This is a cardboard cake box used by the Katong Co. Bakery and Confectionery, better known as the Red House Bakery due to the red exterior of its shophouse at East Coast Road. A Jewish man, Jim Baker, first set up the bakery shop in 1925. Later, a Hainanese seaman, Tan Siang Fuan (the donor’s father), paid a token amount of S$600 and took over the business in 1931. The bakery is located in a shophouse that is a wakaf property, which was put in trust to the Islamic Religious Council of Singapore by Sherrifa Zain Alsharoff Mohamed Alsogoff. Business ended in 2003 when the shophouse was found to be structurally unsafe.The Red House Bakery was popular for cakes and pastries such as curry puffs, Swiss rolls and barbecued pork buns. It was also a gathering place for local bands during the 1960s, as well as dating couples and matchmaking sessions. The bakery practised a payment system based on trust, the norm among old establishments. Customers would first choose and eat the items that they fancied, and then proceed to make payment.
