I've been trying out lots of soda bread recipes recently, and one in particular seems to really stand out every time I make it. When I ask people why they like it so much the response is usually something about it being 'Cakey'. Building on this I thought I'd try adding some cheese to the mix, a few sunflower seeds, some chunks of a really good ham. It was delicious, absolutely amazing. I was imagining toasting it on a sunday morning and topping it with a poached egg and some hollandaise sauce. I was a genius, I didn't tell anyone about my discovery until I could perfect it, patent it, make a fortune! Then I read this; http://nyti.ms/91adGw. Turns out the french have been doing this for years. They'd obviously taken my approach of 'This is too good to tell everyone about. We'll let them think we're all about frogs legs when really we're eating the most delicious sweet bread / savoury cake ever invented!'

I'll let you read the article and use their recipe, not that it's better than mine rather that I'm still keeping it a secret in the hope that one day I can patent it! But before you go read their article, please take a second to visit www.loveyourlarder.com and leave us your email address. We're getting ready to launch the site this summer and we'd love to be able to tell you about it when we do.

NY Times Article and Recipe; http://nyti.ms/91adGw