Dania Experiences

I first discovered The Backyard Bakers on Instagram and have been following them for the longest time, but each time I visit their website to make a purchase, they’re almost always out of stock for the flavours I want. It wasn’t until I had a Christmas gathering coming up when the opportunity to try their bakes finally presented itself!

I was looking for desserts to bring for the potluck but all other bakers whom I follow on my Instagram had closed orders for the Christmas period already. Thankfully, The Backyard Bakers were still taking orders and there was no time like the present to figure out their ordering system, which was not the most intuitive to me (their FAQs can be found here). Notably, they restock their items between 5pm to 7pm each day and their inventory is live, so be sure to turn on your Instagram notifications if you want to snag the popular flavours.

• My order:
  • Wild mint chocolate iced beverage ($6.90)
  • Cookies and creme brookie ($6)
  • Monster molten lava dark chocolate brookie ($6.40)
  • Valrhona Guanaja 70% dark chocolate brownie ($6.95)
  • Peppermint and dark chocolate fudge brownie ($7.30)
  • Sticky chewy fudge brownie ($7.40)
• Spent: SGD$55.95 ($40.95 + $15 delivery fee)

I received the delivery at around 1pm the day before my gathering. As such, I caveat that this review was based on eating them “a day late” (except the iced beverage), although the instructions did indicate that these could be kept till the next day.

Now, on to the first item I tried, the wild mint chocolate beverage! I was somewhat taken aback by the size of the drink, which was about two-thirds the size of my (relatively small) hand. There was also a huge ice ball inside, decreasing the amount of actual chocolate to be consumed.

It was very much on the sweet side, with the overpowering peppermint resembling toothpaste a little too closely (for context, I love peppermint chocolate anything – cakes, milk, drinks, ice cream – so this comparison is based on all the others that have come before).

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During the gathering the next day, we tried the brookies (basically a brownie-cookie combo). The batter was a little heavy and it didn’t help that they were really sweet as well, making it feel like a lot to take in. I did like the soft and chewy texture though.

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As for the brownies, if you enjoy eating chocolate bars on their own, you’d probably be delighted by these too. I am not one of them, unfortunately, as they were way too rich, dense and saccharine for me. Out of the three flavours, I liked the plain one with no extra sauce on top simply because it was the least sugary (I’m not entirely sure which flavour that was but I’m guessing it was the Valrhona Guanaja one). Having said that, between the brookies and the brownies, I’d still prefer the brownies.

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My overall rating of the experience: 2 out of 5 stars. I felt that everything in this order was a case of sweetness overload, which detracted from the proper appreciation of the skill and effort that went into these bakes. It wasn’t that the items were bad or anything, I just suspect we would’ve enjoyed them more had the sweetness level been taken down a few notches. Delivery also set me back $15, one of the priciest deliveries for baked goods I’ve had to pay for on top of the pretty expensive cost of the items themselves. Maybe if we had eaten them on the day itself, it would’ve been more moist and fudgy in texture? It’s possible that this was a fluke bad experience but I’ll never know since I’m not planning to place another order in a long time to come.