I cannot believe that Easter is a few days away. Where did the time go? Seems like yesterday when I was getting all excited about my Christmas table spread, then New Year and now another festive celebration. I love Easter. For me, it is a season to wind down, reflect then celebrate. Growing up, I enjoyed dying eggs for Easter egg hunt or just for the fun of it. They looked pretty I thought with all those swirls of bright colours. And who doesn’t love Easter chocolate eggs? It is amazing how over the years, chocolatiers are getting more and more creative with their Easter chocolate creations. Another favourite this time of the year is hot-cross buns. These days you can buy them in all sorts – plain, with chocolate, with or without fruits, gluten-free ( I even made refined sugar-free ones last year) and some gourmet-y flavours like these ones I bought from my local supermarket, raspberry and white chocolate hot-cross buns. They are nice on their own but why stop there? I love bread and butter pudding so thought I’d make one with these special buns. So quick and easy to prepare. I like serving it a bit warm with whipped cream or ice cream. Bonus treat this time, the local supermarket came up with a special ice cream flavour. You guessed it right, hot-cross bun flavoured ice cream. Indulgent indeed!

Ingredients

• 4 Hot-cross buns ( any flavour you like)
• 4 eggs, room temperature
• 1/3 cup caster sugar ( I used Stevia granules but you can use caster if you like)
• 500 ml pure cream
• 1/3 cup frozen raspberries
• snow icing sugar and small Easter eggs, to decorate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160C degrees. Slice the hot-cross buns in halves. Set tops aside. Roughly tear chop bun bases. Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, sugar and cream. Add bun bases and let stand for 5 minutes.
3. Using a slotted spoon, transfer and arrange soaked bun bases into a baking dish ( about 4-5 cm deep). Dip the cut side of the hot-cross bun tops into the egg mixture and arrange with cross side up in the dish. Pour remaining egg mixture around the bun tops.
4. Scatter frozen raspberries around bun tops.
5. Loosely cover with foil then bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 10-15 minutes or until custard is set.
6. Remove from oven. Let it stand for 10 minutes.
7. Decorate with the Easter eggs. Dust with snow icing sugar.
8. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream.