Cupcake Crawl: Singapore & Tokyo, Japan

I recently spent three weeks traveling internationally for work and I took the opportunity to investigate the local cupcake scene at each of my destinations.  First up was Singapore, where my plan was to visit The Marmalade Pantry and Cake Avenue, the two cupcake purveyors I knew of in Singapore that had retail locations.  Work kept me pretty busy, but I finally had a free evening and Amai and I decided to make the trek to The Marmalade Pantry.

The Marmalade Pantry
Singapore
Our first attempt at visiting The Marmalade Pantry was a comedy of errors.  It was about an hour long subway ride from the MRT stop near the place where we were working to the Orchard Road MRT stop near The Marmalade Pantry.  Unfortunately we exited on the wrong side of the subway station, ending up on Orchard Boulevard instead of Orchard Road.  We quickly realized our mistake and wound our way back to Orchard Road where I made my second error.  Consulting my memory of the Google Maps printout, I had us turn right instead of left.  Twenty minutes later, I dug the printout out of my bag and we turned around.  Thirty minutes after that, we finally arrived at The Marmalade Pantry cranky and footsore, about two hours after we started our journey.

The Marmalade Pantry is a restaurant located in the basement of one of Orchard Road's many malls, the Palais Renaissance.  (Foreigners beware, cabbies don't seem to be familiar with this particular mall, and they don't know the street numbers, so be prepared with a Google Maps printout.)  Although we arrived 90 minutes before closing time, they were already sold out of cupcakes.  Boo!   (The "call ahead" plan doesn't work so much when you're in a foreign country and can't figure out how to make local phone calls.)  One of the employees told us they usually sell out by lunchtime, and - get this - they open at 11am.  Um, hello, here's a hint to a fellow business owner.  If you open at 11am and your product sells out by "lunchtime", you are not making enough product.

Defeated, exhausted, and starving, we headed back to our hotel and had dinner at a tasty Egyptian place down the street.

A couple of days later I decided to spend a day exploring the city while Amai spent the morning wrapping things up with work.  I didn't want to spend my one free day only visiting bakeries, so I decided to pick one.  The Marmalade Pantry won by virtue of the fact that it had a MRT station close by.  (Getting to Cake Avenue would've required a 30 minute cab ride.)  This time I arrived at 10:55am, five minutes before they opened.
I ended up selecting three of their short, wide cupcakes.  Full reviews can be found on The Marmalade Pantry's profile page.

I'm a huge fan of tart confections, so I quickly snatched up this "tart lemon glazed cake", otherwise known as the Limonata.  The cupcake was a bit larger than your standard size, 3" in diameter - muffin sized, but without the domed top. The cake was crumbly with slightly rough granules, but it was nice and moist with a gentle, refreshing lemon flavor. The lemon "glaze" was super thick and sugary. Its flavor was initially quite tart, but was soon replaced with sweetness as I crunched into the sugar crystals. Overall the cupcake was nice and tart; the cake balanced out the sweetness of the frosting so it wasn't quite so strong. The flavor reminded me of a lemon gelato...yum! Ultimately I found the Limonata to be super delicious and refreshing, great for the hot weather!

I am the world's biggest Nutella fan and somehow I've managed to go over a year without finding a single  Nutella cupcake.  I pretty much squealed like a little girl when I saw this cupcake in the display case at The Marmalade Pantry. The slightly crumbly chocolate cake was moist with a nice, moderate cocoa flavor. It wasn't dark or bitter, just rich. The frosting tasted exactly like pure Nutella; delicious and rich and gooey and chocolatey. Unfortunately the Nutella flavor was a bit lost under the chocolate cake, though the gooey texture was still quite prominent. In fact, the balance was a bit off - it was just enough Nutella to turn the cupcake into a thick mixture that stuck to the roof of my mouth, but not enough Nutella to taste the hazelnut flavor or lubricate the cake granules. (You definitely need a glass of milk with this one!) I think this cupcake would've been perfect if the Nutella had been turned into a true buttercream, whipped with sugar and butter, and there was more of it on the cake. Overall a solid cupcake, despite the crumbliness and texture problems. You can't go wrong with chocolate and Nutella.

Described by Marmalade Pantry as "the ultimate chocolate cupcake", the Chocolate Deluxe looked more to me like a brownie, one with a bit of white chocolate batter swirled into the top. It smelled like a chocolate muffin, and was about the same size as one. The cake was dense and super moist; definitely a brownie. It had a nice, rich milk chocolate flavor. The white part on top tasted more like a blondie, making me wonder if this was some weird brownie/blondie hybrid. Anyway, the texture was nice and chewy and moist, though personally I would prefer to ditch the white chocolate and hint of peanut butter and go with a richer chocolate flavor.

Our flight to Singapore had us laying over in Tokyo, and we were able to get our return layover extended for several days so that we could spend some time visiting Japan (and eating cupcakes!).  On our first day in Tokyo we ventured out to Notting Hill Cakes & Gifts.

Notting Hill Cakes & Gifts
Tokyo, Japan
Although Notting Hill is only about a fifteen minute walk from the Omotesando Subway Station, it took us about about 45 minutes to find it owing to then unlabeled streets.  (There is a map on the website but it is not drawn to scale at all.)  If Amai didn't speak Japanese, I'm not sure we would've ever found it.

The bakery is very sleek and modern with plenty of plate glass, floor to ceiling mirrors, and recessed lighting.  Amai and I spent several minutes standing in front of the display case, discussing what we should order.  Amai asked the girl behind the counter a question in Japanese, and we were both surprised when she responded in English without any trace of an accent whatsoever.  It turned out she was from Canada and had spent a year teaching English in Japan before deciding to find a job and stay.  Working at a cupcakery seems like a pretty sweet gig to me!  We chatted with the girl for a couple of minutes before ordering three cupcakes and taking a seat at a table in the back.
Just as the girl brought us our cupcakes, the owner of Notting Hill, Mark Petersen, walked into the bakery.  The girl called out, "Hey Mark, these guys came all the way from the US to try your cupcakes."  Mark looked at us skeptically and said "She's joking, right?"  Amai and I glanced at each other and started laughing nervously, and I said "Yeah, she's joking...mostly..."  Mark was super friendly and spent the next twenty minutes talking with us about the process of starting a company in a foreign country.  (He's originally from London, but had worked in LA for a number of years before deciding to start a bakery in Japan.)  It is not unlikely that Amai and I may open a Japan office of our company some day, so we took the opportunity to ask Mark a lot of questions, and he was super helpful and informative.

Eventually we got around to eating our cupcakes.  In general I found them to be exotic and delicious, but not worth ~$4.50 apiece, by far the most I have ever paid for a cupcake.  (Disclaimer: I by no means wish to imply that Notting Hill is charging outrageous prices and pocketing exorbitant profits.  The dollar is kind of weak right now and food is generally expensive in Japan, especially in Tokyo.  It's not uncommon to find apples in grocery stores priced at $3.00 each.)

The Mont Blanc was comprised of a chestnut-paste buttercream on chocolate cake.  The cake was super soft with a very fine texture. It had a flavor of cocoa powder that was somehow both rich and subtle. The chestnut buttercream was thin and fluffy with a sweet, nutty flavor. Overall the chocolate flavor dominated, pushing the chestnut into the role of a background character. The powdered sugar sprinkled on top of the cupcake added a sweet kick to the mix. I really enjoyed the balance of this cupcake, and the level of sweetness was perfect. The cupcake was gentle and delicate; Amai and I joked that it was the cupcake-version of the stereotypical image of a Japanese woman. The only flaw was that the fine, powdery texture of the cake came across as slightly dry.

The Valentine Cupcake consisted of chocolate cake with cherries topped with a white chocolate buttercream, rolled in shredded coconut, with a weird, plastic looking yellow cherry on top. The chocolate cake was nearly identical to the one in the Mont Blanc, but a touch less sweet.  The chopped cherries mixed in with the cake added bursts of sweet fruitiness, giving the cake some pizzaz. The white chocolate buttercream tasted like an Italian meringue - super light and fluffy with a buttery flavor that initially had just a hint of sweetness, but got sweeter as time passed. I was hard pressed to detect the white chocolate flavor, though. The sugar crystals sprinkled on top of the cupcake added some additional sweetness and a bit of crunch, while the coconut on edge was fairly unobtrusive (which was just fine by me as I'm not a fan of coconut).

The overall flavor of the cupcake was really good - chocolately and sweet with a tiny hint of coconut and a burst of cherry flavor. This cupcake had great balance, someone clearly put some time into thinking about how the flavors would play together. Just like the Mont Blanc, it was soft, delicate, and gentle; much more unassuming and subtle than typical American cupcakes. I love that!

The Chocolate Ganche is exactly what it looks like, chocolate cake topped with a layer of chocolate ganache.  The chocolate cake seemed to be the same as the previous two cupcakes; it was soft with a fine, powdery texture and a rich yet unassuming cocoa flavor. The ganache was amazingly delicious. It was super thick with an initially sweet flavor that was followed by a rich, dark chocolate bitterness. Very unusual! Overall the chocolate flavor of the cupcake was really rich and delicious, but the combination of the powdery cake with the thick ganache made it super dry. You definitely need a glass of milk with this one. Although I really liked the texture and the gentle delicateness of this cupcake, the dryness was a huge detractor.

As we we got up to leave Mark came over to us and insisted we take some extra goodies for the road.  How nice!  He gave us each a Lavender Chocolate Tea Cake, an Earl Grey Tea Cake, and what appeared to be a fruitcake cookie:
The Lavender Chocolate Tea Cake was just like the chocolate cake in the cupcakes, but slightly sweeter with lavender mixed in.  The lavender was a mite too strong for my taste, but I'm still recovering from a potpourri-like cupcake that I ate several months ago.  The Earl Grey Tea Cake was sweet and buttery with a hint of a tea aftertaste.  I think the black flecks in it might have been ground tea leaves?  I didn't eat the cookie myself; I saved it for my mom who loves fruitcake type things and she really enjoyed it.

Originally I'd planned to take copious pictures of our walk back to the Omotesando station so that I could post a detailed map of how to get to Notting Hill from the station, with pictures of each turn and landmark.  However, we spent more time than we were intending at the bakery and were worried we wouldn't make it to Tokyo Disney Sea in time for the 2:30 show we wanted to see, so we grabbed a cab back to the station.  Oh well, maybe next time.

Two days later I was at the Shibuya Subway Station when I noticed some more of Notting Hill's cupcakes at the Dean & Deluca's.  I picked up two additional flavors:

The Chocolate Orange appeared to be a simple chocolate cake topped with some sort of orange frosting, orange preserves, and a scattering of pretty silver nonpareils. The chocolate cake was the same as the others I'd tasted. Although the outer "muffin top" was a bit dry, the inside was soft, sweet, and delicate with a mild cocoa flavor. The orange frosting was super thick and a bit gelatinous, kind of like a cross between a ganache and a marmalade. It had a strong, tart orange flavor. I loved the flavor but the gooey texture was a bit weird. The orange preserves on top of the cupcake added a burst of orange flavor, while the nonpareils gave the texture a nice crunch.  The orange and chocolate flavors matched very well - the tart, thick frosting dominated at first, but the rich cocoa flavor of the cake shined through at the end. I really liked the tartness paired with the chocolate: super delicious. Furthermore, the soft, crumbly cake plus the super thick frosting made for a really interesting texture. When combined, it was almost like a gooey brownie.

At first glance the Pistachio appeared to be some sort of yellow cake topped with pistachio frosting.  The cake turned out to be moist and buttery with a nutty flavor that was slightly sweet. Chopped pistachios in the cake gave it a burst of pistachio flavor that lingered in the aftertaste. The fluffy frosting was sweet and buttery with the same pistachio flavor as the cake. This was definitely a pistachio cupcake, through and through. The frosting added a touch of sweetness to the cake, and the light, buttery frosting was a good contrast to the moist cake. Delicious! (And this coming from a self-professed pistachio-hater.) Surprisingly, this cupcake wasn't as exotic as I was expecting. Given Notting Hill's gift at combining different flavors in a perfect balance, I would've expected something more unusual for this cupcake - pistachio cake with lemon frosting, for example.

Once again, detailed reviews can be found on Notting Hill Cakes & Gifts' profile page.  As a note, Notting Hill's cupcakes were being sold in Dean & Deluca's as part of a promotion that has since ended.  Those of you hoping to try some of their unusual and delicious cupcakes will have to make the trek all the way to the bakery.

About 10 hours after I returned from Japan, I set out for another business trip to Sao Paulo, Brasil.  I had spent quite a bit of time before my trip researching the availability of cupcakes in Sao Paulo, eventually finding the blog of a cupcake fan from the city.  I wrote her asking her if she knew of any places in Sao Paulo where I could buy cupcakes, and she e-mailed me back to say there weren't any, as far as she knew.  Sad =(

However, on my last day in Brasil I visited the Museu de Arte Moderna which happened to have something for sale in their cafe that looked suspiciously like a cupcake dunked in ganache.  I bought one and discovered that it was a mini layer-cake: two layers of gingerbread cake with a layer of brigadeiro (a traditional dessert made from condensed milk and cocoa powder) between them, covered with a milk chocolate shell.
The cake was fluffy with a nice, sharp ginger flavor.  It was slightly dry, but it was several days old when I ate it, and it survived an international flight.  There was a coffee undertaste to the milk chocolate, and the brigadeiro filling was thick, sweet, and creamy.  Pretty good for a country that doesn't sell cupcakes!

Well, that was my experience sampling cupcakes in Singapore, Japan, and Brasil.  I had a lot of fun and can't wait until my next international cupcake experience.  Maybe someday I'll get to try some from Australia or South Africa!