PHOTOS: ALAN LIM, CRUMMB
She had always enjoyed baking but for years, Teo Pau Lin had to abandon her hobby because of her hectic job as a journalist with The Straits Times.
After 15 years with the paper, including five years as its food correspondent, she quit to raise her children and to bake.
She says with a laugh: "I got into it as a hobby and forced my friends and cousins to have my cakes at their weddings."
Now, she is ready to take her business to another level and has opened a showroom and work studio in Rifle Range Road for Crummb, her wedding cake business.
The 42-year-old, who is mother to two girls aged five and three, shares the area with her film-maker husband, who takes the front part of the space.
PHOTOS: ALAN LIM, CRUMMB
Her beautiful wedding cakes have a clean, contemporary look about them. Three-tiered cakes start at $580 while four-tiered ones are $1,150 and up.
Forget the traditional fruit cake creations. Teo's customers can choose from flavours such as chocolate, rich butter, dried cranberry, Earl Grey tea and coconut. Vanilla is, of course, available too.
Then there is a riot of rich, velvety Swiss meringue buttercream options. These are spread in between cake layers, and three layers make up one tier of the cake.
Flavours include raspberry, lemon zest, orange zest, clover honey, Nutella, rose and salted caramel.
Earl Grey tea cake is one of the most popular choices and it is easy to see why. The cake is thoroughly infused with the bergamot-flavoured tea and is delicious with the salted caramel buttercream.
But a wedding cake isn't one without decorations. The layers are covered with fondant, a sugar paste that is stretched and moulded over the cake.
Then the decorations go on, and some of her creations, like a pink cake with sequins or a dome-shaped one with ruffled blossoms are sights to behold. The decorations are delicate and made by hand.
She took classes on making sugar flowers, read books and watched videos on YouTube to hone her skills.
"Now I think I can take the business somewhere," she says of setting up a shop.
She is up for a challenge too, and relishes working with clients who are adventurous. One of them had wanted a grey cake, which turned out to be one of her favourite creations.
Another one she is proud of is a cake she made for a bride who wanted feathers on her cake. "It was one of the hardest, but I'm most proud of it," she says.
She believes her passion stems from not actually having a proper wedding cake herself when she tied the knot in 2006. Instead of a cake, she had four tiers of strawberry shortcakes in individual cupcake cases.
"I didn't actually cut a cake. Maybe I'm making up for it.
Crummb is at 80 Rifle Range Road, by appointment only. To make an appointment, e-mail paulin@crummb.com. For more information, go to www.crummb.com
This article was originally published on June 16 2013 on StraitsTimes.com. For similar stories, go tosph.straitstimes.com/premium/singapore. You will not be able to access the Premium section of The Straits Times website unless you are already a subscriber.