Bake the New British Celebrity: Soda Bread

A remarkably humble baked good has recently attained celebrity status. It’s not French. It’s not covered in gold foil. And it certainly doesn’t take years of training to perfect. Soda bread has become a media darling, simply for being a quick and trustworthy loaf that the beginner baker can accomplish.

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Nigel Slater, Lorraine Pascale, and Nigella Lawson have all baked soda bread on their TV programmes recently. There are two cookery trends that have helped push soda bread into the spotlight — home bread baking and 'simple' recipes.

The convergence of these two trends set off a flurry of encouragement to make soda bread. Why does it fit the bill so well, for so many? This bread doesn’t require many of the steps that fill new bakers with fear and loathing: kneading, proving, and shaping. Even if you do feel comfortable baking, soda bread is a delight because it can be ready in under an hour.

Recently there has been a massive swell of interest in bread making, and baking books and classes have been popping up in abundance. First time bakers, keen to get their hands in and start making their own, can easily feel deflated if their initial loaves don’t meet expectations.

It doesn’t help that everything is touted as being just SO easy and quick to make now. Or to translate that into Jamie Oliver speak; while preparing a dish for his 30 minute meal TV series he exclaimed: "Even a raving lunatic can do this!"

The problem with, uh, encouraging sentiments such as this is, when you’re in your kitchen trying to prepare a simple-easy-quick-lunatic-friendly recipe and it’s not going well, you feel so raving inadequate.

I’m here, as someone who has taken a couple of bread making classes but still struggles to consistently get all the elements quite right (there are good loaves and there are what-the-hell-happened-there loaves), with assurance that you can make soda bread.

With its pillowy centre, crusty shell, and comforting nostalgic fragrance, soda bread will become a staple once you take the plunge and make your first batch. It's a gate-way bread — once you bake it, you'll be eager to try other bread recipes. That’s an addiction I’m happy to enable.

This article was written for the Bake with Maria website. Click here to read the remainder of the article and try the recipe! While you're over there check out Maria's brilliant selection of baking classes, which take place at her Baking Lab in West London. I've taken classes taught by Maria and heartily recommend. 

The Great British Scone

Since Wills and Kate set the date, a convivial phrase has become part of the daily lexicon: The Great British Street Party. Although I've lived in the UK for six years, until recently I'd been ignorant of this phenomenon. This may be because commoners only seem keen to gather outside their dwellings in such organised bunting-clad celebration when a Very Important Royal Event is held.

 Street party celebrating 1937 coronation of George 'King's Speech' VI
(courtesy of Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea)

This tradition finds neighbours bonding together to enjoy a day of festivities and heaps of food in their street. It sounds like something people did in the much ballyhooed 'good ol'days' (back when a man knew his neighbours and children could play outside!) but in the year 2011 would only be written about by lifestyle journalists desperate for royal wedding fodder. Yet according to Streets Alive, an organisation that encourages al fresco fetes, and several people I actually know, there will indeed be roadblocks and merriment.

Whether you'll be hanging bunting and hoisting furniture into the road; sitting round the kitchen table gossiping about The Dress and The Kiss; or (let's be honest here) sprawled on the sofa, basking in the glow of Kate's shiny hair, while your own remains unbrushed — there will be food involved.