Finally, it is time to eat hot cross buns. When you think about it, they should be called ‘cold cross buns’ or even ‘room temperature buns’. Given that they are often served without being heated, the name has always perplexed me.
You sit in one of two camps when it comes to eating hot cross buns: you devour them all year round, or you wait because you are a civilised human and eat them during the Easter period. This is the only acceptable behaviour, in my opinion.
I am very anti-HCB eating until March. My wicked carb-loving kids love nothing more than buying the cubes of goodness in February to tease me. The only worse mental punishment is watching someone unfold a road map and then fold it back up again without hitting the creased folds.
Sacrilegious! But no one under 50 knows what I am talking about because we all just use our phones for directions these days. The same confused look is found on Gen X faces if I mention fax machines/pagers/dial-up internet and Blu-ray DVD machines.
If we continue down the lane of nostalgia town, I will add the Yellow Pages, telegrams at weddings, developing film and phones attached to walls in your kitchen. I clearly remember the pain of having to call a friend and talk to their mum to ask permission to speak to my bestie. It was worth it when I spent two hours sitting on the floor in the far corner of the kitchen as my siblings screamed at me to get off the only phone in the house. I can still recite my mum’s landline: 3343 3440.
Back to the room temperature cross buns: I love the standard cube spiked with fruit and spice. Served with butter. Traditional. Good for the soul. This year, Woolworths has apple and cinnamon HCBs and Cinnabon buns with an oozy, cream cheese-style filling. Coles has doubled down on its HCB game and is selling Doritos-inspired, cheesy-jalapeno HCBs. You can also grab Arnott’s Mint Slice buns, matcha and raspberry or sticky date pudding buns. But the piece de resistance in this glow-up battle of the bun is the IGA Reese’s Peanut Butter: the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter.
So, pour yourself a cuppa, slip on the ugg boots and happy HCB eating, my friends!
Sami Muirhead is a radio announcer, blogger and commentator, wife and mum of three.
