Are you a buyer for the M&S Bakery? Talk me through your thinking …

[Starmadrama]

… in relation to hot cross buns. I’ve been in my local M&S today and the shelves were heaving with lots of flavours of hot cross buns - red velvet, chocolate, lemon etc - but the section for fruit ones was empty. Clearly there is very little demand for these bastardised hot cross buns!

I finally found a single pack of fruit buns abandoned by the till. I did think about getting the fruit buns earlier in the week but the expiry date was before Easter 🙄

Did any market research inform this expansion of the Hot Cross Bun offer I wonder?

I had Cherry Bakewell ones from Asda, they were divine.

I don’t mind some of the flavoured ones esp if they are fruit based. I do love a traditional hot cross bun but I do like to try the variations. I always used to get one of the M&S ones but there isn’t a convenient food hall near me.

think I shall go out my way tomorrow to get some red velvet ones, be a nice treat after a couple of days of full walking planned

I love the Apple ones!

@SabrinaThwaite I’d never heard of The Kitchen Cabinet but have just listened and I’m glad to know this is a thing.

I can’t actually comment on all the flavours, not having tried them. It was the complete inability of M&S to manage stock levels in response to demand that annoyed me. Mind you, it’s the same in the clothes department (lots of sizes 8 and 20 left) so I don’t know why I was surprised.

@Starmadrama I love The Kitchen Cabinet, particularly enjoy Dr Annie Gray’s segments on historical foods. Also lots of recipe ideas and cooking tips.

Interesting because in my M&S there were sleeves full of traditional hot cross buns and very few of the flavoured ones. I had a special offer of the lemon curd ones and there were none left.

I’m old enough to remember when (IIRC) they were only available on Good Friday and you had to go to the baker! I remember going early with my DF, it was quite a walk, too. We had them for breakfast - they were a massive treat.

They are trying to make fetch happen

M and S is open on Good Friday (today)

Agree. I stared at the Easter egg selection for ages. What’s with the half egg thing? Who wants half an egg? It’s not an egg shape! I abandoned and went to my local co op.

Lidl cheese ones are delicious!

Gotta admit I really like the chocolate ones. Been eying up the cheese, lemon and red velvet ones too, but they’ve been unavailable when I tried to do my online shop 😩

M&S do a nice cheese scone. They come in packs of four, or individually from the bakery counter. Pop under the grill until slightly toasted. Eat buttered with a chunk of cheddar.

Visited my local M&S food shop today and three were trays upon trays of the red velvet buns. Piles more by the checkouts that had been reduced to 40p per pack. I was not tempted!

We've never toasted ours - my mum always put them in the oven back in the 1970s/80s, so that's what we do too. Now we have an airfryer I automatically put any hot x buns in there. Toasted teacakes are a different matter.

I love the M&S chocolate hot x buns and agree with the poster who said Waitrose chocolate are not as good. One year Co-op had chilli flavour - I like hot/spicy food but couldn't actually eat them, they were so bad. Waitrose had some with strawberry pieces and a pink X this year which looked pretty, but I didn't fancy those. Red velvet anything is 🤮 imo!

DH is a purist and will usually only eat the traditional fruited type, but this year he was tempted by the M&S lemon flavour...not tried them yet, so don't know if they're any good.

I can now report back on the M&S lemon curd buns - the bun part is overly chewy and bland, the lemon curd in the middle is nice but the strips of dried lemon peel are hard to chew and rather unpleasant. All in all, I'd have been better off buying a nice jar of lemon curd!

Agreed, I got these yesterday too. The actual bun isn't fruited or seasoned so it's bland - more like an iced finger bun. Didn't mind the lemon peel but it just wasn't that interesting. Buy a classic bun and slather lemon curd on it instead is my advice.

The birds didn’t touch the red velvet one!

Having said upthread I couldn’t find apple flavour, I’ve managed to find a pack in my local M and S, and they’re delicious.
For any lemon lovers underwhelmed by the lemon hot cross buns, I’d recommend the standard M and S lemon iced buns. A generous splat of curd in the centre and the icing is soft. Not for toasting though!
They had a surfeit of red velvet in store. All other flavours were running low.

I'm voting for you as our next Prime Minister.

I needed some change in my local M&S and hadn’t had a bun today yet, so as lots said the apple ones were nice, I’ve gone for them! I’m holding you lot to this lol 😂

The lemon ones are so disappointing 😟

Memo to all supermarket bakery buyers:

HOT CROSS BUNS ARE TRADITIONALLY EATEN ON GOOD FRIDAY.

How hard can it be?🙄

Wouldn’t mind this so much if they offered tasters of the weird flavours to try before you buy, but perhaps they make more money if people pay for and try the weird flavours once.

Tesco had none by 10 this morning.

Just in case anyone from M&S is listening (and gives a damn), I've got another question:

What idiot, presumably from The Apprentice school of management thinks that its more sensible to close half the self service ordering points in the M&S cafe and have a queue of elderly people standing a mile long while half the tables are empty so that they can control the wait time in the cafe (as patronisingly explained by member of staff manning the queue). Is it not sodding obvious that it is better to be waiting sitting than standing? Words bloodly fail me.

Sorry for derail. I just needed to say that. Where's my (traditional) HCB?