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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION
Being cross over lack of cross on hot cross buns
Mike Aporius / Winnipeg Free Press What are hot cross buns without the cross?
Nothing says Lent like a good pagan hot cross bun scandal.
Free Press reader Barbara Walley was outraged last week when she asked for her pre-Easter buns at the Family Foods store at Portage Avenue and Ferry Road. Family Foods is a rare and wonderful place, a grocery store with its own bakery. If you arrive at the right time it smells like heaven's front lobby.
Walley got the buns, but something was not quite right.
We'll let her explain:
"The package was marked "hot cross buns," but the cross on the top was missing," she reported. When she asked a staff member about the missing marking, she alleges she was told that's "the trend now, so that we don't offend anyone."
Walley marched straight over to Safeway, where the hot cross buns have a cross, thank you very much.
Normally, this assignment would have gone to my very funny colleague Doug Speirs on the grounds it involves eating (Doug's an avowed expert) and asking strangers annoying questions (ditto). But Doug was busy analyzing the situation in Syria or advising airlines to accept babies as checked luggage or something.
So here I am, left with his crumbs.
In case you are not a devout Christian, let me explain Lent. It's the period between Ash Wednesday and Holy Thursday, which is the day that precedes Good Friday. The day before Ash Wednesday is Shrove Tuesday, where even non-believers eat pancakes although that has nothing to do with resurrection.
Still with me? Lent is often a time of denial, when believers give up a luxury for 40 days as a form of penance. I annually give up smoking, something I've done for 26 straight years. I don't smoke the rest of the year so I don't think God considers this taking one for the team.
Where do hot cross buns come in? I'm glad you asked. They were traditionally eaten on Good Friday, so Barbara Walley was jumping the pastry gun. As far as I can tell (if I'm wrong, complain to Doug) the only Easter-related part of the bun is the cross on top.
If there's no cross, you have a sweet bun cruelly laced with currants and other dried fruit. Hand a kid one of those and there will be trouble. Drizzle icing on top in the shape of a cross and you've got a holiday treat.
Because nothing stops a crusading journalist, I marched straight into Family Food and bought a bag of buns. Walley was correct: No cross on top although the label plainly said "hot cross buns."
Smelling a Pulitzer, I delved more deeply.
A lovely, yet suspicious bakery manager, named Judy (who refused to provide her last name on the grounds I was asking her idiotic questions), explained there was no anti-Christian conspiracy. She had no idea why anyone would tell our complainant it was trendy to leave the markings off.
"It's nothing like that," she said. "They haven't put the mix in for the crosses yet."
Family Foods sells the buns all year-round. They're normally known as fruit buns because of the fruit and, well, the bun. They're made of a sort of pancake mix. During Lent, more pancake mix is piped on top and baked in.
They do not use my mother's icing recipe, which is a cruel hoax on children in the city.
Judy nicely offered to bake a special batch for Walley if she wants the cross version before mass production begins, likely next week.
In the further interests of journalism I ate one (OK, two) of the freshly baked fruit buns. I am no Doug Speirs, but I am willing to testify they were the best pagan fruit buns ever baked.
As part of this hard-hitting investigative series, I will next tackle the religious significance of the made-for-Easter chocolate trucks, superheroes and teddy bears on sale in major grocery chains.
That's as far as my research goes. If you've always wondered why candy canes are traditionally white with green and red trim, call Doug. In fact, if anything else is troubling you, religious or otherwise, call Doug.
I don't want to hog the hardware come awards time. He will be in my acceptance speech.
lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca
Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 29, 2012 B1
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About Lindor Reynolds
National Newspaper Award winner Lindor Reynolds began work at the Free Press as a 17-year-old proofreader. It was a rough introduction to the news business.
Many years later, armed with a university education and a portfolio of published work, she was hired as a Free Press columnist. During her 20-plus years on the job she has written for every section in the paper, with the exception of Business. She’ll get around to them some day.
Lindor has received considerable recognition for her writing. Her awards include the Will Rogers Humanitarian Award, the National Society of Newspaper Columnists’ general interest award and the North American Travel Journalists Association top prize.
Her work on Internet luring led to an amendment to the Criminal Code of Canada and her coverage of the child welfare system prompted a change to Manitoba Child and Family Services Act to make the safety of children paramount.
She has earned three citations of merit for the Michener Award for Meritorious Public Service in Journalism and has been awarded a Distinguished Alumni commendation from the University of Winnipeg. Lindor was also named a YMCA/YWCA Woman of Distinction.
She is married with four daughters. If her house was on fire and the kids and dog were safe, she’d grab her passport.
lindor.reynolds@freepress.mb.ca
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