The bubbly and energetic Nigel has been baking since childhood, working side by side with his mother to prepare lovely treats. His favourite was to make the special family sugee fruit cake which took days to prepare from scratch. He went to school for Hotel Management and in 2000 he met Allan Yap an experienced home baker and decided to go into business with him. They initially started from home churning out cakes for their clients. Soon enough they opened up their first store in Plaza Damansara, then their second at Jaya One, their third at BSC and they are now in the planning stages to open up their fourth in Pavilion. From a small home business to opening up a few stores in just 10 years we knew we had to get this baker in to share his secrets.



As soon as Nigel arrived at our FC kitchen he immediately made himself at home and washed his hands while singing ‘Happy Birthday’. “You’re supposed to sing 2 Happy Birthdays when you wash your hands, that’s supposed to be the correct amount of time till your hands are clean,” he explained after we looked at him with raised eyebrows.

Once his hands were clean he set about getting the ingredients ready for his Strawberry Compote as he sharpened our knives and chopped away. “I don’t cook all my strawberries at once because it gets more of a jam consistency and you lose the fresh strawberry flavour. Cook half the strawberries and add half of the fresh ones in afterwards. I also like to splash a bit of balsamic into my compote…it increases the complexity of flavour."

"We all have a pyromaniac side"

After the compote he then showed us how to make the showcase piece, the Bombe Alaska. “The reason I like to make this is that it’s not too difficult to prepare but it is a fun dessert to entertain with. Especially if you are using the Brandy to set it on fire…after all we all have a pyromaniac side,” he laughs. “Of course the non-alcoholic version is just as good it just isn’t flambéd.”

We had a great morning in the kitchen with Nigel and certainly learnt a lot. If you'd like to find out more about him, his recipes, or his store locations do visit his site. They are currently churning up some Raya treats to order: the special sugee fruitcake(A guarded recipe) and a moist and rich spiced marble cake (Think Indonesian layer cake without the layers). We tried them both and they are absolutely delicious. Check out the site for more details on ordering these delights.

Here are his recipes and we included some of his special tips below:

Bombe Alaska
6 egg whites
250g sugar
½ tsp cream of tartar
1tsp vanilla
Pinch of salt
Simple sponge cake
1 tub vanilla ice cream

Put the cake in a baking pan. Top the sponge cake with ice cream. Leave 1inch on the sides and pile it up in the middle like a mountain. Pop in the freezer up to 2hours to freeze completely.



Before you take it out of the freezer make the meringue. Whisk egg whites and vanilla. Add the cream of tartar and salt once it starts frothing. Add the sugar 2tbs at a time and keep whisking until the whites form stiff peaks.





Heat oven to 250C. Take out the cake and dollop the meringue on top and spread it around to cover the ice cream and cake completely (If making the alcoholic version pop an egg shell on the top of the peak and press it in so it forms a little cup on the top, if not, then carry on with the next step).



Bake for 3-5 mins and take it out as soon as it browns. You can enjoy it like this as a Baked Alaska or if you’d like to make the flambéd version pour Brandy in the little egg shell cup and set it on fire and swirl the meringue around so that it all catches on fire. Blow out the fire and enjoy topped with compote.

Strawberry Compote
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries
Dash of water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp balsamic



In a pot add half the strawberries, water, sugar and balsamic and cook down for a few minutes till the liquid has reduced. Add in the rest of the fresh strawberries.

Nigel’s Tips:
1. Crack eggs against each other. Only one will break and this way you don’t get shells falling in to your bowl.
2. Meringues work best with stale eggs (Not rotten eggs, but eggs that might be about a week old). This will make the meringue whip up nicer.
3. Taste every ingredient that goes into your dishes even the baking powder or soda. If you know how everything tastes you can play around with flavours.
4. If something needs to cool in the fridge you can speed it up in the freezer. Just take note that 1/2hr in the freezer = 2hrs in the fridge.