What are hot cross buns?

A hot cross bun, is a spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, and has been traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, India, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States.They are available all year round in some places including the UK.

The bun marks the end of the Christian season of Lent and different parts of the hot cross bun have a certain meaning, including the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus, and the spices inside signifying the spices used to embalm him at his burial and may also include orange peel to reflect the bitterness of his time on the Cross.

In many historically Christian countries, plain buns made without dairy products are traditionally eaten hot or toasted after midday on Good Friday. The Greeks in 6th century AD may have marked cakes with a cross.

One theory is that the hot cross bun originates from St. Albans, in England, where, in 1361, Brother Thomas Rodcliffe, a 14th-century monk at St Albans Abbey, developed a similar recipe called an 'Alban Bun' and distributed the bun to the local poor on Good Friday.

The first definite record of hot cross buns comes from a London street cry: "Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs. With one or two a penny hot cross buns", which appeared in Poor Robin's Almanac for 1733. The line "One a penny, two a penny, hot cross-buns" appears in the English nursery rhyme "Hot Cross Buns".