The Society for the Preservation of Irish Soda Bread at Sodabread.info points out strenuously that real soda bread was plain day-to-day food and had no embellishments at all.

Common variations of soda bread containing sugar, butter or any fat, eggs or dried fruit, they say, do not qualify as soda bread but are more properly referred to as fruit bread, spotted dog or railway cake. The “X” in the soda bread allows for expansion while baking, but, of course it’s not an X, but a cross, which is supposed to keep the devil away…

Read recipes with instructions and ingredients in the March issue of Shelby Living. Find your copy here.