The nice folks at Pine Garden has released new creations to celebrate Mother’s Day and gave us a sampling to taste and review. As is with their recent trend, they combine the traditional way of cake making with fusion innovations. This season’s creations are: Autumn Crisp Moscato Mousse Cake, Rambutan Osmanthus Yogurt Cake and Lemon Honey Bitter Gourd Cake.

As usual, we are 100% honest in our reviews so rest assured that there is no biases!

Autumn Crisp Moscato Mousse Cake

As pictured in the header image, the Autumn Crisp Moscato Mousse Cake is very pretty in terms of decoration. If you’re wondering why it’s so-called, it is the name of the grape. Compared to its cousins Muscat and Kyoho, the Autumn Crisp Moscato grape has a firm texture and subtle sweetness. If you’re a wine drinker, then you’d be familiar with the Moscato wine, which is a sweet wine that this writer and friends absolutely love.

Hence, with such expectations, did the cake deliver? I thought that it was a very smart thing to do by having a layer of homemade Moscato Grape Jelly with the mousse in between the layers of cake. This allowed the subtle grape flavour to come through, without any elements overpowering each other. As it was a mousse instead of Pine Garden’s usual cream, I personally enjoyed the lighter filling.

What I may have preferred would be chunks of actual grape within the inner mousse layer and to perhaps have a bit of moscato wine soaked into the top layer of cake. But that’s the alcoholic in me speaking. I think ladies (which your mum is…haha) would enjoy this cake!

Price:
0.5kg at S$53.50
1.0kg at S$72.50
Slices at S$6.90/pc available at retail outlets

Rambutan Osmanthus Yogurt Cake

This cake is so pretty! Yes, I’m biased as pink is my favourite colour. Plus I also love osmanthus so I was doubly excited to try this cake! This Mother’s Day special has chunks of sweet rambutan in the middle together with chunks of Greek yoghurt that act as a foil by providing a bit of tartness to each bite. The cream is infused with subtle osmanthus, which you get whiffs of each time you take a bite.

Honestly, I’m a bit underwhelmed by this cake as it reminds me of Pine Garden’s signature Lychee Martini cake. Because there is cream and thick yoghurt chunks in there, it can get a bit too creamy but is thankfully saved by the rambutan fruit. I wished the osmanthus flavour came out a bit stronger because it does perfectly pairs with the rambutan, whenever you can detect the subtle perfume.

Price:
0.5kg at S$46.50
1.0kg at S$65.60
Slices available at S$4.60/pc at retail outlets

Lemon Honey Bitter Gourd

Now, the name itself does not sound appealing because when one buys a cake, one wants something sweet. Not bitter. But Pine Garden decided to painstakingly juice the bitter gourd, make a bitter gourd juice jello and pair it with honey lemon fresh cream which is placed in between layers of light vanilla spongecake.

Why? Because bitter gourd is actually a fruit and despite its bitter taste, has lots of health benefits such as reducing blood sugar levels and has several key nutrients.

So I told myself not to think about bitter gourd (which wasn’t hard to do so after throwing away the bitter gourd garnish), I took a bite and was pleasantly surprised! Despite the bitter gourd jelly and some pieces of cut up bitter gourd (which I think was cooked with the honey lemon) within the filling, this cake was the ‘lightest’ among all three. The honey lemon, though subtle, did come through and the cake was sweet but not overly so. In terms of fusion, I think that this is one of the best that Pine Garden has done so far. It tastes as sweet as a cake ought to taste and I wouldn’t know that there was bitter gourd in it if I wasn’t told! Moreover, I found myself wanting more of this cake compared to the other two because it wasn’t as heavy, so I also think that mums who aren’t fond of overly sweet foods or have smaller appetites would appreciate this cake.

Nonetheless, I do think that the presentation could be improved somewhat because if you bought the whole cake, it does look a bit unfinished.

Price:
0.5kg at S$38.50
1.0kg at S$58.50

 

All cakes mentioned can be ordered and bought via their website www.pgcake.com.

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Images: The Pine Garden