Ah Mah Traditional Homemade Egg Sponge Cake 阿嬷老字號 @ VivoCity – 17 October 2017

Ah Mah Traditional Homemade Egg Sponge Cake 阿嬷老字號 @ VivoCity – 17 October 2017

I was pique by curiosity whenever I see the long queue as I pass by the food basement of Vivocity. Later I learnt that the supposedly famous Ah Mah Sponge Cake had opened a branch here.

I had an impulse to join the queue at times just to taste this fantastic cake that's so much raved by almost ALL bloggers (then I realised they were mostly invited for the media tasting, and hence wrote good reviews).

But the long waiting times always discouraged me – you had to wait up to 40 minutes if you just joined the queue – and it could be up to hours just standing there to wait.

Just happened that when I visited on a Tuesday evening around 7 pm, the queue seemed relatively short (meaning 40 minutes). Since my friend had not turned up yet and I was very curious about the cake, I decided to go for the queue.

I did note that the queue has considerably shortened compared to a few months ago when it opened.

The cake is definitely not cheap… I went for the original and cheese. There were already ready baked chocolate ones – you don’t even need to queue but it is expensive!

As you wait in the queue, you can see the bakers preparing the cake live and fresh.

There is always excitement when the cake is ready and taken out from the oven. The smell is like yumz. Notice the ‘salivating’ stares of the crowd…

Care is taken to remove the baking sheets on the cake, so as not to ruin it.

The chef even has to measure the cakes to ensure everybody gets an equal portion.

The cake is carefully cut and portioned.

Notice that half of the cake is cheese, and half is original. I wonder how they baked the cake to achieve this effect.

After a long gruelling wait, I finally got mine! Looks nice peering into it.

Looks yummy, but how does it taste?

Verdict:

nay (due to long queue and price); yay (if no queue but I still think it is expensive)

Relatively mediocre. I didn’t get any eggy or buttery taste – just normal cake. It is also not fluffy nor light. I was expecting Bengawan Solo type of spongy texture but you don’t get that for this cake, nor do you get a concentrated taste. It’s just…. mediocre.

However, the redeeming point about the cake is that you do know it is freshly baked since it is baked literally in front of you. But otherwise, the ingredients used were mostly ordinary.

I tasted it right after it was baked and was terribly disappointed – Sara Lee definitely tasted better. I was advised by a friend that sponge cake needed time to ‘settle’. It tasted slightly better the next day but not significantly. The cheese version tasted similar but had a savory twist to it, but paying $3 for a few slices of cheese in between is also not worth.

$8 is a tad too expensive for an otherwise mediocre cake, even so with cheese added ($11).

My mother did say she liked the cake as it was not so sweet, so there was some saving grace for the cake.

Lastly, I was confused whether it was Taiwan origin or Malaysian origin? I saw this cake in Danshui last year but no queues…. Not sure why there would be a fad in Singapore though. It was supposedly Taiwan, but it was the Malaysians that brought it over – must be making a fortune right now.

Ah Mah Traditional Homemade Egg Sponge Cake 阿嬷老字號 @ VivoCity

VivoCity
1 Harbourfront Walk B2-K7
Singapore 098585
Hours: 10 am to 10 pm (queue closes about 40 minutes before)