With the year coming to an end, it’s only normal for everyone to sit back and reflect on the high’s and low’s of 2015. Desserts truly made a comeback this year with majority of the trends coming in from our neighbouring countries around Southeast Asia. We’ve put together a list of the top 5 dessert trends that took Singapore by storm this year:
1 | Shibuya Toast
Popular in Tokyo, this is essentially a French Toast on steroids. Think thick, buttered toast smothered in all sorts of sweet syrups and topped with ice-cream. If you have a sweet tooth, this is definitely the dessert for you. Aside from how good they taste, Shibuya Toasts look absolutely gorgeous on a plate. If you need a good Instagram picture, this is what you should be ordering.
Most cafes around Singapore have their own version of thick toasts – some with ice-cream while others keep it simple with fruit. Whichever your preference, you can’t finish 2015 without trying this.
Where: Assembly Coffee, Loft Cafe, Wa Cafe
2 | Waffles
You must be wondering why something as classic as waffles would be on this list especially since waffles have been around since the beginning of time. Waffles today come in all sorts of interesting variations with outrageous toppings. Even more interesting is how a few places have started to infuse more traditional Asian flavours into this western classic (Ondeh Ondeh Waffles anyone?). Another few notable variations would be charcoal waffles, red velvet waffles or churro waffles. Praise the geniuses who come up with these hybrids.
Where: Butterscotch Cafe, Commune Cafe, Stateland Cafe
3 | Bingsu
Yet another dessert that comes from a neighbouring country, Bingsu is basically the Korean ice-kachang but like, ten times better. It’s got ice chavings, ice-cream, syrups, cheesecake bits and all sorts of other crazy sweet things you can imagine. Singapore maybe does it slightly differently by creating more over-the-top versions, but who’s really complaining right? Be warned, these things are huge so unless your Krakken has been unleashed, you might wanna bring a buddy and share this.
Where: Chick and Ken, O’Ma Spoon, Snowy Village
4 | Thai Ice Cream Rolls
This phenomenon blew up after a video started circulating on Facebook showing a Thai man preparing ice-cream in rolls instead of the usual scoops. For those who travel to Thailand pretty often, this is of course nothing new for you. What really blew this up was the introduction of a few stalls in local night markets and bazaars particularly during this year’s Hari Raya season. People were queuing for hours almost just for a cup of ice-cream rolls, insane!
It’s now slightly harder to find these little push cart stalls because these night markets are mainly where they’re at, but here’s a tip: go hunt about in the heartlands (Tampines or Jurong etc).
Where: Happy Rollies, 21 CUBE Artisan Ice Cream, cOyOrO
5 | Salted Egg
We put this at the bottom because it’s sort of in between 2014-2015, but still a huge trend nonetheless. And we don’t see it going away anytime soon, in fact this would most likely make an appearance in 2016’s list even. Traditionally starting with Liu Shao Bao, it has evolved into insane combinations (salted egg croissant, donuts, waffles, even fried chicken!). Let’s be honest, we’d literally eat anything with salted egg sauce.
Where: May May Liusha Donuts, FatCat Ice Cream Bar, Five & Dime
