Centre PS

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Sapporo

Matcha green tea and 70% dark chocolate sachertorte with Japanese black bean

$7 nett

Frankly, the chocolate was barely there! Green tea taste was much stronger though not very fragrant. You can certainly feel the husks of the beans in your mouth but there isnt a strong black bean taste so no worries about that. All soft mousse layers in this cake, not a top fav of mine though. 3.2/5

Douce Fraise

Ivory chocolate with Earl Grey, Strawberry Compote and Hazelnut Genoise

$7 nett

This was a much nicer cake! Light light layers of earl grey and sourish hints of strawberry, hazelnut wasnt really there but well, this was more of a joy to eat vs the top one! The lady behind the counter also said that this was her fav cake. 3.7/5 

Assorted Macarons

Box of 5 - $11

(box of 2 - $5, box of 10 - $20)





This was a mix of, from Left to Right: Lychee, Passionfruit Peach, Champagne, Coffee and Black Sesame

To sum up their macarons - chewy shell, terribly sweet :/

Champagne - the white one. This tasted a little like champagne, pity it was wayyyy too sweet! 2/5

Black Sesame





Tastes only faintly like black sesame 2/5

Passionfruit Peach





No peach taste but yes definitely passionfruit! More of it in the shells though. The ganache was uh too sweet that I cant tell what its supposed to be. 2.6/5

Lychee





This had liquor in it so it was better and lychee taste was much stronger! But still sweet. 3/5

On the whole, I'd probably won't be back to Centre PS, macarons are too sweet for me! The best ones for me are still from ET Artisan Sweets :) 

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Grand Cru Royale – Centre Ps’ signature cake was a typical chocolate noisette cake. It consisted of a top layer of chocolate ganache, a hazelnut layer and a spongy base. The layer of chocolate ganache was strangely visibly detached from the hazelnut layer. The hazelnut layer was rather hard, and we were guessing if there were layers of wafer embedded inside. On the whole, there wasn’t any extraordinary or fantastic about the Grand Cru Royale.

A box of 2 for S$4.50; a box of 5 for S$10; a box of 10 for S$18. So, it all depends if you are keen on the macarons.

That evening I visited, not many macarons left. The 5-piece macarons set was already pre-packed and so couldn’t really choose whichever flavourI fancy. I did request for a customised one and the girl who attended to my request was kind enough to do just that.

I got Champagne, Bergamot, Black Sesame, Caramel and Chocolate Lavender.

See http://sofood.wordpress.com/2011/03/26/centre-ps-macarons-sg/ for pics and more descriptions.

Visit www.coypoi.com for full review with photos.

Centre PS (phonetically "centrepiece"...it took me a while to get that) is a neighbourhood bakery. The kind that you would expect to sell local bread buns, pandan waffles and buttercream cakes with cartoon pictures on it. But walk in and instead you will see mock ups of artisan tiered creations, brightly decorated cupcakes and a row of French pastries.

We bought an assortment to try - Strawberry and White Chocolate, Lemon and Whipped Meringue with Hazelnut Praline, Chocolate Nougatine and a 5 Textured Chocolate Cake.

The cakes were a touch stale, which is a pity because they tasted like they had promise before they faded. There was only one of each type sitting lonely in the display case. In this sleepy little Tiong Bahru estate, I suspect retail business is slow and they focus their efforts on creating, as their name indicates, customised centrepieces to order.

The Macarons on the other hand, fresh out the oven, were delicious! Light, chewy with layered flavours and pretty sizable as macarons go.

So in summary, macarons - yes!, custom cakes - probably, stale cakes - no.

Tis a neighbourhood cake shop masquerading as a patissiere type place.

Went with a girlfriend on a Thursday afternoon around 2 pm. Either the cakes were overnighters or they were just badly baked, but either way they didn't fare well.

We had high hopes for the place, given the heavenly smell of raspberry sauce being cooked down and the stylish, pink minimalist interiors. Looked great, smelt great.

If we could have stopped there, it would have been great too.

$7 Mango Cake - awful, dry sponge with overly strong mango taste. It was like eating bits of the 3m dish washing sponge.

The mango was cooked down with too much pectin so even if it was fresh, it tasted like canned puree.

They didn't wrap the cake before putting it into the fridge.

$7 Raspberry something - the sponge was explained as being coarser, to give a more rustic taste - some sort of meal and coarser flour was used. However, again, the fruit sauce was cooked into a cheap nasty pectinous mess where all the lightness of the fruit and flavour was lost. Tasted like canned puree from a bad neighbourhood cake shop.

$7 Opera - the layers were dense, rich and...you guessed it - dry. They said they used valrhona chocolate or something, but the fact is the layers while rich, were unplesantly dense.

How do I explain the lack of refinement that marked each and every cake put out by the patissiere - heavy. Dense. overcooked to cardboard.

I expect things to be treats that melt in your mouth, refined, light and full of fresh fruit flavours. Instead all we got was ploonk plonk plonk execution.

Edible, but $7 a cake - go to Bakerzin or Hyatt. Commercialised, yes, but not outright bad like this.

The other thing that could account for the unfeasibly good reviews was that I overheard the management talking about someone they were paying to provide more traffic to their store and website.

In which case all the reviews before this would be explained - that or they were having an exceptionally, bad, neighbourhood cakeshop day in which everything tasted like a bad neighhbourhood cake shop - you know the ones with the fake cream and margarine cakes - which are, at least in their defence, moist and fluffy.

Raining heavily on a Sat afternoon…(3 weeks ago)

It did not stop me from satisfying my craving, I find myself sweet-talking dad to drive me down to Guan Chuan Street after our yummy lunch at Tian Tian Hainanese Curry Rice. The promotion for buy 3 get 1 free deal is still on, so it was a pretty good deal for me. The cakes were quite limited that day when I was there, so I decided to pick these 4 pretty babies and bring them back home.

1. Chocolate Tart

2. Grand Cru Royal

3. Gateau Opera

4. Douce Fraise

The Chocolate Tart is the 1st to go into the stomach of my sister and me. The tart has a nice thin crust with thick chocolate ganache. The ganache was smooth upon the touch of my tongue. The velvety texture embraced my tongue in an amazing way, bringing out the great taste of the bittersweet chocolate. I like this tart and the next thing I realized, my sister has no more tart to eat.

Next “victim” was the Grand Cru Royal, a piece of art on its own for tastebud and visual enjoyment. It has 2 different layers, a smooth chocolate mousse and crunchy hazelnut praline base. Being a hazelnut lover, I really enjoyed every bit of it. A must try for anyone visiting Centre PS.

Gateau Opera was dessert the next day. I brought this for dad as it contains coffee cream. The coffee taste was not too overpowering and chocolate blend well together. Taste resembles a little like tiramisu (IMO).

I had the last slice of cake all to myself. I pick the Douce Fraise caused there’re no other cakes available and I wanted something different. This last slice did not disappoint. The whole texture and taste was just heavenly. The ivory chocolate with a hint of earl grey is delightful, strawberry jam and hazelnut genoise creates another dimension when eaten as whole. There was a little surprise hidden at the bottom of the cake - a thin layer of chocolate as the base (if my tastebud didn’t fail me)…this will be another lover to bring home on my next visit.

Cakes are priced at $7 per slice. Parking available in front of the shop.

For those who have not been here before…I guess it’s time :)

Initially i wanted to try d citrusphere but it was not available.

There were the Jive Jivara, Apricoffee, gRNand Cru royale n several other on display.

I was a little disappointed. Virginia, i think she is one of the patissier there, assisted me n she told me dat she could make a mont blanc n ask me to wait for 5 mins. I was delighted of course.

Having read several reviews on the citrusphere n d mont blanc, i was so eager to try it out myself. The mont blanc was so delicate with strips of chestnut cream on a sable. It has a little meringue at the base. The cream was not overly sweet, some chestnut pcs r mixed inside the mont blanc. The base is a butter cookie n it's not too rich or sweet. I actually enjoy it as it has a distinctive n unique taste. The one frm pastisserie glace is slightly creamier n they have sponge instead of a cookie base N it is not as sweet.

Eclipse

Three Colour Chocolate of Frangipane Style Tart. There's 3 type of chocolate mousse in it- milk chocolate, dark chocolate & white chocolate. My fav is still the dark chocolate. I felt that the chocolate is not rich enough for me but perhaps it's pretty alright to some people. The Frangipane style tart is a kind of genoise pastry shell where a thin layer of genoise sponge laid on top. I carefull removed the layer of genoise sponge and enjoyed my tart shell.

There's a new cheesecake ( chi-miu miu) and it's not available when i was there and perhaps i would get the next time round.

5 DEC 2008

First up, I have to thank macadamia^n for this great recommendation!

Its sis-in-law's birthday and I thought of getting a cake... yet, not from the usual franchiese such as 'Bakerzin' or 'Canele'... 'Centre PS' came up amongst a few other recommendations, but since it is closest to where I work, Centre PS it is!

Its located within the 'older' part of Tiong Bahru... Finding the place wasn't too hard, but for someone like me who don't really know the area, it may be hard to find… and it DID felt like a maze in there!! Luckily I took the correct path and thank goodness the gloomy weather held.

The modern shop-front of CentrePS stood out distinctively from the rather 'aged' neighbourhood. It did seem a little out of place.

Following a brief chat with the lady sales person, I realised the bigger cakes are all 'hidden' away in the back. After looking through their folder, I was still clueless. Eventually, I went with one of her recommendation - the Grand Cru Royale (1KG for $65.00).

Whilst waiting for the cake to be prepared, I looked into the chiller to see macarons of various colours… priced at 5 pieces for $10.00 or 10 pieces for $18.00. Quite reasonable I thought. After some hard selling by the salesperson, and failing to my curiosity (Frankly both wifey and I NEVER had macarons before)… I decided to get the pack of 10 pieces ($18.00).

The total cost for the cake ($65.00) and 10 pieces of macarons ($18.00) came to $74.70 (less 10% UOB credit card discount). I have to say… I really thought there’s a 20% discount for anything over $60. I hope its just a genuine mistake. Either way, its a little pricey I thought, but gosh was it all worth it…

Macarons (Rating: 8/10)

As I never had macarons before, there's no benchmark. But OH! it was GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.... Frankly, my initial perception of macarons -their texture and how they tasted- was totally off! The thin crispy light outer layer combined well with the chewy spongy sweet inner layer... and everything just melt away in my mouth… Ahhhh… Truly Wonderful! The different flavours also reminded me of the variety of fruity jelly beans you can get!! Of course, some are sweeter than others… but its a great sugary experience overall!!

The Grand Cru Royale (Rating: 8.5/10)

WOW! This cake is simply unique and absolutely divine!! Presentation wise, its a square chocolate cake, with solid, pretty large strips of milk chocolaty 'shavings' as ribbons. What a beautiful creation! The Grand Cru Royale is made up of two layers... For me, the top layer of chocolate mousse is soft and smooth, but a little too bitter for my liking. On the other hand, the ultra crunchy hazelnut praline base (which actually reminded me of the hazelnut kinder bueno chocolate bar) was a little too sweet… However, these two layers coupled perfectly together in term of overall sweetness and texture.

Everyone enjoyed the cake… except mom, insisting that this IS A BISCUIT and NOT a cake (just because it does not have a sponge cake layer… hahah!!!). One little negative thing was the way sister-in-law’s name was written on the piece of white chocolate. Somehow, her name “Jing Jing” read so much like “Sing Sing” which meant “星星 - Stars” or “猩猩 - Gorilla” in chinese! Muwahahha!!

Well… It will take a few days to finish up the 1KG worth of Grand Cru Royale… 'Choco-OD'.. But I will definitely be back for more!! ALOT MORE!!

If interested, a full write-up and write-ups of other reviews can be seen here...

After reading so much about Centre Ps, I just had to come and try the cakes. From what I read, this place seemed alot like the Canele I used to frequent at Robertson Walk, before the place got invaded by working professionals with more money than I have, who destroyed my food and wine hideout.

Anyhow, I disagree with the previous review in that although Guan Chuan Street is slightly out of the way, the attractive facade of the shop does stand out among the dingy shophouses beside it! It also helps that Le Bon Marche is right next door. The interior of the shop is well lit and clean. I was also amused by a faint yet distinct scent of tuna pervading the shop, which I still am unable to explain (Confectionaries don't make tuna puffs I think).

Getting down to it, the first anniversary promotion is still going on, so I got 4 pieces of cake. Grand Cru Royale, TX5, Citrusphere and Mont Blanc. My friend and I consumed all 4 pieces that same evening ostensibly to savor the cakes while they're still fresh, but in reality, because we're pigs.

Grand Cru Royale - It reminded me alot of my personal favourite from Canele, Le Royale, both in form and name. It did not disappoint, with the smooth chocolate mousse perfectly complemented by the Hazelnut Praline Crunch base. The chocolate taste wasn't overpowering, and the cake was very sweet. Quite a success, I would say.

TX5 - Apparently this cake consists of Valrhona Fine Chocolate in Five Textures; Cake, Cremeux, Cream, Mousse, and Salted Sheet. It was garnished with a piece of chocolate and some form of almond cookie. The garnish did not taste very good. The cake, however, came together quite nicely. Seamlessly even. The different textures melded together quite nicely and did the Valrhona chocolate justice! Rich and sinful, it was the heaviest of the cakes I tried.

Citrusphere - I mentioned that I ate all 4 cakes the same day. I should also mention this was done at the same sitting. I was alternating mouthfuls of the different cakes at first, and in hindsight this did not do the Citrusphere justice at all because the flavours were completely overwhelmed by the two chocolate cakes which I munched on first! After cleansing my palate I had another go at the Citrusphere, and it really surprised me. The Lemon and Whipped Meringue was extraordinarily light and refreshing. It was almost like foam and the subtle citrus taste was persistent throughout, and went with the airy lightness of the confection perfectly. On first glance the uniform white colour as well as the dome shaped exterior of the Citrusphere didn't really appeal to me aesthetically. It conveyed a sense of a uniformly sweet and creamy cake, and I was pleasantly surprised and glad to be mistaken.

Mont Blanc - Similarly I was underwhelmed by this cake when I took my first taste of it, but after waiting for a suitable interval and drinking copious amounts of water, my second taste was quite satisfying. The chestnut vermicelli cream was light, not as light as the citrusphere but it was close! The flavour was subtle and done very well, and there was a persistent savoury tang which I couldn't pinpoint initially. This combination of flavours went really well with the creme chantilly, and the result is a rather sophisticated confectionary as opposed to the simple, sweet and rich chocolate confections.

I wasn't too enamoured with how all the cakes had some sort of crunchy or crisp base - but maybe that was because I had trouble eating them with tiny coffee stirrers - I forgot to ask for disposable forks and I consumed them while studying in school at night.

Overall a satisfying experience, I will definitely be back. The location isn't too out of the way. Slightly pricey, but on a similar level with the sweets from Canele, along with the inherently better quality control that comes from running only one outlet! I hold the selfish hope that they don't expand because if they do, it would be difficult to maintain their impeccable standards.

If anyone else were to eat more than one of these cakes at a time, just a word of advice. Have the citrusphere or Mont Blanc before you overload your palate with chocolate!

I have been walking past CenterPS on my regular walks in Tiong Bahru for the longest time, almost a year in fact. It is situated next to Le Bon Marche, which is favourite of a certain Straits Times food reporter (who really needs to find new places to write about, her reviews revolve around merchandise from Le Bon Marche, Yamakawa and Meidi-ya), and has a downright sedate farcade. You'd just about miss it if you're driving past at speeds greater than 20 kmh.

Recently, my wife and i summoned the courage to enter the shop at about 8pm and was pleasantly relieved to see several cakes left in the display chiller. The staff announced that they're having a 1-yr anniversary promotion - 4 cakes for $21. What a bargain! I never did like Canele and seriously wanted this place to turn out better and cheaper, just to tell my friends what a shameful job Canele is doing for French pastry in Singapore.

After a long deliberation (apologies to the staff, i know you're almost closing), we picked the Grand Cru Royale, Mont Blanc, TX5 and Chocolate Tarte. Of course, we are not gluttons, so we had to devour the cakes over the next 3 days. The staff was patient enough to reassure us that the cakes would last that long and pack it nicely so it would balance well for our walk home.

This is our verdict for the 4 cakes:

Mont Blanc was the first to go, given its quintessential status in french confectionary. The chestnut paste was surreal. Light on the palette and fluffy. Subtle but evident chestnut flavour. Chantilly cream filling was magnificent, like an immaculate marshmallow puff. The base pastry had gone soft, however, because of the time it spent in our fridge.

The Chocolate Tarte was next. It was a simple ganache filled pie pastry but fulfilled its chocolatey mission. The ganache was smooth and balanced, just sweet and bitter enough to satisfy both camps. No tooth-sticking ganache here, it melts right away on the tongue. What a 'melt in your mouth, but not in your hands' moment. Pastry, again, was soft due to its storage in our fridge.

On the final day, we could resist not more! Both the Grand Cru and TX5 shared the same death anniversary. The Grand Cru was excellent. Smooth and light chocolate mousse sitting on a delicate, crunchy and moreish hazelnut praline base. To die for. The TX5 was a slight disappointment, maybe it suffered more gravely from the 2-day exposure to the cold storage. The chocolate flavour was pronounced on all levels, but the texture was gone. At best, it was an excellent chocolate cake, but truly and sadly, not a good showcase of good valrhona chocolate.

The cakes were good enough that for the past 3 days, they were the highlights of our day.

I am now tempted to exercise more just to gobble their cakes on a daily basis.