Flour power: From the ashes of Fluff comes Big Mouth

SINGAPORE – The announcement came as a shock to its fans. Fluff, a halal bakery famous for its cupcakes, announced in August 2025 that it was closing after almost 12 years.

The dismay was palpable on social media. Behind the scenes, married couple and co-owners Nursyazanna Syaira Md Suhimi and Ashraf Alami were tapped out, having tried everything to save their business.

Ms Syaira, 38, a self-taught baker, says: “It just got unmanageable, and I lost so much heart for the business. It was very demoralising because the business was like a validation of what I do.”

Strong support

She and her husband are back in the game. They opened Big Mouth Bakehouse at Wisma Geylang Serai on Jan 6. The 20-seat cafe, which shares premises with cafe Penny University, serves salads, sandwiches, weekend specials and bakes.

Old customers have been coming back. The cafe, just across from Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre, is also attracting new ones. She says she has strong support from the makcik, or Malay aunties, in the area.

“The thing about makcik is that they will bring all their friends,” she says. “Once they like something, they really support you.”

The couple are also doing things differently to build Big Mouth so that it lasts.

By all accounts, Fluff, which she started in 2012 as a home-based food business, was a hit from the start. Customers really took to Ms Syaira’s cupcakes. The couple opened a 600 sq ft store in Jalan Pisang in Arab Street in 2013 and moved to a 900 sq ft space in the same street in 2015. The bakes were a roaring success – they could sell 2,000 cupcakes a day.

In November 2021, buoyed by their success before and during Covid-19, they opened at a 2,400 sq ft space in North Bridge Road, after spending about $350,000 renovating the space and buying equipment. Mr Ashraf, 45, says the rent was reasonable.

He adds: “Because of Covid-19, we decided to expand our operations because we were struggling to meet demand. So, we went to find a bigger shop.

“And right when we opened, sales dropped almost 40 per cent. It was super quiet. It was the school holidays and borders were opening up. People started to travel a bit more. And our delivery volume went down by a lot.”

He says that during Covid-19, delivery orders increased fourfold. By 2021, however, they had gone down drastically.

What happened then would be familiar territory for Singapore food business owners, who thought they could ride the Covid-19 boom post-pandemic.

He says: “Our costs went up, we had a bigger kitchen and more staff, so that squeezed us. Because of the profits we made during Covid-19, we managed to cover the cost increases. And then it came to a point where we couldn’t any more.”

Ms Syaira says: “We decided to shut down before it got worse.”

The couple, who have a six-year-old son, sold their three-room Build-To-Order HDB flat in 2023 and moved in with his parents to keep the business afloat. About 18 months ago, Mr Ashraf started working as a real estate agent. They are still paying off the debt – which is six figures – they accrued from Fluff.

The way to grow

With Big Mouth, they are collaborating with Penny University. Its owner, Mr Mouss Kamal, is a business partner. The space at Wisma Geylang Serai now houses both brands, with Big Mouth serving bakes and Penny University, its coffee and drinks. Penny University’s flagship cafe is in Jalan Klapa.

At North Bridge Road, Fluff had 16 staff, 11 of them bakers. Big Mouth has six, five of whom are bakers. They spent about $50,000 renovating the 1,500 sq ft space and used the equipment they had from Fluff for the new kitchen.

Mr Ashraf says: “It’s important to keep a tight grip on costs. Sometimes, you order something from a supplier and you’re just happy to keep doing that. But there might be other suppliers, the prices might change, so you constantly have to keep looking for better deals. I think it’s critical at this time, especially for F&B.”

He thinks collaboration with other small businesses might be the way to grow.

“This is the year when we need to start to collaborate more with one another and try to leverage one another’s fan bases, manage costs and do co-marketing,” he says of Big Mouth’s tie-up with Penny University.

“For example, with this place, we are co-sharing the rent, and we are going to set up a dessert station at their cafe.”

Meanwhile, Ms Syaira has got her groove back. Being in Geylang has opened up avenues for exploration.

At Geylang Serai Market and Food Centre, she found a stall, Siti Flower Power, which makes jamu or traditional Indonesian medicinal pastes. It supplies fresh pressed turmeric and ginger juice to Big Mouth.

Ms Syaira turns it into sorbet, together with honey and lemon, to make her cafe’s Jamu Cooler ($7.50). The sorbet goes on top of Perendjak tea from Indonesia, aromatic with vanilla and rose notes.

She is also working on a Nusantara milk tea, using herbs such as kaffir lime leaves and torch ginger flower, after trying out the signature milk tea at Cafe Onion in South Korea.

Soon, she will use rempah, or spice pastes, from Rumah Makan Minang, an Indonesian restaurant with outlets in Tampines and Kandahar Street, for her bakes.

At Big Mouth, her popular focaccia at Fluff is split in half to become sandwiches (from $12.50), and she still offers the flatbread (from $7) and doughnuts (from $3) that were popular.

New to Big Mouth are salads, including Chickpea, Maple Roasted Pumpkin Couscous ($8.50); and bakes such as Matilda Cake ($8 a slice), a take on the decadent chocolate cake featured in Matilda, the 1996 movie based on a Roald Dahl book.

What’s in the name

Like at Fluff, she makes things from scratch, including making dulce de leche for her banana cream pie by reducing milk, instead of caramelising condensed milk. The new business might have been called From Scratch, she says.

“We were supposed to be starting from scratch again. But Big Mouth has a nice ring to it. I have a big mouth, and I’m quite proud of it. But really, my bakers and I are always singing and dancing in the kitchen, and Big Mouth fits our personalities. It’s catchy and fun.”

There were, she says, reservations about moving into the space.

She says: “I didn’t want to move into this space, I wanted something in a more hip location. When it came down to it, I asked myself: What is holding me back? This is just my ego.

“And when we finally moved in, I feel this place has its own charm. I think if we do it right, and I keep creating and pushing out new flavours, it’s going to work. The community I want is slowly building up. I can feel the support from customers.”