One a Penny, Two a Penny

Mother bought a sack (I really like the word "sack") of hot cross buns and they're sitting on the kitchen counter. I want to eat one. I'm not hungry; I am just craving the spicy sweetness, the brittle chewiness of the white icing. I crave it with a mortal weakness. 

And now I'm thinking about Lord of the Rings. 

Hot cross buns should not be associated with all that is holy; they are the Devil's buns. Who else could conjure such a delicious bun? I would dive into a vat of hot cross buns and eat them all, even if that meant I would die. They're so good. The bread itself is always perfect; so soft and chewy. You know the bread that collapses in on itself to form a chewy, dense mess when you take a bite? Oh, to take a bite. 

Then there's the spice and fruit. I'm usually not much of a dried fruit girl (unless I'm trying to be healthy and shit?) but the dried fruit in hot cross buns always intermingles so well with the spices. It blows my mind. And they are always moist. It's like the raisins have been plucked straight from a grape vine and not dried at all. No, from a raisin vine. It's as if they're not dried fruit at all; just really intense, ugly fresh fruit.

I could just smell a bun all day. I really could. 

And then for the white icing (if that is the real name?). So under appreciated yet so integral to the hot cross bun. Without it, it would just be a hot bun. And if you didn't heat it up, it would just be a bun (speaking of which, one should NEVER not heat/toast a hot cross bun). Have you ever TASTED the white icing by itself? It tastes of nothing. Yet when you get a bite of that divinity in your mouth all sloshed up with the bready goodness... So good. The texture, the texture!

I think I'm going to eat a hot cross bun now. Save me.

J