Angie not The Choice for Durian Cake

Last week on Mother’s Day, we decided to treat Dear2’s mum to a delightful durian cake. Amongst our choices were 727 Cakerie and Angie The Choice because both were relative near our house and we could drop by their stall to pick up a cake on the way to Dear2’s mum’s place. A brief search on the Internet showed that both durian cakes were well received and liked. A name that recurrently popped up was Goodwood Park Hotel durian cake. It was rather inconvenient for us so we decided to forgo that option this time round. We decided to visit Bukit Panjang Plaza where both 727 Cakerie and Angie The Choice have their stall under the same roof to take a good look before deciding.

727 Cakerie offer 2 versions of the same cake, one normal style (20 cm) durian cake @ $48, and one normal style (20 cm) durian cake with icing sugar on top with the words ‘Happy Mother’s Day’ @ $52. Hmm… $4 for the words… The salesgirl explained to us that their cake contains 3 layers of durian pulp and that the whole cake is made of ‘pure durian’ – whatever that means. There’s no discount whatsoever with any credit cards or member cards. One thing we forgot to ask was whether the price was nett or before GST.

Anyway, we went to Angie The Choice which was just next door. Fierce competition indeed. They’re having this promotion where a 20 cm durian cake gets 10% off for using one of the many cards that participated. I remembered a few, Passion card, NETS, Citibank credit card, there were many more. The 20 cm cake is priced at $48 before GST. At this point, I was rather irked as I have never heard of a cake shop charging GST before, at least common brands like Bengawan Solo don’t. So the final price after GST is $48 x 1.07 = $51.36. After 10% discount is $51.36 x 0.9 = $46.22. Ok, it’s cheaper than 727 Cakerie. We enquired about the durian fillings and the salesgirl informed us that there are 2 layers of durian inside (1 layer lesser than 727).

Since both cakes were of the same size, both had relatively good reviews, and Angie The Choice was a little cheaper (probably due to lesser durian layers), we decided to go with Angie The Choice. This was going to be the first durian cake experience for both us and Dear2’s mum.

This is the well insulated box that came with the cake. The cake was still cold when we arrived at our destination.

And this is what the cake looks like. Nothing special actually. Can’t really tell its a special durian flavoured cake. The bottom cake tray had the words Angie The Choice written on it, nice marketing.

Ops! We forgot to take a picture when the cake was cut, so this is a picture of a slice of cake which we brought home for supper. You can see, starting from the top, a layer of cream, then cake, durian, cake again, durian again, and finally cake.

Ok, now for the verdict. Dear2’s mum says nice. Dear2 says passable. Passable probably meant not very nice but still edible. Dear1 says totally not nice at all and will never buy from Angie The Choice again. First, the durian pulp doesn’t taste fresh. Next, probably due to the fantastically insulated box, the durian pulp was nearly solid with ice when we ate it. The cake itself tasted stale and dry to me. And the cake layer was far too thick. It was more like a normal cake with some durian inside rather than a true durian cake. For this kind of standard, I feel that the cake is extremely over priced even @ $46.22 after discount. Perhaps $30 is a fairer price tag for such a durian cake. It was a terrible experience.

On hindsight, I remembered that the salespersons in Angie The Choice was not friendly and in fact a bit cold towards customers. On the other hand, the salespersons at 727 Cakerie was cheerful and energetic and greeted us with big smiles. Maybe I should try their durian cake one of these days and make a comparison between their durian cakes.

-Dear1