Guinness in a cruffin, carrot cake in a Danish and the bakers behind the scenes: Bold Boy Bakery gives the Two Pups coffee run new possibilities.

October 2026: Two Pups has a few notions about what should go with your morning coffee. Guinness and chocolate custard? Maybe orange cheesecake and cardamom carrot jam? Or, for those who prefer savoury, a little heat from chipotle, jalapeños and queso. Behind these bold ideas are sisters May and Charli Burke, whose creations at Bold Boy Bakery fill the pastry counters at Two Pups Francis Street and Fairview.

Having an in-house bakery marked another milestone for Two Pups founders Zoe Ewing Evans and Kevin Douglas, who began serving coffee from the back of Kevin’s campervan in 2015. As the business grew to include two cafés and Notions, its evening restaurant and natural wine bar on Francis Street, so did the team’s appetite for making things in-house. In January 2025, Bold Boy Bakery became the latest brainchild from the culinary team at Two Pups.

Its inspiration came from the sort of behaviour a good bake tends to encourage. Like licking the spoon, sneaking a finger into the icing and nabbing a bread roll before it even has a chance to cool. That childhood mischief helped shape an opening line-up of croissants, sourdough and orange-and-cinnamon morning buns, setting the tone for a bakery with plenty to tempt coffee customers.

For Head Baker May Burke, that love of baking also began at home, watching her mam make choux pastry and rough puff for family parties, before studying Baking and Pastry Arts at DIT, now TU Dublin. She went on to hone her bread and pastry skills at Edinburgh’s Twelve Triangles and Baker & Graze in Cheltenham, later building a pastry department from the ground up at La Boulangerie Artisan.

Among the temptations is the Guinness Cruffin (€4.75), which started with May suggesting mini-Guinness cakes for St Patrick’s Day, before Kevin wondered whether they could turn the idea into a cruffin. The result is filled with Guinness and chocolate custard and topped with whipped cream cheese frosting, giving the black stuff a place beside your flat white.

Keeping it company is the Carrot Cake Danish (€4.75), with flaky, laminated pastry topped with orange cheesecake and cardamom carrot jam, bringing warming spice, a little citrus and a creamy finish to a familiar favourite.

For those who prefer a little heat with their coffee, the Quesadilla Danish (€5.60) started with May’s younger sister, Charli, and her love of tacos. Having first joined May in bakeries during summer and Christmas holidays, Charli now works alongside her at Bold Boy, where a conversation about turning tacos into a pastry led to plenty of testing and tasting. They landed on laminated pastry swirled with chipotle, filled with beans and queso, and topped with cheese, jalapeños and lime and coriander gel.

Getting everything onto the counter means starting early, with baked goods prepared fresh each morning before the kitchen changes gear for café service and, later at Francis Street, dinner at Notions. It takes some smart choreography behind the easy-going atmosphere, with the first taste of that work waiting on the counter for morning visitors.

Lead baker at Bold Boy Bakery, May Burke says, “There’s something lovely about getting the first trays out in the morning and seeing everything ready before the doors open. Charli and I have a lot of fun coming up with fresh ideas and innovative ways to combine flavours unexpectedly. Sometimes it starts with a cake we love or something we’ve eaten that makes us think, ‘Could that work in a pastry?’ Then comes the testing, tasting and tweaking. Working with your sister means you tend to get a fairly honest answer! We want that sense of

enjoyment to come through in what we make and hopefully give people a favourite they’ll keep coming back for.”

Along with many other daily and seasonal specials, the Guinness Cruffin, Carrot Cake Danish and Quesadilla Danish are available at both Two Pups Francis Street, Dublin 8, and Two Pups Fairview, Dublin 3.

For more information, follow @two_pups_coffee on Instagram or visit www.twopupscoffee.com.