April Fool’s Day might be behind us, but Bornean restaurant Kantin at Jewel is keeping the jokes alive with its “dish sponge cake”. The $20 dessert isn’t your average sweet treat. What lands on your table looks uncannily like a well-used kitchen sponge — complete with soapy suds and a suspicious green sludge — but is actually a lemon butter sponge cake layered with orange marmalade and lime foam. It’s served with a glass of what appears to be “sink water” (really just ginger water), alongside a bottle of green pandan lime syrup masquerading as dishwashing detergent.

Yucks or yum? You decide.

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Often ordered as a prank

According to the restaurant, most people order it for fun, to prank their dining companions, or celebrate birthdays, — though gifting someone a ‘dish sponge’ is a bold move. The wait staff even helps you to prank your unsuspecting pals by saying, “Heard you want to help wash the dishes?” as they serve the cake.

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This limited-edition dessert has become a yearly tradition at Kantin, running from 30 March 2026 till the end of May. The restaurant says it was added to the menu “just for fun” and honestly, the confusion it causes is half the appeal.

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Other regular menu items include the Sarawak Laksa ($24), Rainforest Fried Rice ($20) with wild Bornean herbs like tapioca leaves and ginger flower, and the Headhunter Pansuh Set ($32), featuring purple rice, bamboo chicken, umai jellyfish, and pusu bawang. Drinks-wise, expect cocktails like the Cloud Forest ($24) with rum and tuak (a traditional rice wine) and coconutty rum Mabul ($22).

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The Dish Sponge Cake is available till end May 2026 at Kantin, #05-206/207, 78 Airport Boulevard, Jewel Changi Airport, S819666. Open daily 11am-10pm. More info via Instagram. 

Photos: Kantin at Jewel Changi