My ideal cafe menu and a Preserved Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake

Hello, and welcome to Newsletter No 13 here on Substack! Thank you for stopping by. Grab a seat if you are interested in recipes as well as tips and tricks to make the most of our increasingly eclectic pantries and a good dose of my at times random musings about all things food - and make sure you hit that subscribe button if you don’t want to miss any future posts!

My husband and I love our neighbourhood here in Brussels and its proximity to Bois de la Cambre (a true lifesaver during the pandemic), however, despite a large student population our neighbourhood is severely lacking in decent coffee options. So during the pandemic we often dreamt about leaving behind our careers in the EU bubble and taking over one of the empty storefronts around the corner from our apartment and opening our own café.

Alas, we never did realise that daydream and said empty storefront has now been turned into another Pain Quotidien. But I continue to imagine what I would put on the menu if I ever did open a café in Brussels. So if you indulge me and my daydreaming for a moment, below is what my dream cafe menu would look like. And yes, that includes the Preserved Lemon Drizzle Loaf pictured at the top of this newsletter - scroll down to the end for the recipe for this delicious cake! But I am also interested in hearing from you - what do you enjoy eating alongside your coffee (first thing in the morning or as a break) and wished more places around you offered? Are there any fun new drinks you recently tried in a cafe and wished you could find in more places?

Pastries & Cake

I sometimes start my workday by grabbing an oat milk flat white at a cafe around the corner from my office - just to go through any emails received overnight and update my to-do list before heading to the office. If I haven’t already had breakfast with my one year old at home I will often also grab a pastry or a slice of banana bread. Even if, truth be told, I wish most cafes in Brussels had a more interesting selection of pastries and cakes! Below is the sort of spread that I would imagine offering alongside your usual croissants, pains au chocolat, really good sourdough bread etc.. 

Bostock - the lovechild between French Toast and an Almond Croissant, Bostock would be a must. In part, because here in Brussels Bostock is actually not super common (it’s only recently that in addition to Ginkgo you can now find Bostock also at Khobz and Goods). I would probably start with a Pistachio and Orange Blossom Water Frangipane but would also offer some seasonal variations using different types of fresh fruit, spices etc - e.g. with sourcherries and mahleb or poached apricots in summer, poached pears and cardamom in winter, fig leaf and fresh figs in autumn, and maybe at some point a pb&j inspired Bostock with a peanut frangipane with berries.

Babka - I love how some cafes offer individual slices of Babka and I am not even mad I find their siren song hard to resist. Babkas, if done right, are a thing of beauty - moist and pillowy but also ever so slightly chewy, wonderfully sweet and sticky and deeply chocolatey. No wonder it’s hard to find anyone who doesn’t like Babka! Alongside the classic dark chocolate version I can also see myself also offer some variations, for example a poppy seed filled version similar to the German Mohnstriezel of my childhood.

Morning Buns - as impractical as pastries are that will make sure you are covered in sticky flaky remnants of your pastry from head to toe once you are done eating, I cannot resist ordering a Morning Bun when I see one. While you can of course make morning buns at home, they are a bit of a labour of love so are really the perfect thing to treat yourself to when out for breakfast. And in terms of flavours you really cannot go wrong, be it a cinnamon version (or cinnamon and orange zest!), cardamom or something a bit more unusual like black lime, miso walnut etc. 

A good loaf cake - If you ask me, loaf cakes are underrated and underappreciated as a breakfast item. So my cafe would definitely have some good loaf cakes on rotation - each one available to order toasted and served with some salted butter of course! Banana bread, one of the loaf cakes I bake the most in my own kitchen, would most certainly be on the list. And a marble loaf cake - but not just the classic but maybe also a chocolate orange version, or a chocolate coconut one and maybe even a multi-flavour one using matcha, kinako and hojicha.  One loaf cake that I would also put on the menu would be the Preserved Lemon Drizzle Loaf Cake pictured above (recipe below). Sharp and intensely lemony in flavour thanks to a combination of both fresh and preserved lemons; moist thanks to a combination of oil and yoghurt in the batter, the cake holds up well in the way pound cakes or French gateaux de voyage do, i.e. cakes that travel well and easily last a few days. 

Small bites 

I love when cafes don’t just offer larger items like pastries but also offer one bite sweet treats like mini canneles or coconut macaroons because some days you really just want one little bite of something sweet to enjoy with your coffee but don’t want to commit to eating a whole pastry or a chocolate chip cookie the size of the palm of your hand! So you can bet you will also find some small bites at any future café of mine. 

Financiers - rich, indulgent but (two-)bite sized, financiers are some of my favourite treats to have alongside a coffee. I would probably start off by offering the classic almond version but can already imagine offering a fig leaf flavoured one at the end of summer / beginning of autumn. And at other times maybe a black sesame version or a toasted hazelnut one.

Breakfast

Living with a year old means I don’t often get to indulge in a cooked breakfast at a civilised hour but when I do, I appreciate it even more. Below are some of my favourite cooked breakfast dishes - sweet or savoury and from simple to more elaborate. 

Sweet 

Greek yoghurt with Sqirl’s Turmeric ‘Nola and Blueberry Thyme Compote (adding a little bit of thyme when making blueberry compote makes even the blandest supermarket blueberries taste reminiscent of those tiny wild blueberries found in the Swedish countryside!) 

Brown rice porridge with raspberry rose compote and chopped pistachios

Brioche French Toast with labneh, cardamom sugar and sumac strawberries 

Savoury

Toasted sourdough bread with labneh and za’atar oil - optional egg(s) on the side

‘Everything Bagel’ scones with charred scallion cream cheese and smoked salmon

Kimchi grilled cheese with gochujang Ketchup

Toasted cornbread with a soft boiled egg, bacon, quick tomato jam and sriracha mayo

Drinks 

In addition to the usual suspects of espresso, flat white, cappuccino, latte etc. I would expand my drinks menu as follows.

Matcha / Hojicha Lattes - while matcha lattes are increasingly common, hojicha lattes are still somewhat rare around these parts. I would love to change that!

Horchata - poured over ice on its own or with a shot of espresso for an iced horchata latte, Horchata would be another must have item for me. 

Homemade flavoured syrups - and no, I am not talking about homemade pumpkin spice syrup! No, there would be things like a mahleb syrup like the one I enjoyed in my iced coffee from Khobz this summer or maybe a cardamom syrup or gingerbread spice syrup to add to your coffee order should you so wish. 

Turmeric shots - I find it hard to walk past those tiny (and outrageously expensive) turmeric shot bottles, I just adore the flavour so much. It’s actually not difficult to make turmeric shots yourself (even if you might stain your hands (and clothes!) bright yellow for some time) but somehow I keep on forgetting to make my own. And for those who feel the same, I like the idea of offering turmeric shots - something small to down while you wait for your coffee and that is sure to jolt you awake even before your coffee! 

Preserved Lemon Drizzle Loaf

For the cake

275g all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking powder
100g Greek yoghurt
2 preserved lemons, cut into bite sized chunks and rinsed well
Zest of 1 lemon
3 eggs
225g sugar
150ml sunflower oil (or other neutral vegetable oil)

For the drizzle

1 tbsp water
2 tbsp lemon juice
3 tbsp sugar

For the glaze

125g icing sugar
2 tbsp milk

Directions

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and butter a loaf pan and line with parchment paper. 

Whisk together the flour with the baking powder and set aside.

In a food processor (or in a mixing jug using an immersion blender), blend the Greek yoghurt with the preserved lemon and the lemon zest. Set aside.

Beat the eggs with the sugar until light and fluffy, ca. 5 minutes. Continue beating while you slowly pour in the oil. Once all the oil has been absorbed, stir in the Greek yoghurt and lemon mix. Lastly, fold in the flour. 

Pour the cake batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake the cake for ca. 65-70 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. 

In the last 5 minutes or so of the cake baking, prepare the drizzle – in a small saucepan heat the water, lemon juice and sugar until the sugar has fully dissolved.

Once the cake is out of the oven, pierce it all over with a wooden skewer and brush on the drizzle until there is nothing left of the syrup. Wait for 5-10 minutes before carefully removing the cake from the loaf pan and placing it on a rack to come to room temperature.

For the glaze, whisk together the icing sugar and milk until smooth, then slowly spread all over the cake. 

The cake will keep at room temperature for 4-5 days.