Easter Baking Inspirations - Recommended Recipes (updated 12 April 2025)

To complement our Easter Baker's Bundles, we've gathered a collection of must-try recipes for making hot cross buns, each bringing a unique twist to this timeless Easter classic:  

• My latest success is with Julia Busuttil Nishimura Shokupan Hot Cross Buns. The combination of the diced fruit mix with the candied citrus peel works perfectly with this soft dough. I didn't add sultanas but you can always add these also. You can find the recipe here.Lor
• Helen Goh is one of my favourite bakers ad I love her cookbook Sweet. This new recipe also using the tangzhong (cooked flour paste) has just been posted by GoodFoodAu (paywall).
• The original tangzhong method (well when I first saw it) comes from Lorraine Elliott (Not Quite Nigella) and Lorraine has an array of varieties. Check out the 2025 biscoff edition.
• Tilly’s fruity Hot Cross Buns: I simply replaced the fruit in this recipe with our spectacular diced fruit mix and candied citrus peel. A beautifully soft fragrant bun. Special. Check it out.
  
• Flour and Stone - Nadine Ingram's Hot Cross Buns: A masterpiece of flavor and texture. Read More And a recent twist on this recipe here from Gourmet Traveller.
• Delicious Magazine - Helena Moursellas's Fig and Walnut Hot Cross Buns with cinnamon butter. I did add some caramel chocolate and I love the crunch in this recipe. Read More
• Amy Minichiello's Traditional Take with a quince twist: Dive into the nostalgia of Easter with this recipe with a twist of sun dried quince. Explore
• Kath's Hot Cross Loaf: For those who love a loaf with the Easter flavours. Discover
• More on the loaf idea. This isn’t a recipe I have tried yet but I love Michael James Bakes on Instagram (from the amazing Tivoli Road Bakery). Here is his latest recipe
• Emelia Jackson's Hot Cross Buns - Three Ways: Get creative with these variations. Learn How
• The Clever Carrot's Best Sourdough Hot Cross Buns: Elevate your bakes with a sourdough twist. Check It Out
• Breadspot20's Insightful Recipe and History: Not just a recipe, but a journey through the origins of hot cross buns. Dive Deeper

If dicing and blending dried fruit seems an impossible task for you our one-of-a-kind dried fruit mix will save you a load of time. Our Spectacular Diced Fruit Mix includes our semi sun-dried figs, apricots, peaches, pears, citrus and candied lemon (in quince sugar syrup) all from our orchard and other families we work with from across the Riverland.

UPDATED RECIPES 4 March 2025 using our Spectacular Dice Dried Fruit Mix. I hope you love them all : 

• No bake CHOCOLATE FRUIT AND NUT ENERGY BARS: Frankie is anaphylactic for peanuts and so many store bought bars are either full of peanuts and/or way too many rolled oats. I wanted to try make something simple with our Spectacular diced fruit and Sticky Quince Syrup.
• Belinda Jeffery's Last Minute Christmas cake doesn't have to be last minute at all and is a truly wonderful fruit cake or it can be used as a pudding. The recipe is a big one - making 4 x 1kg cakes. So I generally half the recipe (and make 2 cakes) and use the 500g bake of diced fruit mix and 100g of the citrus peel (you can use less if you want less of the citrus flavour). I also included one tablespoon of Sticky Quince syrup to the fruit mix. Here is a reel of me making the cakes.
• I made Sophie Hansen's baked porridge recipe, changing is up a bit by including apple (2 cups), rhubarb (1 cup), our diced fruit mix ( 3/4 cup) and a dash of sticky quince syrup. Here's is Sophie's recipe to have a go. 
• Eccles Cakes from Darren Purchese, expert guest on Masterchef and a judge on The Great Australian Bake Off. You can see my reel here where I used our diced fruit mix, these cakes were a total dessert pleaser, especially with the kids.
• the Ultimate Rhubarb Fruit Crumble Oh my goodness the tang… sharpness.. texture… sweetness and spice was pretty perfect. You can check out my reel here to see how I assembled the crumble layers and my rather loud excitement upon serving.
• Our Fig and Orange mincemeat  which might be a Christmas favourite but try folding the fruit mince through vanilla ice-cream, it's a winner all year round.
• The popular Mrs T's very lovely boiled fruitcake recipe.
• My take on Emiko Davies Italian bread pudding (pinza di pane) and also her sensational Pan Del Doge Di Zaira (Zaira's Fruit Cake) (please note that on the HUnter and Folk page they have forgotten to list 100g of granulated sugar in the ingredients list). In both recipes I replaced the fruit listed with the equivalent weight of our diced fruit mix. Stunning.
• Dried fruit and orange scrolls
• A crowd favourite Chocolate Fruit and Almond Protein balls
• I haven't personally made this recipe yet (Healthy homemade muesli bar slice recipe) but a lovely subscribers sent it to me saying she replaced the dried fruit quantities with our spectacular dice fruit mix.

Now I'm not totally sure I can still call it a Hummingbird cake if there is no pineapple. Probably not but its still delicious and this is my recipe for our annual ode to this family favourite.