New Haji Lane dessert shop Prazena serves Prague-inspired chimney cakes with low-sugar soft serve

SINGAPORE – With temperatures running high, Prazena is a timely new stop for cold desserts. Opened on March 14, the Haji Lane shop specialises in trdelnik, a chimney cake dessert popular in Prague that comes filled with fresh fruit and topped with housemade soft serve.

Instead of wafer cones, the soft serve is served in cone-shaped chimney cakes, which are fluffy yet firm in texture.

The chimney cake is made by winding dough around a cylindrical mould before roasting it until it is lightly crisp on the outside and fluffy within. The name comes from trdlo, the wooden roller traditionally used to shape it.

While trdelnik is now strongly associated with Prague, its origins stem from Hungary, before the filled, ice cream-topped version gained popularity in the Czech capital.

Prazena is largely a takeaway dessert shop, with eight seats available after 3pm, when the road is closed to traffic. 

Owner Ace Phua, 25, came up with the concept after a family trip to Prague in December 2024, where he ate 20 trdelniks over 14 days.

Back in Singapore, he spent a month developing his own recipe, shrinking the pastry to a cone about 10cm tall so it would be easier to eat on the go. He also imported chimney cake roasters and wooden moulds from Europe for the shop’s open-concept counter.

He developed different flavours of soft serve, which are made in-house using premium milk. He created low-sugar versions for a lighter dessert and to avoid the cloying taste of overly sweet ice cream. The resulting soft serve is addictively light in texture.

The signature Prague’s Original Enchantment ($8.80) is the one closest to what he ate in Prague.

The bottom of the cone is lined with a housemade white chocolate spread with savoury notes, then topped with low-sugar Madagascar vanilla soft serve and dark hazelnut chocolate sauce. It is simple, not overly sweet and lets the pastry take centre stage.

Cocoa After Midnight ($8.80) is aimed at chocolate lovers. Fresh banana slices sit in the cone beneath low-sugar dark chocolate soft serve made with more than 30 per cent cocoa powder. Crushed dark chocolate cookies and a whole Oreo add crunch. It is richer and more indulgent, but stops short of becoming cloying.

The fruit-forward Matcha In Summer ($9.50) is priced slightly higher because it uses premium South Korean strawberries.

The cone’s interior is lightly coated with housemade red bean spread. The rim is dipped in dark chocolate sauce and coated with crushed butter cookies, before the cone is filled with cubes of fresh strawberries and topped with low-sugar matcha soft serve.

To go with the desserts, there is Signature Butter Beer ($8.80), a butterscotch-caramel soda topped with coconut whipped cream. The mouthfeel is creamy, but the non-alcoholic soda keeps it refreshing. Less sugary than expected, it is easy to drink in the heat.

Where: 67 Haji Lane
MRT: Bugis
Open: Noon to 9.30pm (Mondays to Thursdays), noon to 10pm (Fridays to Sundays)
Tel: 9117-2785
Info: @prazena_sg on Instagram and @prazenasg on TikTok