It’s finally time to present my 100th post in The Journey & Destination! I can’t think of a better way to celebrate this milestone than to write about cake – but not just any ordinary slice of cake. I found another interesting cake that I wanted to test on the ‘yay or nay’ scale (better known as my taste buds).

Lined with rows of gorgeous selections, The Pine Garden is a little bakery that specializes in buttercream cakes. Why buttercream, you may ask? Along with poofy sleeves and shoulder pads, buttercream cakes were incredibly popular just a few decades ago. These cakes were in vogue in the baking realm back in the day, and they aren’t as commonly available today (at least in Singapore). What I love about The Pine Garden is that they are bringing a ‘vintage’ cake concept into the 21st century through their appealing flavors and decorations. It’s just like taking a page from the fashion realm – where inspiration is drawn from preceding years through resurrecting styles and making them relevant today.

My favorite part of these classic cakes is that every bite feels like you’re savoring a cloud. Layers of buttercream and sponge cake are soft, and they melt in your mouth without compromising on flavor.

As I was admiring their delicious-sounding cakes (it’s a cake lover’s dream!), I decided to choose a slice that sounded rather intriguing and borderline quirky – the Lychee Martini Cake.

It shares a similar hue of pink to a pink Champaign cake. While the slice wasn’t donning the most loudest of designs compared to their other selections (like the grape & white chocolate roll), the lychee martini cake won my selection simply by its name.

I’ve heard of lychee cake before, but never a martini cake – let alone a lychee martini one! It certainly sounded like the cake and cocktail realms were introduced to one another on the plate. My only question was, will the two worlds collide?

It looked like a lovely little cake that was ready to showcase its flavors.

Being more familiar with lychee, I detected its refreshing fruity flavor instantly. It turned out that the pink buttercream wasn’t just any ordinary buttercream, it actually had lychee pieces in it! There were lychee pieces in the buttercream layer between the sponge cakes too. They were neither soggy or mushy. As actual lychee was included in the buttercream mixture, parts of this fluffy buttercream that didn’t have lychee pieces in it had a light lychee fragrance. I soon learnt that the lychee pieces were infused with martini, but the lychee’s flavor is stronger in the fruit pieces.

After discovering the lychee’s role in the cake, I realized that martini is also infused in the sponge cake – which was soft and moist. The martini’s flavor from the soft sponge cake layers is more pronounced yet it was very well-balanced. As the sponge cake didn’t have lychee pieces in it, the martini shone more. Martini didn’t steal the lychee’s spotlight throughout the cake. Instead, it was a delicious co-star to the lychee in a cake they headline together.

As for its sweetness level, the cake wasn’t very sweet at all. It had a delicious depth of flavors that were paired well together without being overshadowed by sweetness. Those cake and buttercream layers were incredibly soft and delicate too. Every element in that slice worked together, and they belong with one another.

The lychee martini drink does exist in the cocktail world. From reading recipes by Jamie Oliver, Food Network and BBC goodfood (all available online), I realized they are fairly simple to prepare. All you’ve got to do is add lychee elements to your martini and voila! As I lean to the cake kingdom, I’ll stick to tasting them in cakes.

You have to get a slice of this unique cake – especially if you’re a cake connoisseur! And if you’re into vintage cakes, The Pine Garden’s got you covered.