Café Cecilia’s Guinness bread

Guinness bread was the beginning of Café Cecilia. In a strange way, without it there wouldn’t be a café and I would have never learned how to cook. At a time when I was desperate to recover from depression, I decided I needed some time out from the music management company where I was working. My mother Odette showed me her recipe for Guinness bread, and I found that the meditation of mixing the bread really helped with the pressure and intensity of what I was going through.

My mum is from Ireland and the bread recipe is very traditionally Irish. Every meal at Café Cecilia begins and ends with a nod to this bread. From the bread plate when you first sit down to the Guinness bread ice cream for dessert, it always features. It’s slightly sweet, with notes of treacle along with the buttermilk, and I find it brings something unique to the café’s menu, as it’s hard to find good freshly baked Irish soda bread in London. Our menu changes daily, but the soda bread is always here.