Barmbrack

Bairin breac means speckled loaf, and it is a lightly sweetened yeasted bread studded with raisins and sultanas soaked in tea or whiskey, eaten sliced with butter. The Halloween version is the one with the tradition: charms are baked into it, and whoever gets which in their slice learns something about the coming year - a ring means marriage, a coin wealth, a piece of cloth or rag poverty, a thimble spinsterhood, a bean or pea no marriage at all. Commercial bracks now include only a ring, wrapped in paper, for the obvious safety reason. Joyce uses the tradition in Clay in Dubliners. Outside October a plainer version, often a tea brack made without yeast and leavened with baking powder, is sold year-round in every supermarket. It is not a cake and is not meant to be - it is bread, and it is eaten buttered, generally with tea.

What you actually see

• The charms - ring, coin, rag, thimble and pea, each with a meaning.
• The soaked fruit - raisins and sultanas steeped in tea or whiskey.
• The Halloween timing - the charmed version sold through October.
• The tea brack - the plainer year-round version, chemically leavened.

When to go

October for the traditional charmed loaf; a plainer version is on supermarket shelves all year. Bakeries and market stalls make better ones than the mass-produced brands.

Honest expectations

It is bread rather than cake and disappoints people expecting something rich. Commercial versions contain only a wrapped ring, not the full set of charms. Dry without butter.

Nearby

Sold everywhere; farmers markets in October have the best homemade versions.