Old school cakes ($0.80 each)!
Tuesday old-school bakery — assorted cakes $0.80 each. Singapore traditional bakery kueh and cakes at heritage pricing.
Tuesday afternoon old-school bakery stop with BB — old school cakes at $0.80 each. The Singapore traditional bakery assortment at heritage pricing.
We picked up:
- Various traditional Singapore cakes — $0.80 each
The old-school Singapore bakeries are the traditional kueh-and-cake shops that have operated across generations of family ownership. The format runs an assortment of Chinese, Malay, and Indian traditional cakes and kueh at the heritage pricing tier that’s stayed stable for years despite inflation creeping into the rest of the food scene.
The assortment probably included some combination of the standard old-school bakery items:
- Pandan chiffon cake (slices)
- Marble cake or butter cake
- Kueh lapis (steamed layered Indonesian cake)
- Banana cake
- Kueh bingka (baked tapioca cake)
- Coconut bun
- Curry puff (savoury)
- Cream horn
- Walnut cake
Each piece costs $0.80, which is the kind of pricing that doesn’t exist anywhere else in Singapore food. The heritage bakery owners have maintained the pricing as part of their community-business model — keeping the products accessible to the older generation of customers who’ve been buying from the shop for decades.
The cakes are usually pre-cut into individual pieces displayed behind the glass counter. You point at what you want, the auntie packs them into a paper bag or small plastic container, you pay at the counter.
The flavour quality is the surprise of these shops. Despite the budget pricing, the cakes are usually properly made with the traditional recipes. Pandan chiffon has the proper pandan flavour and the airy texture; kueh lapis has the proper layering and the buttery richness; banana cake has the proper banana flavour from ripe bananas.
The old-school bakery scene is slowly disappearing as the family-owned shops close down with no generational succession. The current operators are typically in their 60s-70s with no children interested in continuing the business. Once these shops close, the heritage pricing and the proper traditional recipes disappear with them.
We tend to pick up a handful of pieces whenever we pass an old-school bakery — both for the actual eating and for the small support to the heritage businesses.
At $0.80 per piece, picking up 6-8 pieces costs $5-7 total — the kind of cheap-thrill cake haul that lets us try multiple varieties.
Overall: 4.4 / 5. 😋👍🏼 Excellent old-school cake assortment — would re-order regularly.
