A hot cross bun is a spiced
sweet bun made
with currants
or raisins and
marked with a cross on the top, traditionally eaten on Good
Friday.
Here are some I made.
A popular nursery rhyme about them goes
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!
Poor Robin’s Almanack for 1733, the earliest reference to these doughy delights for a meatless fast-day, connects Good Friday and the “one or two a penny hot cross buns”, adding that their “virtue is, if you believe what’s said, / They’ll not grow mouldy like common bread”.
The biblical scholar would say this relates to Peter's Pentecost sermon when he quotes the 16th Psalm as referring to Jesus resurrection: (Acts 2:27) “Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.”
The scientist would say it is the cinnamon that inhibits mold growth.
The cook might observe that of course they are so tasty they don't last long enough to mold.
