There’ll never be a shortage of brownies and cupcakes in Colombo. Seriously. Just when you think you’ve discovered every possible source of baked treats in the city, a new home baker crops up on your Facebook feed.
We were recently introduced to the Sugar Shack, run by Aru De Silva. From the looks of Facebook she seems to be one of the younger players emerging on our rapidly growing network of home bakeries. Her menu isn’t extensive – no french macarons, meringues or fancy desserts – but she offers a large variety of cupcakes, cakes, brownies and cheesecake.
We tried a selection of cupcakes: red velvet, coffee, vanilla, and chocolate fudge (Rs. 100-150). They’re nice, not the best we’ve had but not bad either. The icing was a bit too sweet for our liking – but this may go down well with some coffee. Sugar Shack’s cupcakes lean more toward the kind of taste you may get from a Fab or P&S cake – which are all great cakes, but sweetened to match the longings of the sugar-loving Sri Lankan palate. From the selection we tried, we liked the coffee best, it was milder and softer than the others.
The Sugar Shack makes fine cupcakes, but they’re not quite at the level of bakers like Munchkin or Sita just yet. If you’re having a large party, however, the vanilla cupcakes are an affordable option at just Rs. 90 per cake.