“Good Friday comes this month, the old woman runs, with one or two a penny hot cross buns…” was written in Poor Robin’s Almanac in 1733, marking one of the first definitive representations of the sweet annual tradition within the United Kingdom.
The spiced and saccharine Easter saviour and the baked good we most look forward to consuming with lashings of butter when spring finally rolls around, the hot cross bun carries some lofty lore within its humble glazed shell. Traditionally eaten on Good Friday to commemorate the crucifixion, the hot cross bun was actually banned for a period of time by Elizabeth I – who found their pompous popery wholly inappropriate and only allowed for them to be eaten on specific holidays.
