We are deep in the era of the “little treat economy”, and the hot cross bun is its latest victim. How can you tell? Shelves upon shelves of new, different, sometimes polarising takes on hot cross buns at bakeries, cafes and supermarkets.
“Hot cross bun innovation has become a national obsession,” says Coles Bakery product developer Thea Comino. Coles estimates that by Easter Sunday they will have sold 70m buns around Australia, including its traditional buns, chocolate ones and more contentious varieties such as Vegemite and cheese flavours.
Smaller producers have also embraced the vibe with particular enthusiasm. In Sydney, there are yuzu hot cross buns at Tokyo Lamington, buns you can fill with a scoop of butter ice-cream at Humble Bakery and pistachio butter-filled versions at Pasticceria Papa (a nod to the viral Dubai chocolate bar). At Lune Croissanterie, in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney, you can get a hot cross cruffin, while at Baker Bleu in Melbourne and Sydney there’s a sour cherry flavour. The list goes on – and seemingly gets longer each year.
Maybe it’s because Easter is the first big holiday after Christmas and the long, languid Australian summer (Valentine’s Day doesn’t really count); maybe it is the relentless churn of artificially scarce, limited-edition consumerism; maybe we are looking for pastel whimsy when the luxuries we can afford are mostly of the little treat variety.
Either way, the hot cross bun has become sexy and covetable. There are recipes for hot cross bun mochi ice-creams. There are patterns for knitted hot cross bun decorations.
Meanwhile, at supermarkets, there are hot cross buns flavoured with Wagon Wheel chocolate, Cinnabon and Biscoff. Aldi is even selling hot cross bun-flavoured vodka.
Fatima Hussein of Happy Alley, a bakery in Rockdale, Sydney, which specialises in cookies, says: “There is always a lot of excitement around our seasonal launches, and we usually notice a lot of new faces around these periods.” Purists, avert your eyes, as well as milk chocolate honeycomb buns, Happy Alley has created a “crosskie”, a spiced cookie (decorated with a cross) that includes white and dark chocolate chunks and cinnamon sugar coating.
Preparing for the bun bonanza is an intense business. Donald Keith, hot cross bun expert and bakery merchandise manager at Woolworths, says: “The process to bring a new hot cross bun flavour to shelves is … about 12 months.” For Coles, planning also starts “a year in advance”, according to Comino.
For bakeries, preparation for Easter starts pretty much as soon as Christmas is over. Sian Bishop, head of brand and marketing at Gelato Messina and Shadow Baking, says “R&D starts about three months [in advance]”.
Georgia Lytas of bakery Pasticceria Papa says: “Christmas is our biggest holiday but Easter is taking it for a run this year.” Eager clientele even encouraged them to bring forward their launch. “Originally, we were going to introduce our hot cross buns at the end of March, but we started at the end of February.”
Does hunger for novelty outstrip our love for the classic? Sometimes yes; mostly no. Despite the seemingly exponential growth in hot cross bun flavours, the traditional bun remains more or less the bestseller of the bunch.
“Our core traditional fruit range remains the top pick,” Keith says. They have sold more than 4.5m packets already.
Coles has said its traditional fruit hot cross bun remains its top performer, with the tamer apple-cinnamon and chocolate variations coming in second and third. About 40% of all hot cross buns sold are of the traditional fruit kind.
But at Gelato Messina, Bishop says, their 1,000 chocolate gelato-filled Easter eggs sold out in less than 10 minutes this year, while at Pasticceria Papa novel flavours have meant their traditional fruit offering has been a slow mover.
The feverish trend calls to mind other occasions such as Asia’s moon festival, which in recent years has prompted bakeries, hotels and even luxury fashion labels to put out lavishly packaged moon cake gift boxes. While the motivations may not be identical, it’s undeniable: we go mad for a seasonal treat.
Hussein at Happy Alley says they “plan out the year in advance and aim to have a special cookie, pastry, or maybe even a sando, for each holiday”. Their next seasonal treat will be an Anzac Day cookie.
At Shadow Baking, in Sydney, they tested pineapple buns for lunar new year “but didn’t nail them so they didn’t make it,” says Tom Mitchell, executive chef at Messina and a founder of Shadow Baking. “Maybe next year.”
There’s hardly room to breathe in the calendar, with Anzac Day hot on Easter’s heels. Then comes Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween – you get it. In fact, Keith says Woolworths is already “deep in developing our Christmas 2026 range”.
