Tattoo Artist Turned Baker Sells $2.70 Stuffed Croissants In Flavours Like Ondeh Ondeh & Kaya

Why quit inking to sell bakes?

Between tattooing and baking, Syafawani says she prefers baking: “I had to stay home [to take care of my son], so I started baking and realised that I actually enjoy it. When I started decorating cakes, I realised that the technique I learned while painting [tattoo designs] was quite similar to painting on cakes, and that it’s something I’m good at,” she shares. These days, Syafawani’s son accompanies her at her bakery on weekends - her stay-at-home hubby takes care of him and their two other kids on weekdays. 

Syafawani tells us that she first got into the tattoo industry at 18, when she was studying photography at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA). “I bought a tattoo machine and tried tattooing my friends, and I fell in love with it. I grew up with quite religious and strict parents, so as a teenager I wanted to explore things I didn’t get the chance to do when I was a child,” she says. The baker, who loves art, tells us that she has many tattoos herself.

Life has changed a lot back from when she was a single mum at 18

Syafawani was a single mum at 18, and being a tattoo artist was her main source of income. She married her current husband eight years ago, around the time she switched professions. Since then, she says her life has changed for the better: “I’ve become a better parent for sure, ’cos I now surround myself with kids most of the time. I’ve also become more patient, ’cos when I was a tattoo artist, there were customers who would back out at the last minute [and make me angry], whereas most of my clients now are very nice and serious about doing business with me. So I get less mad now,” she laughs. 

Does she ever miss being a tattoo artist? Syafawani doesn’t hesitate when she says no: “I don’t miss being a tattoo artist, actually. I enjoy drawing, but I don’t really enjoy the very long hours of interaction with clients. Here when I bake, a lot of my customers are children, and I like children more,” she says.

She adds that between the two, baking is more of a challenge to her: “Baking is harder, ’cos it’s not just art, it’s also science. If you do [a step] wrong, every other part of the cake will be affected,” she says. 

Her baking business has amassed an impressive 126K followers on TikTok.

Learned how to bake from YouTube

Syafawani started her biz selling made-to-order cakes for special occasions. The self-taught baker learned all her recipes and techniques from YouTube. Over time, her business gained traction, and she managed to save up enough money to open a physical shop. “[The profits] were average, but enough to feed my family, whilst saving up for three years to open this bakery,” she says. She invested around $25K into this new shop. 

Though she declines to go into the details, Syafawani shares that she briefly opened another bakery with a friend in 2020, but shut it down the same year after she decided she preferred to work alone. 

However, it was there that she got the idea to sell stuffed croissants. She explains: “The previous bakery used to sell regular croissants and nutella croissants only. The nutella croissants were a hit, and my children like to eat Dunkin’ Donuts, so I thought of trying to make croissants with a variety of flavoured fillings”. At her current bakery, Syafawani still sells made-to-order buttercream and fresh cream cakes starting from $90, in flavours like ondeh ondeh and Nutella. However, the focus is on filled croissants now.

Sells over 20 types of stuffed croissants at $2.70 each

Syafawani offers 22 types of French butter croissants at Bidadarikek. Her croissants are split in the middle and loaded with fillings such as kaya, peanut butter, or whipped cream infused with various flavours. One of  Syafawani’s best-selling flavours, Ondeh Ondeh, is made with whipped cream and pandan essence, then topped with grated gula melaka and shredded coconut. 

“A lot of people like different flavours in my cakes, such as bandung lychee, so I figured that they would probably like it in croissant form too,” Syafawani explains. 

Bidadarikek’s croissants are baked in-house daily by two of her staff, with pre-made croissant dough sourced from a supplier. She sells an average of 600 a day, but sometimes sell up to 1,200. The most popular flavours are Kinder Bueno, Ondeh Ondeh, Bandung Lychee and Bubblegum. 

As for her reasonable $2.70 price tag, Syafawani reasons: “I understand that some people are struggling but want to taste something new. That’s why I want to make [the prices] family-friendly so that everyone can enjoy them.” 

Bidadarikek is at #01-55, 1 West Coast Drive, S128020. Open daily 10am - 10pm. Tel: 8889 9651. More info via Instagram and TikTok. 

Photos: Bidadarikek

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