HCBs sans the embalming spices but with the crucifixes in place, nonetheless. If I could, I would name them chocolate ambrosia buns because chocolate and orange really are a match made in heaven!

It’s a good Friday to enjoy these Once a Year buns. I’ve been attempting a different recipe every year and these HCBs from Flour and Stone are phenomenal.

The profusion of spices + citrus from these buns is unbelievable! 😋

Happy “Kind of Amazing to be Above Ground Day” to me! I didn’t have cake-baking energy going for me this birthday, but these retro-y buns looked pretty doable over 2 lazy days on top of sounding delicious this Afternoon Tea Week. What’s not to love about lemon-scented rolls encasing a luscious lemon curd embedded with juicy sultanas? The glacé cherry on top is literally the cherry on top of an already scrumpdillyicious roll.

Happy 57th to Singapore and to commemorate, a uniquely Singaporean creation from Nerd Baker AKA Christopher Tan: pandan and coconut-infused dough topped with a buttery, golden brown topping of toasted fresh grated coconut. True to their name, pretty heavenly fresh out of the oven. Even if they look a tad like cheesy baked taters.

Because I felt like hot cross buns after seeing how everyone was baking/ eating them recently BUT I: 1. Was too busy... 2. Just didn’t want to pipe those crosses (too lazy) 3. Didn’t want to be crucified for not piping crosses on 🐣 Day. 🙈🙏

Perfect opportunity to offload some of that candied orange peel in the fridge and hew a hunk off that industrial-sized block of dark chocolate. Its bittersweet taste complemented the sweet, tangy aroma of candied orange peel perfectly.

Today, I discovered fantan. It was soft, buttery, fragrant, not too sweet and with just a hint of orange 🍊 This was really lovely.

The fluffiness of Japanese bread, combined with the crunch of azuki beans and what tasted like walnuts(?) and just enough of a brown sugary and sticky mochi-like filling to not make it a cloying mess, made this otherwise unassuming convenience store Japanese pan a hit with Sooty M.

Pillows of feathery wheaten dreams, redolent with cardamom, pistachio, orange. The kind of bread you can peel back, layer by wispy layer to reveal the occasional treasure of milk or orange dark chocolate chunk and think that all-nighter I just pulled was worth it, if only to realize this luxe, exotic cousin to the hot cross bun. They’re also store-quality. So I’ve been told. 🙌

“…crisp coffee cookie crust, soft fluffy bread and salty melted butter middles” is right! These are just like the ones I’ve had from the stores! But somehow it feels different eating them at home 😆

My first bake of the year for bucket list bake club and hopefully not my last! Discovering this bread is in and of itself an epiphany. Even if it looks like a giant pineapple ring decked out for a night at the tiki bar.

This year’s HCBs come from “BEATRIX BAKES” and they’re soft, sticky and chock full of flavor (my first time adding a whole orange to the dough and also my first time including black peppercorns and coriander seeds in the spice mix). Perfect with sea salted butter and definitely worthy of a place in the HCB repertoire.

My first attempt at Pan de Muerto. They look like middle-aged versions of their unbaked selves.

As with 90% of everything I (attempt to) make and eat every week, these buns are my first. You can smell the saffron while they’re baking and you get a whiff of it as you tear away at the pillowy soft crumb. The one thing I’d do differently next time though is to stick more than 2 raisins in each bun.

For breakfast and burgers...

Sweet & Spicy.

Hand-made this (yes I massaged bread dough today), flavoring the dough with dried tea leaves and tea-infused water. While the whole point of that was to maximize the flavor of Earl Grey in the bread, it ended up being slightly overwhelmed by the citrus and was a bit too sweet for my liking. Note to self: less sugar and less orange peel. Will also proof the dough for longer and shape it into loaves instead of knots the next time. I can’t help but think they look like pooch turds.

I don’t celebrate Easter but I’ll take the excuse to bake! I incorporated orange zest and leftover chocolate in these brioche buns and they’re great for breakfast.

Dulce de leche-filled rolls to go.

AKA coconut buns that’re best on baking day.

Pleasant first bite of the day but for the price and the size, nothing to write home about.

This bun gives you a mild-moderate experience of 🍵

With 2 different fillings: sweet potato (periphery) & brown sugar mochi (center).

I can’t decide if they look more like powdered sugar donuts or beignets 😆.

This tasted old and it had a disturbing aftertaste of strange meat. 🤢