I’m not sure about the rest of the world, but I find that Singapore has quite a number of baking supply stores given the small size of our country. It’s also great that most of them are located rather near to me (Central – East) and so, I am able to access different stores to suit my needs. If you live in the West, North or North East, perhaps you wouldn’t have that many options.

With Chinese New Year and Valentine’s day around the corner, I made my rounds to purchase the necessary ingredients and I thought I should do a comparison in case some of you wants to know which store to visit should you need something.

It’s important to note that the prices are not really controlled and different shops can price the same item very differently. Also, different stores carries different brands. You may also like to know that some of these places offers baking classes too.

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List of stores (in no particular order):

Phoon Huat (Red Man)
Geylang Lor 23 #01-10
One Sims Lane
Singapore 387355

Nearest MRT: Aljunied

*Various outlets island wide. Sims Lane is the biggest and offers baking classes.

Sunlik Trading
33 Seah Street Singapore 188389

Nearest MRT: City Hall

Ailin Bakery House
845 Geylang Road #01-48
Tanjong Katong Complex
Singappore 400845

Nerest MRT: Paya Lebar

Kitchen Capers
Blk 71 Kallang Bahru
Singaore 330071

Nearest MRT: Boon Keng/ Kallang

Bakerz@Work
605 MacPherson Road #07-04
Citimac Industrial Complex
Singapore 368239

Nearest MRT: Tai Seng

Bake King
Blk 10 Haig Road #01-363/365
Singapore 430010

Nearest MRT: Paya Lebar

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Phoon Huat

They have a wide variety of both dry and refrigerated ingredients, as well as tools like pans, molds, containers. Their refrigerated ingredients are imported and you may not find the same things anywhere else. For dry ingredients, they have mostly their own house brand.

Recommended:

This is my favourite place to get heavy cream, cream cheese (for cheesecake), almonds (ground, diced, silvered), chocolate polycarbonate molds. These all cost significantly cheaper than other places and the quality is good.

You can also find all sorts of Wilton supplies here.

Their spices and herbs like Thyme for example is very cheap ($7.50/200g). Get it here in bulk, don’t buy from supermarkets ever again. 200g would last for years. Parmesan cheese ($3/100g) here is cheaper than supermarkets too.

They have good selection of packaging like cake boxes, cupcake holders, macaron boxes etc.

Neutral:

As for their sugar, flours etc, it’s competitive but not cheaper than Prima flour from supermarkets like Giant (eg. $3.20 vs $2.45), so I’ll not get it there.

For food flavouring, they have a wide variety at very cheap prices, though I can’t comment about the quality.

Not recommended:

They have low cost butter too from Australia and some other places but it’s not recommend if you want good quality butter.

The chocolate they sell here are not of any reputable brands so I will not recommend if you are looking for best quality, but it’s decent if you want something cheap and alright.

The plastic containers for Chinese New Year cookies are not really cheap, comparing to plastic ware supply shops (found around Joo Chiat for instance) so do not buy it here.

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Sun Lik Trading

This is a small shop closest to city center, opposite Raffles Hotel. Items are mostly imported.

Recommended:

This is the place I would recommend most for getting chocolate. They have Valrhona (France) and Callebaut (Belgium) chocolate, both brands I fully trust. The price is quite fair as well. They have all ingredients needed for chocolate making, including chocolate shells.

Neutral:

They have good selection of nuts like almonds but it’s slightly more expensive than Phoon Huat still. Baking ware like trays, tart molds etc are quite fairly priced comparing to Phoon Huat.

Not recommended:

I once bought Nielsen Massey vanilla extract here for $18.80 which is quite expensive.

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Ailin Bakery House

A very small shop which you may overlook because it looks really messy but there are good stuff.

Recommended:

They sell 250g SCS butter at $3.60 for Unsalted, 10 for $35, and $3.40 for Salted, 10 for $33. The usual price in supermarkets is $5.65.

The vanilla essence, packaged by them so original unknown, is very fragrant and good, even though it’s not cheap.

Not recommended:

Generally a lot of things here are more expensive than other places like the food flavouring, flour, sugars, baking powder, sesame seeds and other dry ingredients. The chocolate here is not from reputable brands (I don’t trust non-branded chocolate, sorry). Plastic containers are also expensive.

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Kitchen Capers

A mix of imported and house packaged ingredients.

Recommended:

250g SCS butter costs only $3.40 a block (Salted or Unsalted).

Neilsen Massey vanilla essence is $13.50. Also available is wide selection of molds for chocolate, jelly and cookies. Small selection of imported choc

Neutral:

They sell decent Cacao Berry chocolate as well as some Valrhona products.

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Bakerz@Work

A store with baking classes, specializing in bread.

Recommended:

Plastic containers are quite low priced here comparing to other baking shops.

If you need fancy flours for bread they have it.

A few years back I bought SCS butter at low price.

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Bake King

This brand is usually found in supermarkets as well but their retail store has a wider variety and some imported items.

Neutral:

They have a lot of items but everything costs more than other places. Will only shop here if I really need something.

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Supermarkets

Of course you can find baking supplies at supermarkets, but only the basic ingredients. Fancy ingredients (eg. quality chocolate), baking tools (eg. tart molds) or uncommon ingredients (eg. ammonia) they definitely will not have. Simple things like flours, sugars, baking powder, corn syrup, condensed milk, ghee, butter, heavy cream, cream cheese – you can find at supermarkets.

Cold Storage may have rarer ingredients like chestnut puree and more imported brands, but for basic items like flour and sugars I recommend getting them at Giant or FairPrice. I usually use Prima flour, and at Giant it is usually $2.95. If you’re lucky, it can be $2.45 when they’re having offer!

My favourite SCS butter (used for all my bakes where butter is involved) is also available at supermarkets as mentioned, but the retail price is a lot more than baking stores. But of course, you’re more likely to be near a FairPrice than one of those baking stores mentioned above so paying for convenience when you need it most is always reasonable.

For this festive season, SCS is having a limited edition promotion of a bundle of 3 x 250g blocks at $11.95. That makes it $3.98 per block which is a good deal as opposed to $5.65 (for 227g)! You can find this promotion exclusively at FairPrice while stocks last.