When you bite into a dessert prepared with attention to detail, you notice a difference. It seems to have a little something extra. And that's exactly what the Emirati-Pakistani Sidiqa Sohail wants you to feel when you taste her meticulously made desserts at Spontiphoria.
After a successful soft opening in August, Spontiphoria will officially launch in Dubai this weekend, with special promotions starting today.
The cafe's name is a combination of the words spontaneous and euphoria, which is what Sohail says she feels when she bakes. As the sole baker at Spontiphoria, she bakes three times a day to keep up with demand.
"Everyone calls me the grandmother. I enjoy feeding people," says Sohail. "Everyone says they're taken back to the kind of food that their mum or their grandmother made when they were younger."
At 22, Sohail is far from grandmotherly. For her, baking is therapeutic. "Before I started this place, I baked because it was something that relaxed me."
She whips up many of the same desserts in her cafe that she baked as a teenager. Her menu consists of 35 different cakes, including a salted caramel and vanilla baked cheesecake and a lemon mascarpone Swiss roll. There are 32 types of cookies, a variety of cupcakes and about 30 other bites and mini desserts. A selection from each category is freshly prepared every day.
To stand out from the crowd of cafes, Spontiphoria is also a boutique that offers unique goods from around the world, including baby clothes, evening wear, jewellery and perfume. Sohail says: "We didn't see the point in bringing in products that were already [in the region], so all of our suppliers are ones that only have [products] at our place."
Born and raised in Dubai, Sohail has a degree in international relations from the American University of Sharjah and a Master's degree in conflict prevention and peace-building. She intends to use those degrees one day, but for now, Spontiphoria is where her heart is.
"I studied politics. Cakes don't save the world but at the same time, you make a little difference," she says. "You help people make their lives a little bit happier."
* Stacie Overton Johnson
artslife@thenational.ae
• Spontiphoria, Wasl Square, Dubai, is open daily from 8am to midnight and offers a baking class for children every Saturday afternoon
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