About Me & Contact

Hey there! Welcome to my little corner of the web! My name is Sophia and I live in Brussels, Belgium.

I started this site over 5 years ago when I was a stressed and overworked junior associate in an international law firm in London and desperate for a creative outlet. I have always had a passion for food and all things food-related (my nightstand groans under the weight of cookbooks I read every night before falling asleep and sightseeing for me invariably includes walking up and down foreign supermarket aisles). So a food blog was an obvious choice.

Over the years the blog has become more than just a creative outlet for myself, but also a space where I get to share recipes that excite me. The food I share is inspired by anything and everything. Although I was born in Germany, I have spent more than half of my life living abroad, most of which was in London. But I have also lived in Austria and in Italy and have now been living in Belgium for almost 4 years. I also love to travel and trying new things wherever I go. So while there is the odd German recipe on this blog, the majority of posts highlight somewhat unusual recipes that I think deserve more time in the spotlight or recipes that use ingredients we already know but that are used in an unusual way. Most recipes are for the sweet-toothed among us, but more and more I have added some savoury recipes as well and look forward to continuing that in the future.

I hope you enjoy reading along!

Contact

Have any questions, comments, or just want to get in touch?

Want to discuss freelance opportunities or recipe development projects or anything else?

I would love to hear from you – leave a comment below or send me an email at realsimplefoodblog [AT] googlemail [DOT] com and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  You can also find me on twitter (@srealsimplefood), instagram (srealsimplefood), and pinterest (Sophia R).

24 thoughts on “About Me & Contact”

  6. Hi, I am Anna from http://www.granellidizucchero.com !
    I have decided to nominate you for the Liebster Blog award because I love your blog, it’s amazing, congrats! The Liebster Award is a contest for bloggers with less than 200 followers, it is an easy and nice way to let people know about your blog!! Check my newest post and if you have questions about the award don’t hesitate to contact me!

    http://granellidizucchero.com/2013/05/13/my-first-liebster-award/

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  7. Hi, just like you I too moved to brussels in April 2014. I am a vegetarian both by choice and custom. Finding vegetarian replacements are proving to be tough here more because of language barrier. I found your site when I was looking for egg replacer for muffins ( my daughter lives for and on sweets). You have mentioned about flax seeds gel can you please tell me where and under what names should I find these in Brussels? You have also mentioned about you trying recipes with garam masalas being an Indian I felt very happy about it. Good luck.

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    • Hi Bhuvana, Being a vegetarian in Brussels is not as easy as elsewhere but definitely doable. I think your best bet is to seek out the various organic supermarkets which sell Tofu, Tempeh etc. I like Farm in Ste Catherine or la Tsampa and Tan in Chatelain. There is also a Japanese supermarket near Chaussee de Fleurgat which is great if you are looking for rarer ingredients. The boiled flax seed gel I used was specific to recipes like marshmallows or meringue-like buttercream recipes – I think for muffins you can take an easier route. Many vegan recipes for muffins or quick breads call for flax eggs – you make this by whisking 1 tbsp flax seeds or ground flax seeds with 2.5-3 tbsp water and leaving it to thicken for 15 mins – that will be enough for 1 egg. I have used this technique for muffins, quickbreads and cookies and it works well. If you are generally interested in vegan cake recipes (and don’t mind cup measures), ohladycakes.com has numerous vegan recipes on her site which all look scrumptious. And you might even be able to find flax seeds (also called lin seeds) in larger supermarkets. And yes, garam masala is fantastic – I love cooking and baking with it!

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      • Hi Sophie
        Thanks a ton for taking time to reply my query. Will look for flaxseed today and will visit the places you have mentioned this weekend. Yeah living in Brussels have made me a better cook, I am confidently cooking few authentic indian recipes which can easily be store brought back home 😊 thanks again. Good luck

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  12. I love your website, Sophie! Since I do not have the time right now to investigate every recipe on your website, could you possibly suggest one of your recipes which can be used as a birthday cake? Fortuitously I found your website just at the right time, because my boyfriend’s birthday is Feb. 10th. We prefer the European taste as far as sweets are concerned, even though we live in America. Each of our grandparents came from Europe. The recipe you suggest does not need to be round like a cake. It just needs to be somewhat festive. Thank you for whatever time and effort you put into this. I appreciate it!

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    • Thank you Kathleen for you super sweet comment and I feel honoured you want to try one of my recipes for your boyfriend’s birthday! I’m not sure the cake recipes on my blog are what we would traditionally consider “festive” (which for me is probably a layer cake with a buttercream frosting or similar) but there are plenty of options for delicious cakes which I would happily make (or have myself) as a birthday cake. Here are a few suggestions:

      A Sumac Drizzle Cake – https://realsimplefoodblog.com/2018/03/26/sumac-drizzle-cake/

      You could make this more festive by baking it in a round tin, slicing in half and filling with whipped cream and a sourcherry compote.

      A labneh cheesecake – https://realsimplefoodblog.com/2020/07/12/labneh-cheesecake-with-cardamom-and-syrupy-saffron-apricots/

      Probably not a typical birthday cake but as someone who adores cheesecake I would be very happynif someone baked me a cheesecake for my birthday

      A Preserved Lemon Loaf Cake – https://realsimplefoodblog.com/2022/04/03/preserved-lemon-drizzle-loaf/

      You could make this more festive by decorating the top of the cake with some syrupy candied lemon slices and/or serving the cake with whipped creme fraiche into which you have loosely folded some lemon curd.

      Happy baking!

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      • Sophia, thank you not only for the reply, but also for the speed of the reply. Most amazing, especially if you are experiencing interrupted sleep.

        I have decided on the lemon loaf cake, and am gathering the ingredients right now. I grow my own Meyer lemons (sweet on a sour base) here in the Mojave Desert. If I cannot find all of the ingredients, I might have to put my own spin on the creation of the birthday cake.

        I couldn’t find an oven temperature in the recipe. If you remember it, please reply. (I know how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit.) If not, I’ll take an educated guess. No problem. Take care, Kathleen

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      • Thank you Kathleen and sorry for the missing temp – that would be 180 degrees Celsius.

        Hope you and your boyfriend enjoy the cake! And Meyer lemons sound like a wonderful idea for this cake!

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