Food Picks: Freshly baked egg sponge cakes and made-in-Malaysia food products at Huwa Bakery
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Egg sponge cake at Huwa Bakery.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
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SINGAPORE – The glorious scent of egg sponge cakes baking in the oven hits your nostrils before you even see the shop unit that houses Huwa Bakery in Queen Street.
Opened on Sept 14, the bakery’s most popular and signature item is its egg sponge cake, which is shell-shaped like a madeleine. Meant to be like kueh bahulu, the cakes are made without preservatives, and baked in trays of 12 daily and sold the same day.
A box of 20 pieces costs $7. The cakes can be kept for three days unrefrigerated or four days in the fridge.
The egg sponge cake tastes different when fresh out of the oven and after it is cooled. When cool, each piece is fragrant with the aroma of egg and has a slightly chewy texture.
To replicate the freshly baked taste and texture, head baker Alvin Teo, 44, recommends reheating the egg sponge cake for no more than a minute in a toaster oven.
Mr Alvin Teo, head baker at Huwa Bakery, bakes the egg sponge cake daily.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
When piping hot, the eggy aroma is more intense and the cake has a fluffy, melt-in-the-mouth texture.
The next best-selling item is the Sesame Heang Peah ($6 for a packet of eight pieces). Also known as beh teh soh, the pastries are produced in a factory in Batu Pahat and delivered raw and frozen to Huwa Bakery, which bakes and packs them.
Unlike other beh teh soh, which have a crunchier exterior, the ones at Huwa Bakery have a soft and flaky pastry. The maltose filling is squidgy and not too sweet.
Sesame Heang Peah at Huwa Bakery has a soft flaky exterior and squidgy maltose filling.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
The bakery also sells pineapple tarts ($15 for a container of 28 pieces), with soft buttery pastry encasing a sweet and tangy filling. Produced in the same factory in Batu Pahat, the filling is made from scratch using fresh pineapple. The tarts are also baked till golden at Huwa Bakery.
Pineapple tarts at Huwa Bakery in Queen Street.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
The bakery-retail shop also carries several made-in-Malaysia products worth trying. The Jeruk Lobak Rangup (Crunchy Preserved Radish, $7 a jar) is a crispy, sweet and savoury condiment made from preserved radish that can go on stir-fried vegetables and steamed fish, or be eaten with rice or porridge.
Jeruk Lobak Rangup (Crunchy Preserved Radish) and Udang Kering Rangup (Crispy Shrimp Spicy) at Huwa Bakery in Queen Street.
ST PHOTO: HEDY KHOO
For those who prefer punchier seafood flavours, the Udang Kering Rangup (Crispy Shrimp Spicy, $8 a jar) is a choice condiment. Mr Teo says several returning customers have used it as a filling for sandwiches. The condiment is great for powering up a simple bowl of noodles and as a garnish for stir-fries.
Where: Huwa Bakery, 01-248, Block 269 Queen Street
MRT: Bugis
Open: 9am to 6pm daily
Tel: 9853-7289
