I have been on a lookout for the best cupcakes in Singapore, and I think my adventure can end with Plain Vanilla Bakery. They are one of my new favourite cupcake places.
Plain Vanilla is a small retail space – i.e. no dining area – located on the second level of a shop house in Holland Village. Unlike its name, the cupcakes ($3.20 each, or $18 for six) at Plain Vanilla are hardly plain. They are, in fact, some of the best tasting cupcakes I’ve had in town.
I was told that they have nine different cupcakes (milk chocolate chip, carrot, red velvet, dark chocolate ganache, chocolate hazelnut, cinnamon brown sugar, strawberry white chocolate, milk chocolate banana, cookie and cream) available everyday, with a few flavours rotating. I have not tried all the cupcakes, but I intend to. If you beat me to it, do leave a comment and let me know which are the ones that are worth getting.
Plain Vanilla Bakery
34A Lorong Mambong
Tel: +65 6465 5942
Tue to Sat: 12pm – 8pm
Sun: 12pm – 6pm
(Closed on Mon)
For more recommendations, please read my list of Best Dessert Places in Singapore
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i recommend the milk chocolate chip and salted caramel cupcakes! but i love their non-cupcake specials even more. like the peanut butter brownie, dark chocolate marble bundt and raspberry vanilla layer cake
Their best cupcake would be salted caramel for sure! Cinnamon sugar would be 2nd. The rest of their cuppys are just alright, nothing too fantastic. BUT, what’s even better than their cupcakes are actually the loafs! Their blueberry loaf got me HOOKED.
Hi
Have you tried cupcakes from ONI cupcakes? Heard that they are nice…
Strawberry white choc!!!!
Really? I have tried both Onis and Plain Vanilla.
PV is okay but I prefer Swirls..
yea Swirls’ nutella cupcake is awesome! nutella frosting on top of chocolate cake with gooey nutella filling. yummy.
The salted caramel cupcake beats the rest hands down A personal friend of mine works there so trust me! Salted caramel!!! This week’s special of apple toffee is super awesome I heard!
have you tried the twelwe cupcakes. It’s nice. they have a newly opend outlet at bugis. Raffles place, and two more outlets.
Hmm.. cupcakes..
ok as mentioned in my comment in one of your previous article, I love pastries!
But, I’m actually not a fan of cupcakes (and muffins). I love all things sweet, but I think its the textures of cupcakes that I do not fancy..
But for the toppings, perhaps I should give this one a test when I drop by Holland V some day
heh. maybe I’ll just end up eating the creams..
Thanks for the review!
Oh my…this is so good!
Like some comments earlier, Swirls Bake Shop at Rodyk Street has yummy cupcakes! Love the red velvet and peanut butter cupcakes!
We tried the carrot, red velvet and Oreo. I personally found the icing to be slightly hard and the cake to be heavy.
Swirls’ Bake Shop boasts a cake that is moist with an icing that retains its shape without compromising on the texture.
Personally, I feel PV is a step up from twelve cupcakes but is still short of the standards Swirls has set for everyone else
Hooray for the cupcake revolution in Singapore!
I agree with the comments above that Swirls has the best cupcakes in Singapore… seems that because they are less accessible with pub transport, they ended up making the best quality cupcakes to make it worth your while going!
My view is that the best cupcakes in Singapore are in this order:
1. Swirls (substantially better tasting cupcakes than anyone else, but need to search a bit for their shop in Robertson Q, or order)
2. PV (cupcakes not bad, accessibility ok)
3. 12 Cupcakes (mainly on this list because of accessible locations – their cupcakes look a bit too perfect, yet taste less than perfect)
There are a few other places around, but not worth mentioning in top 3…
You guys should try Cakes n Cravings in Joo Chiat. Their icing is really nice and the cupcakes soft and moist. The owner said that their icing does not have any stabilizers (aka. shortening Crisco) which is italian buttercream. Their banana cupcakes use real bananas and not the essence type which taste like meds.
I think PV is the same league as Swirls (although Swirls tends to have a sweeter icing being typical American bakeshop), but these two is a step up from Twelve Cupcakes.
But so far the best for me is Cakes N Cravings chocolate salted caramel, banana espresso and vanilla PB&J.
Marmalade Pantry cupcakes hands down! haha
I love the carrot, milk choc chip & strawberry white chocolate!
I’m a big fan of PV ! I visit them for my sugar fix once a fortnight usually on a weekend cuz then they have more goodies! My fave cupcake is red velvet and salted caramel! One thing bout PV I love is the way it makes me smile walking in to a beautiful aroma of baked goodies and the colorful toppings displayed in the cabinet!
And another thing I love is that their cupcakes are never made of te same base!
But my most fave part of my weekend visit is their non cupcake goodies! Blueberry loaf and brownie is my fave!
PV has their icing down pat! Swirls icing is meh but their cakes are gd. Put them together and get the best cupcake ever.
I recommend dark choc ganache!
however their peanut butter brownie is a die die must try! ^^
Very good cupcakes! Several times better than Twelve Cupcakes. Moist and wholesome.
definitely their strawberry white chocolate! milk chocolate and red velvet come close and oreo is perfect for, well, oreo lovers
It has to be the salted caramel and cinnamon sugar ones for sure! But since we din managed to save the salted caramel (they had a Save the Salted Caramel campaign earlier during the year), I have to now fall back on the cinnamon sugar for my cupcake cravings…. very flllufffy…
PV cupcakes are the best!
Love their Banana Chocolate, Red Velvet & Strawberry White Chocolate. I’ve been getting them for friends & family.
Moist, not overly-sweet & the icing is fab.
Once I was lucky enough to get my cupcakes fix
& was rewarded with a freshly baked chocolate chip cookies, on the house! (thanks!)
I will never look at cupcakes the same way ever again!
I like the cake from PV but I don’t like their frosting. It’s grainy as though the sugar is not dissolved. Disappointing on that note.
My favorite cupcakes are those from MilkBar. YUMMY! Cake moist, interesting flavors and fluffy frosting. Their tarts are delicious too. Read them on 8 Days. They were 8 Days pick for quite a while!
For those who tried 12 cupcakes, is it just me that their cupcakes taste like the carton that they’ve put it in? I have been terribly turned off by the smell and taste so i am ecstatic to try this and swirl’s!
Totally agree with you Katie!
Thanks LadyIronChef for introducing this hidden enclave. The cupcakes tasted so good and does not have the artificial flavoring that some cupcakes taste like.
My fav cupcake store so far!
My favorite is the Dark Chocolate Ganache cupcake! It has a perfect balance of bitter, salty and sweet,as well crunchiness and moistness. I tried 6 of their flavours, the cakes were good, but I found most of the icing too sweet. The review is here if you want to check it out: (http://foogo.tumblr.com/post/24869856061/plain-vanilla-bakery)
Not another cupcake shop? All glam and no substance. Are they even qualified to be called cakes? All sugar icing and no goodness. I really hope this shallow trend will die soon because it is a shame and disgrace for real bakeries baking real cakes. Who wants to eat a shitload of sugar? And people please stop buying cupcakes as gift as chances are all the sugar is going to end up in the rubbish bin.
Best cupcakes in Singapore by far. 12 cupcakes cannot even compare seriously. I went through the cupcake craze in the States, and PV definitely still have me hooked. I love their Oreo and Hazelnut cupcakes the most. Red Velvet needs a little more work. Another worth mentioning would be Carrot, which has this wonderful texture.
And yes. We all know cupcake shops make fat margins, and likely to make us all fat. But who cares? Enter at your own risk, and long live all the sugary goodness in the world!
I used to addict to 12cupcakes. But after I try PV, suddenly forget 12cupcakes. PV’s cupcakes are classy and elegant, while 12cupcakes taste simple and childish
I agree with Elle! PV is good. Love the texture in the icing. I like Earl grey lavender, salted caramel, hazelnut. The red velvet is the only red velvet to not disappoint so far. Could be better though, me thinks.
Hi do u know whether plain vanilla cupcake at Holland v is permanently closed or shifted?