Hot cross buns, hot cross buns, One a penny, two a penny - Hot cross buns. If you have no daughters, give them to your sons

YES, they might have been in the shops since January and will probably still be there at Hallowe'en, but today, Good Friday, is the day that you should really be eating your hot cross buns.

The little spiced bun with a cross on probably predates Christianity by some centuries, but the cross fits in so well with Easter that it has long been co-opted into the celebrations.

And hot cross buns are not only good to eat, they have also been endowed with magical powers. Hung from the kitchen ceiling, they are said to protect the house from harm. Sailors believed they brought good luck to their ship.

And a survey by the Food Standards Agency last year decided that they were the healthiest of all the Easter goodies on sale.

They do, now, of course, cost a lot more than one a penny. They are also getting more adventurous. Not just your plain old bun, they have been tarted up and titivated with everything from orange liqueur and chocolate to cranberries. After so many thousands of years, is this really an improvement?

We've gone upmarket this Easter and have been sampling some of the posher varieties - anything that described itself as luxury or had unusual ingredients - as well as some from High Street bakers.

What distinguishes a hot cross bun - apart from that cross - from any ordinary old currant bun, is that they are spicier and fruitier. Some of those we tried were really moist and juicy. Some were dry as dust. And if you're worried about buying hot cross buns at Christmas, then maybe we won't tell you that at Easter we also found lots of mince pies on the shelves.

OUR FAVOURITES

ELIZABETH BOTHAM of WHITBY

Four for 99p

Nicely spicy, very fruity, excellent texture. Delicious HHHHH

MARKS & SPENCER LUXURY

Four for 99p

These were very moist, lots of sultanas and a good spicy flavour. Wonderfully chewy. HHHHH

CO-OP PREMIUM with orange liqueur

Four for 99p

Moist, chewy, fruity, spicy, bit sweet for some. HHHHH

BAKER'S OVEN

Six for £1

Very fruity, good taste and texture. Reasonably moist but not chewy - which is why some people preferred them. HHHH

BETTY'S LEMON/WHOLEMEAL

45p each

By far the most expensive we tried. Plain wholemeal buns were a bit solid but the lemon - in both white and wholemeal - were delicious. Very fruity too. HHHH

FINE BUT NOT VERY SPECIAL

MARKS & SPENCER APPLE AND CINAMMON

Four for 89p

Good texture but we could hardly taste the cinnamon and have yet to find the apple. HHH

SAINSBURYS APRICOT AND BRANDY

£1.09 for four

"Dried Turkish apricots are steeped in brandy for a minimum of two weeks, then added to these buns which are given a longer proving time resulting in their fuller delicious flavour."

Well, we could just about taste the apricots, but have yet to have a sniff of the brandy. HHH

SMYTHS

31p each

Very nice flavour but a bit thin on fruit. HHH

ALDI LUXURY

59p for six

These had cinnamon which gave them a nice flavour, but the bun itself was a bit too dry and bready to count as "luxury". Value for money though. HH

GREGGS

Six for £1

Fairly fruity but rather dry. HH

PETERS

Four for £1

Not much fruit, not much flavour. HH

NO THANK YOU

SAFEWAY CRANBERRY

Four for 79P

Cranberry bits were quite nice but otherwise these buns were very dry and disappointing. H

TESCO MINI CHOCOLATE AND RAISIN

Six for 99p

Very strange. Not very nice chocolate taste complete with chocolate chips and raisins. An odd experience we are in no hurry to repeat. H

Shops are awash with special Easter cakes and treats - most of them involving fluffy chicks and an awful lot of bright yellow icing. But if you want something with a real Eastery taste - which we define as light spices and citrus - try some of these

* Marks & Spencer Easter Biscuits - Large buttery biscuits with a fresh and different flavour.

* Soreen Easter Fruit Loaf - chewy fruity loaf with a lemon tang

* Simnel bars - if a full size traditional fruit cake with its layer of marzipan and marzipan decoration is too much, both Asda and Betty's do prettily decorated Simnel Cake bars - just the thing for Easter Sunday tea.

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