So GBBO started again this week – hurray! (And if you don’t know what I’m talking about shame on you!)

Paul Holywood and Mary Berry were on great form and there were some fabulous cakes going on. Who didn’t feel sooo sorry for the poor lad who mixed up his salt and sugar?

This programme is one of my all time favourites, it inspired my Christmas gingerbread house two years ago and gave me a fabulous recipe for iced buns.

Last night as I was waiting for it to start I dug out my iced bun recipe – originally scribbled on post-its while watching the masterclass on sky plus and pausing every 2 minutes.

Iced buns are really cakes in disguise. They look like bread, they bread flour and yeast in them, but they also have butter, eggs and sugar, taking them from everyday sandwich making materials to sweet delicious food from the gods. (Can you tell I like them?)

One thing to be aware of when making them is that they don’t get along with a dough hook. Unlike most of my recipes they are best done by hand.

Ingredients:

500g Strong white bread flour

1 Sachet of dried yeast

40g Unsalted butter (softened) and chopped into cubes

10g Salt

50g Castor sugar

2 eggs (beaten)

150ml Warm milk

1ooml Warm water

Method:

• Place the flour in a large bowl and add the salt to one side and the yeast to the opposite side. This is so that the salt doesn’t deactivate the yeast.
• Mix until they are blended evenly then add the sugar, eggs, butter, milk and 100ml of the water.
• Start to mix with a wooden spoon (or metal or whatever you have really) until the liquid is absorbed. If any flour hasn’t been picked up in the mixture add a little more water until it is.
• Tip out the mixture onto a floured surface and knead to mix in the butter until no lumps remain. The mix will be quite sticky compared to bread dough.
• Continue to knead for between 5 and 10 minutes before placing back into the bowl and covering with clingfilm.
• Leave in a warm place to prove (rise) for an hour and a half until doubled in size.
• Tip the dough out onto a floured surface and divide it into 12 equal pieces. To do this I use a small knife to cut it in half, then the halves into quarters. I then cut each quarter into 3.
• Roll the pieces into fingers and place them on a buttered baking tray dusted with flour.
• Cover with a tea towel and leave to prove for about 40 minutes until doubled in size, remembering to put the oven on to heat to 190c.
• Place the buns in the 190c oven for 10 minutes until golden on top.
• Place on a wire rack to cool and mix up some icing sugar and water. The GBBO masterclass suggested 200g white icing sugar to 37ml of water. I love that it was so exact 😉
• Once the buns have cooled dip the tops into the icing and leave to set.