2020 BC (Before Covid-19), we lived in times where chicken rice was a main meal, pizza and bubble tea were separate entities, and crabs were served on a plate. But now, we have bubble tea pizza, chicken rice birthday cakes and a chilli crab version created by local seafood chain House of Seafood, which specialises in crab dishes.

The Crab Cake comes in three flavours: Chilli Crab, Black Pepper Crab and Salted Egg Crab. They are all priced at $88 a cake, with free islandwide delivery.

It goes without saying that this is not an actual dessert cake. Instead of a spongy base, the creation comes with layers of white rice, omelette and fried peanuts. The ‘cake’ is held together with decorative slices of cucumber. Sounds like a nasi lemak cake without the coconut milk-infused rice.

According to House of Seafood’s boss Francis Ng, each cake is topped with a whole 600g Sri Lankan mud crab. He also claims that his restaurant is the first to launch a chilli crab cake. According to him, “We receive 50 cake orders a day”.

Like chicken rice hawker Louis Tan — who came up with his chicken rice birthday cake during the Circuit Breaker last year — Francis introduced the chilli crab cake in April 2020 when real birthday cakes were not allowed to be sold. He also offered a Father’s Day salted egg crab cake, with a ‘Happy Father’s Day’ message piped on the crab shell.

The restaurant is known for its wacky crab flavours, which include sweet toppings like Milo, Horlicks, Oreo, Durian, Kit Kat and Pocky. “We can make [them] into a crab cake [topping],” says Francis. Erm.

Each customised cake also costs $88. Here’s what the crab flavours look like:

House of Seafood currently has two waterfront outlets, at The Punggol Settlement and Clarke Quay beside the Singapore River. Its website states that it started out as a restaurant at Yio Chu Kang Road, but “business was TOO GOOD – we had to shift many times – because of parking issues and neighbouring complaints!”

Call 6466-9000 to order the crab cakes. Advance order not required.

House of Seafood, two outlets including #01-01/02 The Punggol Settlement, 3 Punggol Point Rd, S828694. www.houseofseafood.com.sg.