Sugar Rush's Facebook profile lays claim to a rather presumptuous motto: 'Making the world a better place... one ganache-topped, cream-filled, almond-coated, sugar-dusted butter cake at a time'. After a visit on a quiet weekday morning, we can attest to one thing: If not the world, they're certainly making Section 16 a better place.
The dessert parlour is an extension of Sugar Rush's online brand under which cakes and baked goodies were whipped up in the home of a mother-daughter duo and delivered to loyal customers. 26-year-old Katyana Azman (aka Yana) and her mother, Za Merican, set up the label as a tribute to Yana's late grandmother. Being Penang-bred and an inherent of Nyonya roots, her grandmother often baked old-school cakes whose recipes were then passed down to Yana and her mother. 'The recipes we use are about 50 to 60 years old,' Yana says.
A testament to her grandmother's ways is Sugar Rush's sugee (semolina) cake; filled with buttercream and studded with shaved almonds, it's a nostalgic rendition of a near obsolete treat. 'The sugee cake is very popular among our older customers,' Yana says. On the counter, the marble cake too beckons our old souls. Like most butter cakes on Sugar Rush's cake counter, this one is immensely dense and buttery without a hint of neither dryness nor oiliness. 'Most people here are used to the fluffy, spongy textures but our butter cakes are really solid,' Yana says of the preferred cake texture at Sugar Rush. 'They weigh at least 2.5-3kg each.'
In an urbanised twist, Yana and her mother have updated their old-style recipes: Chocolate ganache is poured over the marble cake, raspberry coulis is painted over the coconut butter cake and buttercream is prettily piped over the orange cake. Typically, the younger customers stick with what they know best - chocolate. The moist chocolate cake slathered with chocolate ganache and filled with salted buttercream is the brand's bestselling item in their repertoire of cakes, tarts and brownies.