The Pine Garden's Brown Sugar Bubble Tea & White Rabbit Candy Cake Taste Test: Nice Or Not?
Here’s what we think of these fun new desserts.
For Mother’s Day 2019, The Pine Garden has come up with 3 new cakes: the White Rabbit Cake, Milk Tea Brown Sugar BBT Cake, and Black Sesame Yuzu ( Reduced Sugar) Cake, as well as retro Rabbit Rusks. And of course, we had to try them.
White Rabbit Cake, $4.50 a slice; $38 half kg; $58 a kg; $87 for 1.5kg
Adorably adorned with a piece of the famous chewy white sweet on top, this light vanilla milk-flavoured sponge cake with milky cream does taste like the candy we grew up with. However, the chunks of ‘White Rabbit Candy’ studded within the layers of smooth fresh cream are house-made and not the actual product — it’s just made with White Rabbit-inspired ingredients like heavy cream, sugar and milk and has a creamy, slightly chewy texture. Each soft, smooth glob dissolves in the mouth quickly and has a heavier condensed milk-like taste rather than the actual candy. Quite yummy if you're fond of dairy, though it gets somewhat cloying after a while.
Milk Tea Brown Sugar BBT Cake, $4.50 a slice; $38 half kg; $58 a kg; $87 for 1.5kg
A fun take on brown sugar bubble tea. The sponge cake is lightly infused with ground black tea leaves and layered with milk tea-spiked fresh cream. The cream has a silky mouthfeel with an almost nutty hint to it. What looks like bubble tea pearls dotted within the layers are actually jelly cubes made from kanten, a Japanese seaweed-based gelatinous substance similar to agar-agar. Its brown sugar flavour is pretty faint, but the bits add a nice springy contrast to the airy sponge even though they aren't the chewy pearls we expected.
Black Sesame Yuzu (Reduced Sugar) Cake, $5.50 a slice; $52 half kg; $72 a kg; $144 for 1.5kg
Perhaps due to its lower sugar content, the black sesame sponge was stiffer and doughier than the usual sponge. The layers of sweet and tangy yuzu-lemon curd and cream punctuate each bite with its sharpness, before the earthy sesame kicks in. The cake’s self-described “mild white miso streusel bits” are scattered both on top of the cake and between the cake layers. However, it’s kinda lost amid the strong flavours of the sesame and citrus. Overall a bit of an acquired taste.
Rabbit Rusks, $2.80 for a packet of eight
These crumbly biccies shaped like rabbits are cut out from spongy slices of white bread before being baked to a crisp. They come drizzled with white chocolate that’s been coloured red and blue. Cute, but rather plain-tasting. Eat them quickly or store them in an air-tight container upon opening the packet — the airy biscuits lose their crunch fast.
Verdict
White Rabbit Cake — quite nice! It's comfortingly rich and milky, but gets a bit too sweet and jelak after a few bites.
Milk Tea Brown Sugar BBT Cake — nice! We like its light, fluffy texture and gentle tea fragrance, even though the 'pearls' are actually kanten jelly with only a mild brown sugar flavour.
Black Sesame Yuzu (Reduced Sugar) Cake — not great. The bready texture of the sponge coupled with the citrusy, earthy flavours are kinda jarring.
Rabbit Rusks — meh. This tastes more like plain, barely sweetened toast.
Available till 31 May. Whole cakes are available for online, retail and advance orders by 28 May. Cake slices and rusks available at retail stores only. The Pine Garden has five outlets, including #01-2369, 529 Ang Mo Kio Ave 10, S560529. Tel: 6459-5507. Open daily 8.30am-9.30pm. www.pgcake.com.
