With modern cake shops and bakery franchises populating our food scene, traditional bakeries have slowly begun to phase out. There were as many as 200 traditional bakeries in Singapore in the 1970s, but today only a handful managed to hold their ground, most of which are led by bakers from the older generation who still bake everything by hand, without adding preservatives—the old school, traditional way.
If you’re looking for a sweet (or savoury) treat to take you on a trip down memory lane, here are five old school confectioneries and bakeries that you should visit.
Dona Manis Cake Shop
This traditional bakery has been around for more than 30 years, and is still currently run by the elderly couple who started the business. Every single baked good is handmade from scratch. Two of their signature items are the banana pies ($2.80 per piece, $14 for half a pie, $28 for a whole pie) and chocolate tarts ($5 for 5 pieces) which are so incredibly good that customers keep coming back for more. The banana pie has a buttery, crumbly crust with a sweet banana filling and is topped with crushed roasted almonds. Unlike typical chocolate tarts which have a solid chocolate filling, the filling of Dona Manis Cake Shop’s chocolate tarts is smooth and creamy, oozing out of the tart with every bite. Besides these items, it offers a variety of other baked goods like cream puffs, cream horns, and walnut cakes.
More information: Dona Manis Cake Shop
Address: 865 Mountbatten Road, B1-93, Katong Shopping Centre, Singapore 437844
Tel: 6440 7688
Opening hours: Tuesdays – Saturdays 10:00 AM – 4:30 PM
Jie Bakery
Specialising in baking bread, Jie Bakery is best known for both its plain and rainbow breads which are extremely soft and fluffy. Not to mention, the rainbow bread has beautiful pastel hues of pink, yellow and green that are sure to invoke a sense of nostalgia in anyone. It prides itself on baking bread the traditional way, without any preservatives and keeping the use of baking soda to a minimum. Each loaf costs $1.60, and costs $3 with a spread (or a mixture of spreads) of your choice—homemade kaya, margarine, strawberry jam, or peanut butter. Aside from their signature pillowy loaves, you can also find other breads like Japanese red bean buns and coconut buns.
More information: Jie Bakery
Address: 123 Upper Paya Lebar Road, Singapore 534837
Tel: 9823 9829
Opening hours: Mondays – Saturdays 7:00 AM – 11:00 PM, Sundays 10:00 AM – 11:00 PM
Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery
Starting out as a home kitchen in the 60s, then opening its shop in 1979, and now being run by a third-generation owner, this confectionery has come a very long way. At Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery, you can find a range of traditional cakes, tarts and even fried delicacies, but a trip there wouldn’t be complete without getting yourself some of its signature kuehs. Every piece is lovingly handmade. Its highly-raved Ang Ku Kueh is soft and chewy on the outside, and crunchy on the inside with its peanut filling. If you’re looking for something savoury, another popular item you should try is its Soon Kueh, filled with turnip, dried shrimp, bamboo shoot and fried shallots.
More information: Lek Lim Nonya Cake Confectionery
Address: 84 Bedok North Street 4, #01-21, Singapore 460084
Tel: 6449 0815
Opening hours: Mondays – Saturdays 6:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Sundays 6:00 AM – 2:00 PM
June Bakery
Despite its humble and unassuming storefront, June Bakery is a fan favourite among old school confectionery lovers, often seeing long queues and its signature tarts selling out by noon. At $1.20 each, some of its best sellers are the cheese tart—a buttery and crumbly shortcrust pastry with a rich and dense cheesecake filling, orh nee tart—same buttery and crumbly crust with a smooth yam filling topped with four ginkgo nuts, and the egg tart—a Portuguese egg tart with a caramelised egg custard filling and uses the same dense shortcrust pastry as their other tarts instead of the flaky and airy crusts seen in typical Portuguese egg tarts.
Address: 7500A Beach Road, The Plaza, #B1-321, Singapore 199591
Tel: 9731 3002
Opening hours: Mondays – Fridays 7:00 AM – 2:30 PM
Sembawang Confectionery
Sembawang Confectionery opened back in 1968 in the Sembawang Hills Estate and remained there for 10 years before moving to its current location at Beach Road. Now 82 years old, current head baker and former owner of Sembawang Confectionery Mr Wang Toon Aik has been baking and selling his cakes and pastries since he was just 20 years old. Its signature Butter Cake ($1.20 per slice), whose recipe has not been changed since Sembawang Confectionery first started, is spongy and moist with a fragrant buttery aroma. Its most popular item is the traffic light cake—a soft, fluffy cake frosted with a layer of buttercream, featuring three lines of piping jelly in red, yellow and green—it can’t get any more old school than this! Other pastries there include cream puffs, egg tarts, coconut tarts and chocolate rice balls which are all definitely worth a try.
More information: Sembawang Confectionery
Address: Blk 6 Beach Road, #01-4869, Singapore 190006
Tel: 6295 3965
Opening hours: Mondays – Sundays 7:00 AM – 7:00 PM
