3 Inch Sin (Millenia Walk)

For a more detailed review with pictures, please check out http://thehungrybunnie.blogspot.com/2012/02/3-inch-sin-millenia-walk.html

3-inch sin, a dessert cafe borne out of the passions of a brother-sister duo, first started out at Cluny Court specialising in molten chocolate cakes made with premium Valrhona chocolate. They've since expanded their repertoire of cakes offered, mostly still chocolate based, and added a few light bites into their menu and opened another outlet at Millenia Walk.

The cafe at Millenia Walk is very quiet (it's probably got something to do with the fact that there's very little foot traffic on a Saturday afternoon), and has a very appealing homely and casual feel about it.  

We had:

1) Raspberry Molten Valrhona Cake ($6.50) with French Vanilla Bean Ice-cream ($3). They've got like 11 different flavours of molten choco cakes! The raspberry provided deep fruity notes to the bittersweet chocolate, while the comforting vanilla ice-cream contrasted well with the richness of the warm molten chocolate.

2) Mini-Me ($4.50) a super dense chocolate cake slathered with dark Valrhona couverture chocolate. Despite the seemingly richness of the cake, this managed to stay balanced and nuanced. We also added a scoop of the French Vanilla Bean Ice-cream ($3) to the lush confectionery

3) Mushroom, Bacon & Cheese Sandwich ($7.50) salty crisp bacon with shitake and button mushrooms, cheese and lettuce finished off with toasty wholegrain bread. Simple and wholesome straightforward stuff.

Oscar Wilde proclaimed that “I can resist anything except temptation”. I totally embrace the notion of giving in, especially when it’s in the form of chocolates. The irony was, I felt I’d sinned not because I yielded to temptation, but because I ingested wasted calories.

I waited with anticipation the arrival of my cup of hot chocolate ($4.50), but it elicited an unceremonious “meh…”. Kinda milo-y, only thicker and definitely nowhere near my idea of a spectacular hot chocolate. Moreover it’s thoughtless to serve the drink in a cup without any proper handle.

The lost in the blackforest (55% dark chocolate mousse, kirsch soaked cherries and a generous topping of chocolate shavings on three tiers of chocolate sponge – $7.50) was moist and not too sweet. The flavors didn’t particularly stand out, not even the alcohol. K remarked there wasn’t any magic of being “lost in the blackforest”.

Caught by surprise, I nearly laughed. My makan kaki is hardly critical of food unless it’s downright inedible or given sufficient prodding on my part. In this case, I suspected the outburst had as much to do with the name as the quality of the cake.

As for the signature 3″ molten cake (70% dark chocolate cake – $6.50), we chose mint out of the 11 different fillings. The fluffy light texture was enjoyable, while the valrhona chocolate was rich and luscious.

However, we were still searching for the elusive mint flavor almost halfway through the cake. We even thought maybe we were given the original by mistake when we finally found it. Towards the bottom of the ramekin. So faint its existence was questionable, and we each had only a couple of small mouthfuls.

No doubt the experience was less than satisfying. But considering the price point, I may overlook the imperfections and yield to the molten cakes again. Only the molten cakes.

Note: Prices are nett.

For photos, please visit Rubbish Eat Rubbish Grow.

When I was there, waiting for Jasper Aston Lim and Melissa Koh, the aroma from the oven, the freshly baked scent, was killing me. I MUST EAT NOW. The thought of robbing the cakes crossed my mind.

Decor: The place has a L-shaped sitting area with a bar table at the back. While the focus here is on the food, the decor could be improved, maybe have a theme?

The shop specializes in molten chocolate cakes ($6.50 for non-alcoholic, $7.50 for alcoholic). Celine, 1/2 of the owners, left her cushy job to pursue her passion. Very courageous and admirable. She was trained at Cordon Bleu and interpreted the cakes with molten middles in souffle cups. She uses 70% valrhona dark chocolate.

There are 11 flavors and we tried Original, Peanut Butter, White Chocolate, Bitter Orange, Raspberry, Lemon, Cherries Jubilee and Hazelnut. We all had our favorites but strangely no one picked the Original as his or her favorites.

Jasper’s favorite is raspberry and Melissa’s is white chocolate. However, raspberry,white chocolate, bitter orange and hazelnut didn’t work for me because the favors didn’t come through. This is partly because the flavors are concentrated in the center and I ate from the side (my bad). When I feedback-ed that the favors could be stronger, Celine explained that it may affect the overall taste. She knows her stuff. Don’t play play.

I strongly recommend Peanut Butter, Lemon and Cherries Jubilee. Peanut butter is ALWAYS awesome, especially with chocolate; this was thick and chunky–like how I like my men to be. The Lemon was a huge surprise. Lemon and chocolate? Who would have thought? But the cake wasn’t sour, it was mildly sweet. There was a strong citrus fragrance, very refreshing. Perks you up from your afternoon lethargy. The alcoholicCherries Jubilee came with whole cherries. There was a subtle cherry-sweetness that pervaded the entire cake and the bitterness from the alcohol added another dimension to the cake.

In general, the cakes are (1) the texture was crispy on the top, but soft inside. And in the mouth, the cake felt very smooth. (2) they are not overly sweet. In fact, they are only mildly sweet, so the focus is on the quality of the chocolate.

The cakes are available for take-away. Just warm it up in the microwave for 15-20 seconds.

New to the menu are cakes, tarts and ice creams.

The ice creams ($3.50) are customized to be less sweet so that they could go well with the cakes. There are seasonal favors so ask for them. In general, vanilla ice cream goes well with chocolate molten cakes.

Mogador ($7) is a chocolate cake with dark chocolate mousse and chocolate sponge, glazed with–not chocolate!–raspberry. Most SIngaporeans, including me, have a predilection for airy Japanese cakes. The cakes from Celine–trained at Cordon Bleu–are more European. It was light but chocolate cakes in general couldn’t be as light as Japanese cakes. It tasted a bit like seaweed to me! Another friend tasted it too. I thought it was quite unique, surprising and fun.

Perhaps there was an overdose of chocolate, so I cannot really taste the chocolateness in the Dark Side ($6), a chocolate tart.

Overall, I’d still stick to the molten chocolate cakes, one of the best I’ve tasted, a scoop of ice cream, a cup of hot tea and a book on a lazy afternoon. Hey, if my hero Brad LadyIronChef Lau declares it’s the best molten chocolate cake in Singapore, it is the best in Singapore ok!

For photos and more reviews, visit us at http://foodphd.wordpress.com!

There are many restaurants and cafes offering molten chocolate cakes as one of their desserts these days. But till now, the only place marketing multi-flavours molten chocolate cake as their specialty has got to be 3 Inch Sin. It started off with a shop in Cluny Court and has now expanded to a more accessible location in Millenia Walk. There are 11 flavours in total. The premium ones are priced at $7.50 per piece and consists of alcoholic flavours Baileys and Cherries Jubilee. The other conventional flavours ($6.50) include Original, Bitter Orange, Hazelnut, Peanut Butter, Lemon, Mint, Raspberry, White Chocolate and Coffee. Humbly priced, 3 Inch Sin sure puts up a strong fight against the many other restaurants and cafes.

Each molten cake is served warm in a ceramic bowl. It is 3 inches in diameter, probably only as big as the width of your palm. But this little cake could get you addicted, hooked and craving for more! We loved the original, hazelnut, peanut butter and mint flavours in particular. These molten cakes were made using premium Valrhona chocolate as the cake batter, with different fillings incorporated into the centre upon order. The 70% cocoa content in the chocolate batter ensured that the molten cake did not taste cloyingly sweet overall and gave the molten cake a strong chocolaty fragrance. Upon breaking apart the chocolate sponge shell, the thick pool of velvety viscous fillings oozed out, in particular for the original, hazelnut and mint flavours. The original flavour was classic. The hazelnut and mint fillings, specially concocted by 3 Inch Sin, were more attractive to those with a sweeter tooth compared to the original flavour. The hazelnut paste made in-house gave a more personalized touch compared to the very much commercialiszd Nutella paste and reminded us of the artisan hazelnut praline in their melted form. The mint fillings resembled After Eight chocolates, and the light minty flavour together with the sweeter milk chocolate was a very good complement to the darker cake batter. Another winner was the peanut butter molten cake, which provided some salty comfort for those who wished for a good balance between the savory and sweet.

To our delight, 3 Inch sin has also progressed beyond its initial specialization in molten cakes and expanded its range of products. Rrrroyal Chocolate ($7) – Chocolate sponge layered with crispy praline and 70% dark chocolate mousse. We loved the thick slab of mousse at the exterior edge of the cake. The mousse itself was chocolaty and creamy. The sponge was moist and it fell into smooth, homogenous consistency with the mousse. We liked the fact that the sponge was barely detectable. The texture came in when you take a bite from the inner diameter of the cake, where the cornflakes like crisps came into picture.

The Dark Side ($6) – Sweet pastry tart filled with dark, velvety chocolate ganache. The chocolate tart was made for serious chocolate lovers who would like their slab of satisfyingly premium chocolate. The crust in The Dark Side was not overly buttery but exuded fragrance from the hazelnuts essence which had been incorporated into the crust batter. The roasted cocoa beans sprinkled beneath the chocolate tart provided additional burst of dense chocolate flavour and gave it an added crunch. A sea salt caramel ice cream was an ideal ice cream to go with to enhance the entire experience.

We walked past this shop after dinner at Nantsuttei ramen located inside PARCO (we wrote a review on this place too).

We remembered trying out this place when they first open at Cluny Court and it was good... Very good.

Went into the shop and realised that they now have more chocolate products on their menu (not just molten lava cakes) as well as new flavors of molten cake.

We decided to try their latest creation: Baileys together with a scoop of salted caramel ice cream. 

The pairing of baileys molten cake with their recommended scoop of ice cream was heavenly indeed. Still reckon them to be one of the best chocolate cake shop in Singapore.