A classic French pastry that originated in Bordeaux (though there are different versions of exactly when and where in Bordeaux it was created), canelés are bite-sized sweets with a charred crisp crust and a tender, springy interior. The floral-shaped treats are not commonly found in Singapore – probably because its preparation is super time-consuming. The batter needs to rest for 24 hours and the baking takes an hour or more; some recipes call for the moulds to be coated with edible beeswax and butter; and some will tell you that only tin-lined copper moulds should be used. That’s a lot of fuss for something devoured in two bites. And then there’s the tricky part of figuring out when the canelés are nicely charred and caramelised, or carbonised into a bitter failure.

Singapore has seen a few canelé specialists come and go: from 2004 to 2014 there was Les Amis Group’s pastry shop Canele Patisserie (which were strangely more famous for its macarons). Then in 2016, Hong Kong’s Le Canele d’Or opened in Singapore to much acclaim, only to close in 2018. According to Chef Pang Kok Keong — the founder of Antoinette and also the man who helmed Canele Patisserie — not many people appreciate the dessert. “Those who like it, love it. But there are too few,” shares Pang. “A canelé needs to have that char and the crunch — and not everybody can appreciate that. Furthermore, it’s very expensive to make as it needs a lot of vanilla beans and dark rum for a nice perfume. Yet, how much can you charge for something that is finished in a few bites?” Quite a bit these days, it seems. Three-Michelin-starred restaurant Odette sells a box of nine 35mm bite-sized canelés for $28, while Tiong Bahru Bakery sells their large 55mm ones for $3.20 each. Online baker Le Matin’s box-of-five-pastries priced at $49.90 also includes a 55mm canelé.

Cheryll, however, fell in love with the canelé at first bite. “My father loves caneles and would go around looking for them when we are travelling,” she shares. And at Tokyo’s Dominique Ansel — the confectioner most well-known for his Cronut – she had her introduction to this pastry that is crunchy yet tender, sweet yet kissed with bitterness. “It blew my mind away. I never had a pastry like that before and it intrigued me,” says Cheryll. Since then, she has been experimenting with canelé recipes. Her requirements for a good canelé: the crust must have a good crunch, the centre must be tender and custardy with a honeycomb structure within.

While baking was her passion since she studied finance in college in the US, Cheryll used to work as a performance analyst at YouTube (within Google's Silicon Valley office) for a year before returning to Jakarta to help with her family's business (unrelated to F&B, she declined to reveal more) in 2019. "I analysed YouTube content to see if it's eligible for monetisation," explains Cheryll of her former job. Baking remained a hobby till last November, when a supportive aunt pushed her into starting Cassia Canele with her order of 50 boxes of her large 55mm-sized pastries. “I panicked at that first order and had to scramble to buy a few ovens and moulds to fulfil the quantity,” she recalls. Her elder brother even had to take a day trip to Singapore to buy rum and vanilla when they ran out of stock in Jakarta. Since then, she has also expanded her repertoire to include more canelé flavours and the occasional special offering of financiers (small French almond cakes).

Cheryll, who studied at ACS international in Singapore for four years before furthering her tertiary studies in Los Angeles is a Singapore PR. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Jakarta, her entire family – including her elderly grandmother – came to Singapore. By then, she had already trained her Indonesian helpers to bake the canelés, so that she could continue fulfilling her orders in Jakarta. “I brought along some moulds as my friends in Singapore had asked to try my caneles, but I wasn’t planning on bringing the business here.” But then demand grew, and since she was going to be here for a while more, Cheryll started to take orders via her Instagram platform in the middle of May – and started buying moulds and ovens all over again. “In Jakarta I have eight ovens in my house, whereas here I have three,” she shares. She also uses copper moulds ordered from the United States.

Even though she has been waking up at 4am to bake, and spends up to nine hours a day prepping her canelés, Cheryll is able to make just 135 pieces each day. These are made using a recipe she developed after experimenting with online recipes and also through consulting YouTube videos. “The sugar levels of the online recipes I tried intially were way off the charts,” she said. “It took me around two or three weeks of constant experimentation to get to my current recipe.”

Cheryll really wants her customers to enjoy her bakes as fresh as possible, and thus limits the pickup times to a short window between 10.30am to noon. “If customers make a special request to pick up them up in the evening, I will try my best to accommodate and bake a separate batch for them closer to their pickup time, so that they can enjoy it at its optimal texture, when it still has a crunch on the outside,” says the earnest baker. Cheryll shares that the caneles last up to two days at room temperature and five days in the fridge: “but heat it up at 200 °C for 10 minutes, then let it cool to harden and regain its crunch.” Despite her best efforts to deliver caneles with a crisp shell to her customers, she is sometimes surprised by customers who ask for them to be “a little softer”. We did say it is a misunderstood pastry.

While she started off with the classic vanilla-and-rum canelé, Cheryll introduced the matcha cream-filled canelé in December 2019. The non-alcoholic flavour was a hit, especially among the 20-something demographic, which forms the majority of her clientelle. So she went on to introduce other non-alcoholic, cream-filled caneles: the cream cheese-filled Red Velvet launched earlier this year, and most recently, the Hot Cocoa with a chocolate cream centre – an exclusive for the Singapore market. Cheryll’s 55mm-wide canelés weigh about 60 grams each for the original and matcha flavours, and 65g for the cream-filled flavours.

They are all priced at $24 for a six-piece box, $35 for nine pieces, and $45 for a 12 pieces.

Cheryll shares that this has been the most popular flavour amongst her Singapore customers. She uses natural cocoa powder and just a hint of food colouring to give the caneles a reddish hue. This, coupled with the shock of white cream cheese in the centre makes it a pretty sight to behold when cut into. It offers a good balance of sweet and tangy flavours, accented by a slight bitter edge from the crisp, charred crust.

If you like matcha crème brulees, you will appreciate this matcha canelé. The earthy flavours of the Japanese green tea lends a nice counterpoint to the rich, custardy flavours of the canelé. At the same time, it also echoes the charred flavours of the canele’s crust.

A chocolate flavoured canelé with a chocolate cream centre – what’s not to like? However, this was a little on the sweet side for us, despite Cheryll using unsweetened cocoa powder for the cream filling.

Call us purists. Call us boring. But this was our favourite for we could fully appreciate the fragrance of the heady rum and vanilla combination. Without the cream filling, we could also better appreciate the springiness of the canelé, which is nicely contrasted by a crunchy shell.

On occasion, Cheryll might also put up financiers in a trio of flavours – original, blueberry and strawberry – for sale. These little bars made from almond meal and browned butter are fine-crumbed and nicely crisp around the edges. We prefer the original flavoured financier, which seems to have a more intense, toasty almond aroma than the ones topped with fruit compote.

 
Order via Cassia Canele’s IG @cassia.jkt. Cheryll recommends placing orders at least two days in advance. Pick up from the Bukit Timah area (10.30am – noon). Alternatively, delivery can also be arranged for $6 – $20, depending on your location.

 ​​​​​​Photos: Koh Yuen Lin