Category: Easter

This easy, moist and delicious lemon poppyseed cake is about to become your new favorite recipe! Light and bright cake full of lemon and poppyseeds, filled with creamy lemon curd, and topped with lemon cream cheese frosting. Basically? Heaven in a bite! (Or two, or three – I dare you to stop at one!)

There are very few things that beat the taste of warm, traditional hot cross buns, especially on Easter morning!  These are all the delicious spices and flavors of traditional hot cross buns flavors, with a few surprises! Dried cherries replace raisins, orange zest brightens up the spices, and orange icing completes these for a flavor explosion. The perfect treat for your Easter brunch, served alongside mimosas and coffee, don’t you think? (The answer: Yes, absolutely!)

Let’s talk about a few of the flavors in these hot cross buns for a minute. The signature flavor of hot cross buns is the spiced bread. Cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg play a star roll here, especially paired with brandy soaked dried cherries. And add in the fresh orange for the icing? Heck to the yes!

Cherry Orange Traditional Hot Cross Buns Tricks:

One of my favorite baking tricks is soaking dried fruit, usually in brandy, rum or bourbon (like in my Simple Bourbon Apple Crisp). Since the cherries in these hot cross buns are soaked overnight in brandy, they are bursting with super delicious flavor! Please note: all the alcohol is completely cooked out of these rolls.

Yeasty breads always have a few extra steps, but that doesn’t mean they’re more difficult. These traditional hot cross buns are actually incredibly easy to make! While the bread is rising, you can do other things around the house, run errands – whatever! And when you come home the house will smell like delicious homemade bread. Believe me – soooooo yummy!!

Cherry Orange Hot Cross Buns

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• Author: Kirsten Bell
• Prep Time: 2 Hours
• Cook Time: 25 Minutes
• Total Time: 2 Hours and 25 Minutes
• Yield: 16 Rolls 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Baking

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Description

Easy and delicious cherry orange hot cross buns! All your favorite flavors of traditional hot cross buns, with some extra flavor surprises!

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Ingredients

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Buns Ingredients: 

1/4 cup brandy, rum or apple juice
1 cup dried cherries (double check that there are no pits)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
4 1/2-5 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups warm milk
1 package yeast
2 eggs, plus 1 yolk
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 orange, zested

Icing Ingredients: 

1 cup powdered sugar
4 teaspoons fresh orange juice
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

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Instructions

Combine the dried cherries and brandy in a small bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow the cherries to soak 12 hours, or preferably overnight.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, brown sugar through flour, and set aside. In your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, dissolve the yeast into the warm milk. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit 3-5 minutes or until it starts to foam. Add the eggs (reserving the one extra yolk), butter and extract, mixing until combined. Add the flour mixture in three batches, mixing until just combined each time. Stir in the cherries and orange zest.

The dough should be soft and a little sticky, but not so sticky that it’s sticking to the sides of the stand mixer bowl. Add extra flour, a tablespoon at a time if this is the case. If the dough can be formed into a ball and doesn’t stick to your hands, it’s done.

Knead the dough lightly, either with your hands on a floured surface, or in your stand mixer fitted with the dough hook on medium speed for about 2 minutes.

Grease a large mixing bowl liberally with melted butter. Set the ball of dough into the bowl, turning once so the top is also greased. Cover with plastic wrap, and allow the dough to rise in a warm place for 1 hour or until doubled in size. I always turn my oven on to the lowest temperature (for my oven that’s 170 F), and once it’s preheated I turn it off. Then I let the dough sit in the warmed (but off!) oven.

When the dough has risen, punch it down to release any air bubbles that have formed. Grease two baking dishes. Divide the dough into 14-16 balls, pinching the bottoms so they stay moist while baking. Cover, and let rise again for 30-45 minutes or until doubled in size.

Now for baking! Preheat the oven to 350 F. Combine the extra egg yolk with a teaspoon of water. With a pastry brush, brush the rolls with the egg wash. Then bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown.

While the rolls cool, prepare the icing. Combine the powdered sugar, vanilla extract and orange juice in a small bowl, whisking with a fork until smooth. If it’s too thick, add more orange juice a teaspoon at a time. Transfer to a pastry bag (no need for a tip), and pipe the icing in a cross over each cooled roll. Serve immediately!

Cover leftover rolls tightly, and store on the counter for 1-2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to a week.

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My favorite little taste tester approves!

Want More Easter Inspiration? Check out These Recipes:

• Traditional Carrot Cake with Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting
• Lemon Poppyseed Muffins
• Easy Strawberry Bellini Champagne Cocktail
• Asparagus, Ham & Gruyere Crustless Quiche
• Cadbury Egg Cake: Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting

Easter is just a week away, and I can’t wait! All the egg hunts, Easter baskets, and yummy food await! This is the first year we’re doing a real Easter egg hunt with Charlotte, and I’m so excited! When I think of traditional Easter desserts, the first thing I think of is carrot cake! This is a moist cake, with lots of spices, topped with delicious ginger cream cheese frosting.

It’s amazing how much moisture there is in carrots and apples! Make sure you use fresh carrots, not pre-grated ones. If you buy them already grated, they’ll be too dry. Believe me, I tried it! Plus it’s really easy to grate carrots, so it’s not worth paying a premium! 

The ginger in the cream cheese frosting is so good. Fresh ginger is beyond delicious, and really sets this carrot cake apart. You can of course omit it, but I promise you won’t want to!

Cake Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup melted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 eggs
3 cups freshly grated carrot
1 apple, skinned and grated
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Ginger Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients: 

1 cup butter
16 oz cream cheese
5 cups powdered sugar
3 teaspoons vanilla
8 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

Directions: 

Grease and line the bottoms of three 6″ cake pans. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients, flour through nutmeg. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla. Add the eggs one at a time.

Add the dry ingredients, mixing on low speed until just combined. Gently fold in the carrots, apple and pecans.

Distribute the batter between the three cake pans, and bake for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Allow to cool in the pans for 10 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

For the frosting: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together the butter and cream cheese. Add the powdered sugar one cup at a time, followed by the vanilla and ginger. Beat until light and fluffy.