About

I’m Kaisa, originally from Finland, and now feeling fully adopted by Brussels. I ended up here a bit randomly after high school and stayed as the city stole my heart.

I’ve kind of always baked. First just helping out my mom in the kitchen, but soon enough I made my own cakes. When I was younger, I never thought of baking professionally, but as it is something I really enjoy, I decided to go for it. So, I studied baking, started experimenting with different flavours and I realized that it’s the taste that is important to me. I’m all about simple, but delicious cakes!

I also really like celebrating birthdays. Or any occasion, to be honest. I think it’s important to treat yourself day-to-day and this is something I try to offer to people with Pala. You can take a look at my offer here. Smakelijk!

What does Pala mean?

Pala is Finnish for “piece”, as in “piece of cake“.

What is your favourite cake?

Lemon or berries are the safe choices, but something unusual like elderflower or seabuckthorn will always catch my eye as well. And obviously, the chicon cake (see below) holds a special place in my heart.

What is the chicon cake?

A few years ago, I was experimenting with different recipes and ingredients. At one point, in the autumn, I tried different seasonal vegetables, like carrot and parsnip. That gave me the idea to also make a cake with chicon (endive/witloof), a vegetable I really like, and which I hadn’t seen in a cake yet.

The chicon cake turned out well, and it is the cake I am most proud of, because the chicon is a bit unusual and a great symbol for my love for Brussels. The chicon cake is available occasionally as a monthly cake.