Shinjuku bake with ice cream: A sugar rush and an uncomfortable buttery palate 

Shinjuku chocolate bake. Photo: TBS

Pairing one sugary delight with another one is probably one of the few things that connects people of every cuisine. Be it golap jaam with kheer or warm jilapi with cool rabri, sweet churros with hot chocolate or cake with ice cream - every pair tastes like heaven. Even when I say - a few scoops of smooth ice cream on a soft bed of warm brownie or cake - sounds appealing, doesn't it?

Well, this was something I was craving too, after having a huge fight with my husband. So on a cold rainy evening, I took my husband to Secret Recipe, one of my favourite places to dine, especially for their cheese cakes. I hoped the cold and warm combination of their Shinjuku bake with ice cream would make it easy for the sweet talk to melt his heart. 

That didn't happen though, but I did get something to write about. The reason I chose this specific dessert was because I was curious about the name. 

Shinjuku bake is basically a soft butter cake or more specifically, a Japanese butter cake, which is served with two scoops of vanilla ice cream and is topped with almond flakes, drizzled chocolate syrup and a dollop of whipped cream.  

The use of a Japanese cake recipe is probably the reason why this dessert is named after Shinjuku, one of the cities of Japan. But instead of Shinjuku, they could have taken the name of any Japanese city- Tokyo or Okinawa. Why Shinjuku? to which the restaurant manager replied "You would have to ask the Malaysians." Secret Recipe is a Malaysian restaurant franchise, I recalled. I didn't quite feel like communicating with the Malaysians so I concentrated on my order.

The order took almost half an hour, long enough to finish writing a short story or even enticing your angry husband. We had ordered a large portion with six pieces of cake (almost a quarter pound)! 

The dessert came in crisp ivory-coloured pasta bowls- deep and rimmed - perfect for serving a pile of cake and ice cream with drizzled chocolate syrup. 

The pale yellow butter cake was soft and fluffy, warm enough to balance the temperature but not too much that it melts the ice cream. They probably used slightly salted butter to perfectly balance the sweetness of the ice-cream. But the cake was more on the sweeter side. So, when mixed with the ice cream, it gave me a major sugar rush.

There was melted butter at the bottom of the cake which made the cake a bit soggy and oily. 

Now we all know that ice cream and cake is best eaten by mashing the ice cream down into the cake with the back end of a spoon. That way, the warmth of the cake and the frosty ice cream balances each other and in that perfect temperature, the sponge cake soaks the liquid ice cream and a divine marriage takes place. 

But what happened on our plate was - as we mashed the buttery cake with the ice cream, the butter curdled and there was a coat of buttery residue on our upper palate. 

The almond flakes added a good crunch to the bite. But there was also a bit of crunchy crust to the cake, which tasted quite like a biscuit. When this crust soaked the liquid ice cream, it turned a bit grainy, which I was unhappy with. But to some, it might taste perfect - some like their corn flakes crunchy, while some might go for the soggy flakes instead. I belong to team crunchy flakes. 

Let's talk about vanilla ice cream now. Although I expected the ice cream would be their own, I was later informed that it was a store bought one. Although the consistency was good, the ice cream tasted too sweet. 

At the end, there was melted ice cream left on the plate, which was a delight in itself. 

Later on our way home (still with a grumpy husband) I thought about the features and the modification that could be done to the cake. First of all, order the regular portion, with three pieces of cake, because the six pieces can be a bit overwhelming. Second of all, pair the buttery bottom part of the cake with whipped cream instead of with ice cream, that way you will be able to avoid the buttery residue that stays inside your mouth.