Hip HDB Bakery Sells Fab Mala Salted Egg Pineapple Tarts, Plus Fancy French Cakes

Stroll along the hoarding-clad five-footway of an ageing HDB block on Kreta Ayer Road and you’ll find yourself taken back to the Chinatown of yore. There are shops manned by elderly folks selling Chinese prayer paraphernalia and faded salons that will set your hair in curlers to a style circa 1976. Amongst these gems of an age gone by, it’s hard to miss a decidedly modern cake shop, dressed in sleek wood and glass. Called Sugar Thieves, the two-month old bakery was set up by 30-year-old Caleen Quek, who trained at Le Cordon Bleu culinary school in Sydney three years ago. She used to work in banking and event sales before deciding she wanted to become a full-time baker.