The Pine Garden is an old-school bakery in Ang Mo Kio

The year is 2004, 5 September. The Sunday Times publishes a one-pager on where to get the best black forest cake in Singapore. A nondescript Ang Mo Kio bakery places third, and by noon that very day, madness ensues—a four-hour line stretches around the block, chocolate shavings sprawl all over the floors of the cake room, and the bakery’s Managing Director Wei Chan finds himself driving across 17 Phoon Huat stores to buy more cherries.

This is the story of The Pine Garden, a family-run bakery that has withstood the test of time—40 years, to be exact. 

Today, the baton has been passed to the second generation: Managing Director Wei Chan, whom I&rsquo...