I don't do much in the way of celebrating Easter here in Japan. I'm not very religious, and baking a ham or lamb would be a difficult thing to try to do where we live. But I do enjoy Hot Cross buns, and have made and enjoyed them in the past.

This year, I did a quick internet search for recipes, even though I have a recipe that I've used in the past successfully. I ended up using the recipe from a BBC site that looked pretty easy and delicious. It takes some time, so I had to pass on making it yesterday, leaving for today, Easter Sunday (for those who follow such holidays).

The recipe called for chopped apple, and I decided to grate it instead. I think this was a major mistake, as the apple made the dough very, very moist. I ended up having to add more flour, and when trying to shape the dough it was still quite sticky, so that the buns were not smooth. The resulting buns are best described by my wife as 'wild'!

I didn't want to make a cross using flour and water (there's no taste in that), so I considered making the cross with the icing.

For the icing, I decided to mix some marmalade inside, which made it quite tasty. I gave up the idea of making a cross, thinking that these buns needed to be free from any religious connotations and instead decided to slop on some of that delicious icing. The result was nice.

These buns are fluffy soft, lightly spiced with cinnamon, full of raisins, apple, and marmalade. Somehow, this doesn't seem very Spring-like, yet for me, they're very Spring-like. And yummy.

Happy Spring.