How this 19-year-old Singapore Food Artist “Plays” With Her Food

“You’re not from the US?!” is a common exclamation Ng Jiaxin gets, when she tells her audience she’s from Singapore. At just 19, she is juggling two worlds: the rigour of studying data science and analytics at the National University of Singapore, and the whimsy of transforming desserts into intricate works on her food art Instagram, h0mec4fe.

While most of her peers unwind over bubble tea or supper runs, Jiaxin’s idea of downtime is whisking, sculpting, and plating. And the result is beautiful desserts that blur the line between food and fine art.

“I enjoy almost anything art-related, from drawing and watercolour to miniature clay sculpting and digital scrapbooking,” she reflects. “I’ve been getting into guitar and journaling lately, but I somehow realised that everything I love requires some sort of creativity which does helps me get inspired!”

From aesthetic drinks to food art

When she started h0mec4fe in 2021, the then 15-year-old Jiaxin was inspired by the clean lines and cosy vibe of Korean bakeries and home cafes. Early posts leaned into aesthetic drinks and tablescapes, but she quickly realised the amount of effort and resources needed was unsustainable. After experimenting with single-serve cooking and baking recipes, which soon felt repetitive, she turned to desserts as her canvas, allowing flavour, colour, and form to converge.

“I wanted to create something more unique and fufilling, while also enjoying the process hence I decided on food art,” she explains. “Since I’ve always loved art and had a knack for it, the transition felt very natural.”

One of her earliest experiments involved French toast – three simple slices elevated through an hour of plating. “It’s really funny to look back on now,” the self-taught food artist admits with a laugh, “But that’s really how I learned, through experimentation and practice!”

How the Singapore Food Artist Dreams Up Dessert Designs

As a visual artist, Jiaxin’s creative process begins not with taste, but with vision. She imagines the theme and vibe of a dessert first, be it whimsical or natural, and then chooses the colours that best bring that atmosphere to life. Strawberry matcha might emerge from the delicate pairing of pink and green, while lemon blueberry is born from the lively clash of purple and yellow. Only after this visual palette is set does she begin to layer flavours and textures, ensuring each bite has the right balance of creaminess, crunch, and softness.

Much of her inspiration comes from nature: “I enjoy incorporating calming sceneries and colours into my work, like soft greens and blues, so it acts as a base for me to further develop my ideas on, like whether I want to make waterfalls or a forest.”

At times, she lets playfulness take the lead: “Cute animals or characters are always fun to make too! I also get inspiration from other creators and current trends, especially when it comes to experimenting with new flavour pairings.”

Her toolkit is also modest. Sharp knives, piping bags, chopsticks, and even satay sticks serve as her brushes and sculpting tools. “I don’t own any fancy tools. Everyday kitchen tools are more than enough for you to get started,” she notes.

Embracing happy accidents in food art

Not every creation turns out picture-perfect for the ‘gram, though. Jiaxin embraces the unexpected, turning mistakes into inspiration. An over-whipped pavlova once collapsed into the fluffiest pancake she had ever made. A missing bottle of maple syrup pushed her to try cream cheese instead, sparking her now-popular toast painting series.

Even her most technical bake – a lemon meringue pie – became a lesson in patience and focus. “Each component requires a lot of accuracy: The crust must hold its shape, the curd needs to have the right texture and tartness, and the meringue needs to hold up! I approached it step by step, paying attention to temperatures and textures at each stage,” she recalls.

Adapting food art to the Singapore kitchen

Being based in Singapore means that Jiaxin’s creative process is shaped as much by environment as by imagination. “Every cold dessert I make warms up and melts a little faster here in Singapore, so I’ve learnt to do things fast,” she laughs.

Sourcing for ingredients proved to be a challenge here as well: “I try my best to get local produce but it’s not easy to find vibrant-looking, fresh produce or cheeses and herbs at affordable prices, compared to if I were to go to a supermarket overseas!”

She also considers how her bakes might resonate with a Singaporean audience, even if most of her followers are abroad. “Being constantly exposed to international influences, I look outwards and draw inspiration from global aesthetics, reinterpreting them in my own way. Sometimes I do a little recipe-tweaking, by using tropical fruit for a refreshing twist in non-Asian dessert recipes,” she says.

In fact, Jiaxin has just completed an SG60 campaign by TikTok, launching a creator-exclusive menu with another fellow creator and a bakery. “It was really eye-opening and inspired me to incorporate more local flavours into my everyday work.”

If she were to play with local flavours in her creations, she imagines giving classics a modern twist: pandan folded into sponges, gula melaka layered into ganache, and chewy mochi textures hidden in the layers as a nod to the traditional kueh, onde-onde. “The soft green tone matches with my regular aesthetic where I can build up some sort of landscape on the top of the cake, finishing off with desiccated coconut,” she visualises. For now, these ideas remain possibilities, but they signal how her artistry could one day weave global aesthetics together with local taste memories.

Connection and creativity in the food art community

Instagram has been a vital part of Jiaxin’s journey, both as a platform for visibility and as a community space. Through it, she has discovered global dessert trends, connected with fellow creators, and engaged with followers who suggest ideas and share recreations of her work. “It feels like a two-way conversation,” she says. “I share my ideas, and their feedback sparks new ones.”

For her, the food art community is not about ownership of ideas but about collaboration, where creators bounce inspiration off each other across borders. Being part of this network has both sharpened her craft and expanded her sense of what is possible.

What’s Next for this Young Singapore Food Artist

For Jiaxin, food art is a creative practice she hopes to carry forward on a larger stage. She dreams of hosting pop-up workshops where participants can try their hand at butter carving or cake landscaping, guided through the same playful process she follows in her own kitchen. Collaborations with brands like Laneige, Le Creuset and IKEA also sit high on her wishlist, with aspirations stretching beyond Singapore to an international audience.

Over the next five years, she envisions evolving h0mec4fe into a more personal and experimental platform, exploring new formats such as point-of-view videos that capture not just the finished dessert, but the making of it. While she acknowledges that pursuing art in Singapore isn’t the most conventional path, she hopes to create something lasting – a body of work that both inspires and connects, reminding people everywhere that food can be more than sustenance.