Fruit and spice and all things nice go into these Easter treats that are as fun to make as they are to look at

These hot cross buns will make your house smell wonderful, and you can have fun creating whatever bunny shapes you like out of the non-yeasted dough. The dough is quite wet and sticky before its first rise, so it’s recommended you have a stand mixer or bread machine to make these. The bunnies are more for decoration, but if you want to eat them too, then just cover them with foil and pre-bake them for 45 mins at 180C/350F/gas mark 4, before baking along with the hot cross buns.

Prep: 30 mins to make dough, 10 mins to shape dough

Plus time to shape decorative dough, and rising time

Makes: 16

For the dough:

200g whole milk

1 cinnamon stick

3 cardamom pods

1 small star anise

500g strong white flour

60g caster sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

Pinch of cloves

Grated rind of 1 orange and 1 lemon

7g instant fast-action yeast

1 tsp salt

100g water

2 eggs

65g unsalted butter, at room temperature, softened

180g mixed dried fruit and peel

For the bunnies:

75g plain flour

43g water

Pinch of salt

Black gel food dye

For the cross:

50g plain flour, 55g water

Plus:

Extra egg

Apricot jam to glaze

Add the milk to a saucepan along with the cinnamon stick, cardamom pods and star anise. Bring to a simmer, then take off the heat and leave to cool and infuse for 20 minutes.

Add the flour, sugar, ground spices, grated rind, yeast and salt to a large mixing bowl and stir together. Add the water to the tepid milk, then add the eggs and whisk together. Pour the liquid over the dry ingredients. With a dough hook attachment and the stand mixer on low, let the machine knead the dough for eight minutes. Add the softened butter and let the machine knead it in until fully incorporated. Place in a bowl, cover with cling film and leave to rise until doubled in size.

When risen, roll out the dough, scatter the mixed dried fruit over, and then roll up and knead until the fruit is evenly distributed.

Divide the dough into 16 smooth rounds. Arrange in a greased square tin, leaving gaps between each for them to rise. Loosely cover with oiled cling film and leave to double in size.

Meanwhile, make the dough for the bunnies by mixing the water and plain flour. Shape these into bunnies/carrots and paint the details using food dye mixed with water. Heat the oven to 200C/400F/gas mark 6.

When the buns have doubled in size, whisk an egg and brush this over the buns to glaze. Mix together the flour and water to make the paste for the cross, then pipe crosses over each bun. Nestle the bunnies in the dough.

Bake for 10 mins at 200C/400F/gas mark 6, then 15 mins at 180C/350F/gas mark 4, until golden brown. As soon as they are out of the oven, glaze with apricot jam and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling.

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