“What, another cafe at Jalan Besar?!”, you might say?

You don’t understand, this is not just another cafe. With a luscious glowing display counter of beautiful tarts and pastries, Two Bakers is much more an artisan bakery or dessert shop than the usual cafe.

Sure, it has food (which actually sounds pretty good) and probably coffee too (I didn’t check for the latter because I was so taken with the desserts), but the delicately crafted French-inspired confectioneries are unmistakably, no pun intended, the bread-and-butter of this establishment.

My fellow cafe hopper friend K and I at first shared two pieces, but ultimately caved in to a third. Oops, we indeed sinned, but the tarts were so light and delightful we just had to have another.

I almost don’t want to tell anyone about this place so that I can have (most of it) to myself. It was surprisingly quiet for a Sunday afternoon when we went by.

But good things must share right? And also, I must be sensible, have to help them to survive so that they will be around for a longer time for me to enjoy! The buzz word these days is sustainability, right?

Heh. Anyway, on to the tarts that we sampled during this visit.

I’ll start with the Rosè (S$12.80), a Laduree/Pierre Herme (sigh I miss being in France) Ispahan inspired dessert which is essentially a large raspberry macaron filled with rose buttercream, lychee slices and fresh raspberries.

This might actually be my favourite item of the lot – the sweet lychee slices and light floral cream in the centre was a perfect match for the slightly tart and juicy raspberries, and together with the crisp macaron shell made for a superb delight of flavours and textures.

The macaron could have been just a little bit airier and crunchier, but overall, this is easily one of my favourite desserts to have in Singapore.

We also had the Citron Chocolate Tart (S$7.80), a rosemary infused chocolate ganache with dark chocolate glaze and malt honeycomb chocolate ball, on a sablèe tart base infused with lemon curd.

This was delicious too, I liked the faint herby and zesty flavours in the rich chocolate ganache and crumbly tart base. Not too sweet or overpowering, this was unlike most chocolate desserts, which could potentially get quite heavy.

Would’ve preferred the base to be a little more crumbly and buttery though. K felt the rosemary reminded her a bit of a steak dish, but thought it was quite nice still.

And finally, after inhaling two desserts that strangely did not make us too full for a third, we shared a Seasonal Fruit Tart (S$8.80).

Piled high with lovely plump strawberries ensconced in luscious vanilla mascarpone cream on a sablèe tart base, this was not only a joy to look at but also to consume.

And what a marvelous strawberry tart it was. It reminded me of the best strawberry tart I’d had so far, which was from a bakery in Nice around 8 years ago.

Like the earlier dessert I felt the tart base could have done with a dash more butter, but the strawberries were juicy and sweet, the vanilla mascarpone was fragrant and had a wonderfully light creamy texture – it was the sort of dessert where the first bite of it makes you close your eyes and sigh.

And want to just savour in your mouth for a few moments.

The funny thing is, I’m not even really that much of a ‘dessert person’. Most of the time, I’d rather have what I call ‘real food’ – meat, fish and vegetables and the like. To me desserts are usually too sweet, too heavy and just a big lump of flour, eggs and sugar.

It seems the exceptions are ice cream and (well made) French desserts.

And the ones from Two Bakers certainly were, you could see the love and effort that went into each delicately handcrafted piece. I think the fact that the bakers here trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris really helped to create that level of execution and details in these delicate confections.

I’m definitely going back! Want to try their food (it’s an Entertainer app partner, so this means potential savings yay) and more importantly er, eat more desserts.

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Two Bakers
88 Horne Road

Tel: +65 6293 0329
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/twobakers

Open weekdays from 11.00am – 9.00pm (closed on Tuesdays), 11.00am – 11.00pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 11.00am to 7.00pm on Sundays.