Hot Cross Buns

🐤 Happy Easter 🐤

daffodils + sunshine = happiness

"Hot cross buns, hot cross buns

one a penny two a penny hot cross buns.

If you have no daughters give them to your sons

one a penny two a penny hot cross buns".

The nursery rhyme "One a penny, two a penny, Hot Cross Buns" emerged from the tradition of street sellers hawking Hot Cross Buns. It was first published in "The Christmas Box" in London in 1798.

The St Alban Bun is thought to be the original Hot Cross Bun which was first produced on the site of St Albans Cathedral by a medieval monk, Brother Thomas Rocliffe. According to "Ye Book of St Albans", in 1361 Thomas “caused a quantity of small sweet spiced cakes, marked with a cross, to be made”.
The cakes, which were given away on Good Friday, “so pleased the palates of the people who were the recipients that they became talked about, and various were the attempts to imitate the cakes of Brother Rocliffe all over the country, but the recipe of which was kept within the walls of the Abbey”.

In 1592 hot cross buns were briefly banned in England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. The ban was not intended to be a permanent restriction, but rather a measure to ensure the buns were not seen as a replacement for the traditional Easter bread. The queen and her court considered them "too special to be eaten any other day" and issued a decree prohibiting their sale except on specific holidays, such as Good Friday and Christmas.

I wonder what Brother Thomas would make of the array of hot cross buns produced today.

Apple and cinnamon, triple chocolate

salted caramel, rhubarb and custard

M&S has a bun for everone!

There are ‘luxury’, ‘very berry’ and ‘extra fruity’ versions. There are buns filled with fudge, and I saw some Kit Kat ones in Australia.

It's enough to send Brother Rocliffe fleeing back to the safety of St Albans Abbey!

Just give me a nice traditional sticky fruit bun 😋

∼ Be safe and well∼ 

Polly x