This 20-year-old confectionery, run by husband-and-wife team Tan Keng Eng and Soh Tho Lang, bakes its own signature banana pie – a perfect combination of crisp, crumbly crust filled with sliced banana, and coconut and almond crunch. Other tasty treats include rum balls, scones, apple pies and buns.

B1-93 Katong Shopping Centre, 865 Mountbatten Road, Tel: 65 6440 7688

For 50 years, Violet Kwan has been selling her famous fudge cake, which is moist, luscious and blanketed by a velvety layer of fudge. You may remember her cakes for its piping of delicious, slightly salty buttercream. The 88-year-old baker will soon be selling her business, so now is a good time to order one of her famous creations. Other favourites include the soft, fluffy orange chiffon.

36 Greenwood Avenue, Tel: 65 6466 8940

For more than 70 years, the shop has been a local institution serving the breakfast trinity of kaya toast, soft-boiled eggs and kopi (local version of coffee). Other nostalgic delights include fluffy raisin buns, custard puffs, cream horns, sugar Swiss rolls and sugee cake.

204 East Coast Road, Tel: 65 6345 0419

Those who live around the Katong area may have fond memories of choosing a chocolate Etoile cake from the little shop – with or without icing – for a birthday celebration. Surely, that was a sign of one classy shindig. Today, the 30-plus year-old shop still produces its rich Etoile cake, with delicate layers of chocolate mousse and sponge cake, along with other items such as sugee cake, cheesecakes and croissants, which are served at its sit-down cafe.

www.temptationscakes.com.sg

Originally a dim sum shop in the ’30s, Tong Heng is now run by the third generation of the Fong family. Its signature diamond-shaped egg tart, with a thin and flaky crust filled with smooth custard filling, is still made by hand. The shop also sells mooncakes, Chinese pastries, buns and kaya.

www.tongheng.com.sg

Founded by Hainanese brothers in 1965, this British-inspired cafe serves a delightful mix of sweet and savoury pastries. It is famous for its flaky curry puffs, cream horns, custard puffs and chocolate eclairs. If there’s a special occasion, order its light buttercream cakes, complete with nostalgic decorations. Not many places in Singapore do them this way anymore.

www.balmoralbakery.com

This unpretentious bakery, which was popular in the ’80s, may also offer old-school buttercream cakes (the ones that resemble traffic lights), but people have been coming here for years for its melt-in-your-mouth blackforest gateau, with its light layers of chocolate sponge cake and buttercream. It has become more creative with time, with other flavours such as lychee martini and pulut hitam (black-rice pudding), but still sticks to its DNA of light, non-cloying tea cakes.

www.pgcake.com

A sepia-toned vision of coffee culture, this stalwart has been purveying its kopi blends – the uniquely Singaporean concoction of beans roasted with margarine and sugar – since 1959. It seems not much has changed since then. Vintage coffee grinders still sit on the shelves. Giant sacks of beans are stacked, two-men high, at the back of the store. Customers who have been coming since Day 1 still pop by for their regular orders. On a recent afternoon, Tan Bong Heong, the son of Lam Yeo’s founder Tan Thian Kang, sat in the store. “We get over 2,000 orders every day,” he said. And no wonder.

Not to be left behind by the times, the family-run shop has also stocked up on modern gourmet coffee. Tan has passed the baton to Benny Tan, his son. With a third-generation’s keen eye for trends, Benny has broadened Lam Yeo’s offerings. Among the store’s legacy blends, you can now find newer ones from Brazil, Ethiopia, Colombia and even South Africa – enough to rival the latest third-wave joint.

www.lamyeo.com

Along the Balestier area’s ubiquitous five-foot ways, you’ll find a remnant of days gone by: the Original Herbal Shop. Recognisable by the huge bronze dispensers that grace its entrance, the decades-old store is famous for gui leng gao, a traditional dessert from Wuzhou, China. Made with 18 kinds of herbs, the black jelly – best eaten with a generous drizzle of honey – is purported to be a panacea for ailing bodies, curing everything from indigestion to a spotty complexion. If medicinal desserts aren’t your thing, have no fear – more mainstream options such as mango sago are also available.

 414 Balestier Road, Tel: 65 6250 5567

Since 1948, the bakery has been churning out hundreds of these flaky bean-paste cookies each day. These pastries, which come in both sweet and salty versions, set themselves apart from their competitors with a light, flaky crust. The secret is simple: butter. Come early, as the bakery closes when it sells out for the day. “It’s the oldest tau sar piah shop in the area, and I’ve frequented it since I was young,” says Melvin Lim, executive chef at Ramada and Days Hotel Singapore at Zhongshan Park. “It retains old-school vibes, and I feel nostalgic each time I patronise the shop.”

639 Balestier Road, Tel: 65 6253 4584

Images: Chris Tan, Tan Wei Te, Balmoral Bakery’s Facebook

Adapted from an article from herworldplus.com with additional rpeorting by Cara Yap, as well as an Article from  The Peak Gourmet & Travel by Samantha Lee

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