Ontbijtkoek (or Dutch Breakfast Cake) is a spice bread which is excellent for breakfast or even as an afternoon snack with a cup of tea. It's easy to make and extremely fragrant and flavorful!
Directly translated, ontbijtkoek means breakfast cake in Dutch. This sweet and spiced treat has Dutch and Flemish origins, and is often enjoyed as commercially produced and rarely homemade. That being said, it’s easy enough to bake yourself at home, so there’s no reason not to!
This naturally egg-free bread/cake also doesn’t have any added fats like butter or oil in the batter. It features a warm blend of winter spices and a trifecta of sweeteners, giving it a delicious and complex flavor, and soft and slightly chewy texture.
It’s best served at least one day after it’s made to allow the crust to soften and get a bit sticky. Spread slices with soft butter to enjoy the ultimate treat!
Ingredient notes
- Rye Flour: Rye flour adds a deep brown color and nice depth of flavor to ontbijtkoek.
- All-Purpose Flour: Whereas rye flavor doesn’t contain gluten, adding some all-purpose (plain) flour to create a blend provides both lightness and structure to the cake, which would otherwise be quite dense without it.
- Spices: A mixture of warm spices include ground cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, cloves, nutmeg, and coriander. Some recipes also include black pepper and/or anise. You can modify the spice mixture to your taste, as it certainly ranges from place to place.
- Brown Sugar: There are three different sweeteners in this recipe. The first is brown sugar, which could be light or dark brown sugar depending on what you have or what you prefer (the dark will have a more intense flavor). In the Netherlands they actually use basterdsuiker, which is a type of dark brown caster sugar, but brown sugar will work just as well. It adds both sweetness and moisture to the ontbijtkoek, in addition to more of that deep brown color.
- Honey and Molasses: The last two sweeteners in this recipe are honey and molasses (regular, not blackstrap). Typically, you could use Dutch stroop syrup instead, but this can be difficult to find in most places. A combination of honey and molasses fits the bill more easily.
- Milk: The main liquid (other than the liquid sweeteners) is milk. Although I normally advocate for using whatever milk you have on hand, in this case since there is no other added fat, I’d suggest using whole milk if possible.
How to make it
Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) with the rack in the center. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with butter or pan spray. Line the bottom and long sides of the loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper with some overhang on either side to create a sling (to easily lift the baked cake out of the pan).
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together rye flour, all-purpose flour, brown sugar, baking powder, and spices.
Warm milk and whisk in honey and molasses until smooth.
Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir with a rubber spatula until smooth, but don’t overmix.
Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan.
Bake until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes.
Cool for 15 to 20 minutes in the pan, then use the parchment paper sling to remove from the pan and finish cooling on a rack.
Serve slices at room temperature, slathered with soft butter.
Please scroll to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (in a printable recipe card) including ingredient amounts and detailed instructions.
Expert tips
Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or longer (the high sugar content helps preserve it). This cake is best served the day after it’s baked, once the crust softens and gets sticky.
I highly recommend serving thin slices of ontbijtkoek with softened good quality salted butter (like Kerrygold) spread over the top. First, the cake itself has no added fat, so the butter is a welcome treat. Second, the creaminess and bit of saltiness really balances out the sweetness and spices in the cake.
The center of the loaf can sometimes sink towards the end of the baking time, but this is quite common. The breakfast cake will still taste delicious!
Other recipes you may like
- Pain d'Épices (Bouchon Bakery French Gingerbread Loaf)
- Gingerbread Muffins
- Basler Leckerli (Swiss Spiced Cookie Bars)
- Perníčky (Czech Gingerbread Cookies)
Tried this recipe? Please leave a star ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ rating in the recipe card below and/or a review in the comments section further down the page. You can also follow me on social media on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest!
Ontbijtkoek (Dutch Breakfast Cake)
Ingredients
Dry Ingredients:
- 125 grams (1 cup) all-purpose flour
- 115 grams (1 cup) rye flour
- 100 grams (½ cup) packed light or dark brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground coriander
Wet Ingredients:
- 1 cup milk
- 165 grams (½ cup) honey
- 80 grams (¼ cup) molasses (not blackstrap molasses)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C) with the rack in the center. Grease a 9-by-5-inch loaf pan with butter or pan spray. Line the bottom and long sides of the loaf pan with a piece of parchment paper with some overhang on either side to create a sling (to easily lift the baked cake out of the pan).
- In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, breaking up any lumps of brown sugar.
- Warm the milk either in a small saucepan on the stovetop over low heat or in a large glass measuring cup in the microwave until warm but not scalded. Whisk in the honey and molasses until smooth.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and gently stir with a rubber spatula until smooth, but don’t overmix.
- Transfer the batter to the prepared loaf pan and bake until a toothpick or cake tester comes out clean, about 45 to 55 minutes. The center of the loaf can sometimes sink, but this is quite common. The breakfast cake will still taste delicious!
- Cool for 15 to 20 minutes in the pan, then use the parchment paper sling to remove from the pan and finish cooling on a rack. Serve slices at room temperature, slathered with soft butter.
Notes
- Store the cake in an airtight container at room temperature for a week or longer (the high sugar content helps preserve it).
- This cake is best served the day after it’s baked, once the crust softens and gets sticky.
Nutrition
*All nutritional information is based on third-party calculations and should be considered estimates. Actual nutritional content will vary with brands used, measuring methods, portion sizes and more.*
Mary
So yummy and easy to make.
Agnes
Hello. What can we use instead of molasses? Thank you
Victoria
Hi Agnes,
The combination of honey and molasses get you pretty close to stroop, which is a type of Dutch syrup which would typically be used here. Without molasses you could try using all honey but this will obviously yield a very different flavor and maybe even a different final texture. If you can grab a jar of molasses for this recipe, I'd try and stick to the ingredients listed since I can't guarantee how the results would turn out otherwise. If you try it with all honey though, let me know how it goes!