The hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun usually made with fruit, marked with a cross on the top, and traditionally eaten on Good Friday. The bun marks the end of Lent with the cross representing the crucifixion of Jesus, and the spices inside signifying the spices used to embalm him at his burial.

One theory of their origin is that they originate from St Albans, in England, where Brother Thomas Rodcliffe, a 14th-century monk at St Albans Abbey, developed a similar recipe called an 'Alban Bun' and distributed the bun to the local poor on Good Friday, starting in 1361.

My examples hail from Messrs Marks & Spencer (4 for £1) and are presented on a vintage ceramic cake stand I rescued from a skip in Paris.