Dining Latino: Cakes by Moraima & Café offers fresh goods and relaxing ambiance

Since opening in 2021, Cakes by Moraima & Café has offered fresh baked goods, coffee, and food in a peaceful, naturally lit storefront.

Owner Moraima Gonzalez said that prior to opening the café, she made custom cakes for clients while working a regular job. With encouragement from customers and family, including her husband Carlos Quintana, she decided to open her own coffeeshop and bakery.

After deciding on the 443 Cumberland St. location, she also created a menu of fresh-cooked food to serve alongside drinks and baked goods.

Gonzalez explained that she recently decided to stop baking custom cakes due to a health scare. However, the café still offers cakes by the slice.

Among the most popular foods at the café, Gonzalez said, are the pastrami sandwiches and tripletas, Puerto Rican sandwiches containing cube steak, roasted pork, and ham. They also offer a variety of breakfast foods like French toast, oatmeal, and omelets.

In baked goods, she said her quesitos — Puerto Rican puff pastries containing a sweet cream cheese filling — are very popular. Also for sale are macarons, muffins, sugar donuts, and more.

The café offers 27 flavors of coffee, as well as cappuccinos, chai lattes, matcha, teas, and more.

The majority of customers, Gonzalez said, dine in, though takeout is also available. She attributes this in part to the café’s decor, noting that she has loved decorating, cleaning, and organizing since she was a child.

Cakes by Moraima & Café is a family business run by Gonzalez and Quintana, without whom Gonzalez said the café would not be possible. She said many regulars also enjoy being able to spend time with her family, including her kids and young grandkids who are often at the café.

Gonzalez said that her Christian faith is a large motivator in how she runs her business, from music to decor to daily prayer before opening up in the morning.

“For us, Jesus is the first thing, he’s the most important thing, and we want to give people the opportunity to know Jesus,” said Gonzalez, who said she hopes customers can feel at peace while at the café.

Gonzalez thanked her regulars, noting one family who has come several times a week for years and others who stop by for coffee or breakfast daily. She said her customers are a diverse group of all ages.

“I’m surprised the way that the people support us,” said Gonzalez. “Always, people support, and they bring in other people.”

Cakes by Moraima & Café is open Tuesdays through Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.