When Things Disappear, They Matter More

There is something I have been thinking about since Easter.

Hot cross buns used to appear once a year. For a few short weeks, they arrived in the bakery, smelt of spice and orange, and then disappeared again.

Which made them feel like a gift.

Now they are in the shops in January. And something about that has changed, not just the anticipation, but the way they taste.

Not because we are eating them earlier, but because they are no longer made in quite the same way.

The spice is softer. The texture is different. They last too long on the shelf.

And I think that is what we are really noticing. Not the loss of season, but the loss of something more fundamental. The way these things were made in the first place.

But that does not mean we should stop making them.

If anything, it gives us the freedom to make them properly, on our own terms.

A yule log is really just a chocolate Swiss roll. A hot cross bun loaf, without the cross, is simply a spiced fruit loaf. Easter biscuits, without the label, are just good biscuits. Gently spiced, slightly crumbly, and perfect with a cup of tea on any afternoon you care to make them.

The label is what puts things in a box. Remove it, or shift it slightly, and your kitchen opens up again.

We often see recipes tied to a moment in the calendar and quietly file them away for later. They sit there unused for most of the year, when really they were just good recipes all along.

So that is how I am thinking about what I am sharing with you today.

Not Easter recipes to be packed away until next April. Just good baking. A spiced fruit loaf for a Sunday afternoon. A tin of proper biscuits for the week ahead. Made from real ingredients, made because you felt like making them.

That, to me, is the whole point of cooking from scratch. You are not bound by what is on the shelf. You are not waiting for the right season. You are deciding what your kitchen needs today, and making it.

This week, my kitchen has smelt of spice, citrus and warm butter.

And it took me straight back to Easter as a child, which, when I think about it, was never really about the chocolate. Or at least, not entirely.

Of course, we were excited. Any child would be. But the eggs were modest compared to what you see now. One, maybe two if you were lucky. And because we did not have chocolate all the time, it felt like a real treat.

My brother and I would sit there comparing eggs, making sure neither of us had more than the other. I was always the greedy one. He would make his last. I would eat mine far too quickly, and then sit there very grumpy because he still had some left, and I did not.

Easter itself was simple. I do not remember egg hunts or anything elaborate. What I do remember is making Easter bonnets. Cardboard egg boxes turned into flowers. Tulips and daffodils painted in bright, slightly garish poster paints. Little chicks made from pipe cleaners and whatever else we could find. They were never perfect, but at the time they felt like a masterpiece.

I still remember my dad coming home from work with a Cadbury’s Creme Egg. He worked long days as a lorry driver, so those small things mattered. That was the moment. Easter had arrived.

So for me, Easter has always been about the shift into spring. Daffodils, tulips, crocuses. That slight lift in the air where everything feels a little lighter. A sense that things are starting again.

My kitchen is full of flowers at the moment, some fresh, some faux, but all bringing that same feeling in.

So here is what has been in my kitchen this week.

The Spiced Fruit Loaf

At Easter, this has a cross on top and is called a hot cross bun loaf. Every other month of the year, it is simply a spiced fruit loaf. Sliced thickly, toasted, and eaten with far too much butter while still warm.

Serves 8 to 10

Ingredients

250g self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mixed spice

50g butter, melted

2 eggs

150ml milk

75g currants or raisins

Zest of 1 orange

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C and line a loaf tin.

Mix the flour, baking powder and spices in a bowl.

Stir in the dried fruit and orange zest.

Whisk the eggs, milk and melted butter together.

Combine with the dry ingredients to form a batter.

Spoon into the tin.

Bake for 40 to 45 minutes until risen and golden.

Allow to cool a little before slicing.

At Easter, mix two tablespoons of plain flour with just enough water to make a smooth paste and pipe a cross over the top before baking.

• • •

The Spiced Biscuits

At Easter, these are Easter biscuits. The rest of the year, they are simply very good biscuits. Slightly crumbly, gently spiced with lemon and mixed spice, studded with currants, and exactly the sort of thing that disappears from the tin far quicker than you expect.

Makes 12 to 15

Ingredients

200g plain flour

100g butter

75g sugar or alternative sweetener

1 egg

1 tsp mixed spice

Zest of 1 lemon

50g currants

Method

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs.

Stir in the sugar, spice, lemon zest and currants.

Add the egg and bring together into a soft dough.

Roll out and cut into rounds.

Place on a lined baking tray and bake for 12 to 15 minutes until lightly golden.

Allow to cool slightly before dusting with a little sugar if you like.

• • •

What we are really missing is not the season. It is the way these things were made.

And the good news is, that is something we can bring back whenever we choose.

No label required. No calendar needed.

Just a decision to cook properly, and a kitchen that smells of something worth making.

Until next week,

Sarah

Next Sunday: the loaf that started it all. Sourdough, sandwich bread, and the kitchen memory that has stayed with me for forty years.