Big Bakery in Tai Seng has handmade old-school apple pies

The F&B industry is a tough one, and it takes an aligning of many stars for any business to break even, much less succeed and stay in the game. We’ve previously featured some of Singapore’s traditional bakeries, but one that missed the list was 30-plus-year-old Big Bakery, an unassuming bakery just across the road from Tai Seng MRT Station.

Blink and you’d miss it, Big Bakery is tucked between a kopitiam and provision shops in a ramshackle row of old shophouses along the busy Upper Paya Lebar Road. Shrubbery and awnings that stretch out towards the road block much of the shop from view; the faded, weatherworn signboard above is shielded from sight by yet another tree.

Look past all that, and you’ll find more than 30 years of sheer grit and dogged courage, distilled into the lovingly made apple crumbles, cream puffs, and old-school bakes that grace the shelves of th...