Some good things about the current COVID-induced slowing down of the world - people now have time to do things ‘normal’ life doesn’t allow, like taking family walks in the afternoon sun, planting seeds that will grow into winter crops of food, and making sourdough bread and other baked goods like hot cross buns (if you can source flour and sugar, that is.)

I’d usually have made a batch of buns by this time of year so yesterday, when I realised Easter is this weekend, I realised I’d better get baking. And having recently been given a copy of Beatrix Bakes, the new cookbook from the beloved local bakehouse, I was super excited to try their hot cross recipe. The secret ingredient? A whole orange - juice, peel and pith. Oh, and black pepper in the homemade spice mix. I was a little sceptical about the whole orange, as I’m not at all into peel, but my tip is to make sure it’s sliced up into teeny tiny bits (the recipe instructions are to food process the orange to a pulp, but mine still had a few bigger pieces of skin, so I chopped then into millimeter-thin slivers on the chopping board.) And the result? The most delicious buns I’ve ever tasted.

If you’re keen to give them a try but don’t have the book, Hardie Grant, the book’s publisher, has posted the recipe on their website. Get baking!