did not seem to melt too quickly as well. That being said, we did feel that the gelato was not stored at an adequate temperature; there were small icy bits that one could detect especially all the way to the bottom of the cup — the flavours were pretty much creamy with a slight graininess from the cereal that was churned into the ice-cream. The White that we have had was a decent attempt to serve up specialty coffee; latte art aside, the cuppa was nothing too memorable, though was one that came with a nutty and earthy flavour profile with somewhat of a medium body that was pretty reasonable overall. Creme by Lele Bakery does seem to somewhat fill up the void left behind by Ciel Patisserie when they had moved out of the neighbourhood — the neighbourhood had pretty much lost a spot where residents in the ‘hood could catch up over cakes and pastries, and Creme by Lele Bakery seems to satisfy that loss. That being said, we do wish that they could be a little more inventive and achieve more consistent quality across their various offerings — a factor that could probably help them to distinguish themselves in the saturated cafe scene of the late that shows no signs of slowing down indeed …
