I was watching ‘The Great British Bake off’ recently and iced buns were one of the technical challenges. I have never been one for these traditional English Cakes but for some reason I found myself strangely drawn to their simple and nostalgic flavours. I tried to add a little modern twist by adding poppy seeds and orange zest just to vamp them up a little bit and I think they work. Great covered in cream and jam as part of an afternoon tea too! I have adapted this recipe from the BBC website.

For the Buns:

You will need

250g strong white flour, sifted

250g plain flour, sifted

125ml warm water

125ml warm milk

7g  fact-action dried yeast

2 tsp fine sea salt

50g caster sugar

1 orange, zest only

1  egg, beaten

50g butter, cut into cubes

1 tbsp poppy seeds

vegetable oil, for greasing

For the Icing

You will need:

50g icing sugar

2 tbsp orange juice

1 drop vanilla extract

With a fork mix together the flour, water, milk, poppy seeds, yeast, salt, sugar and orange zest in a large bowl and until all ingredients are incorporated. Next add the egg (beaten) and butter which should be at room temperature. Mix together until you get a sticky dough. Finally, knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, this takes about 5-10 mins by hand.  Place in an oiled bowl, cover with cling film and wait until it has doubled in size. After this time, knock back the dough by punching it one or two times and roll into about eight sausage shapes. Place quite close together on a greased baking tray and cover and leave to rise for a further half an hour. Once the buns have risen cook them in a preheated oven at 220 degrees C for 20-25 mins or until golden brown. Leave to cool completely on a wire cooling rack before icing.

To make the icing mix together  with the orange juice and vanilla essence. Stir together until the icing is smooth and spreadable but not to runny. Spread in a neat line using a knife over the iced buns as seen in the picture below. Serve with jam of your choice. This makes about 8 iced buns.

Nutritional Information 

For typical bun:

Calories: 270 kcal

Fat: 3.3g

Carbohydrates: 54.3g

Protein: 6.3g