I’m not a baker so I can’t vouch for the recipe, but the accompanying picture of hot cross buns made the buns look yummy. I couldn’t help but wince at this tidbit included with the article:
"Babka isn’t the only Easter bread.
"The season for hot cross buns usually begins the first day of Lent and lasts until Easter.
"The sweet yeast rolls, which often are flavored with dried fruits, originated in medieval England and commemorate Good Friday. A cross is slashed in the top of the bun, which is decorated with confectioners’ sugar icing after baking. In pagan times, the cross was said to ward off evil spirits, writes Sister Schubert in her cookbook ‘Secret Bread Recipes’ (Oxmoor House, 1996)."
The cross was said to ward off evil" in pagan times? Sigh. Written in such a sloppy manner, this gives the impression that Christ’s own cross was just the ultimate good-luck charm. Perhaps this could have been re-written: "The cross, especially meaningful to Christians because Christ was put to death by crucifixion, is a shape used since pagan times in attempts to ward off evil."
Revised that way, the cross-shape that was perhaps used by ancient pagans in a superstitious manner becomes a prefigure of the Cross through which God’s work of salvation would definitively triumph over evil.