Every year it feels like Melbourne bakers get more and more creative with their hot cross buns. While some stick to the classic, others treat the humble bun as a jumping-off point to make everything from hot cross lamingtons to doughnuts and croissants.
Here are seven hot-cross-bun-inspired treats from around the city. Think of them as not cross buns.

Hot cross lamington

Tokyo Lamington – known for its playful twists on Aussie cakes – is offering three creations for Easter: hot cross lamingtons, chocolate coconut hot cross buns and yuzu hot cross buns. The lamington is the venue’s take on the classic bakery treat; here, the team takes two slices of classic spiced sponge cake, sandwiches them together with a filling made of cinnamon vanilla cream and mixed fruit, dips the whole thing in a white chocolate sauce, rolls it in spiced cookie crumbs and tops it off with a white chocolate cross.

Hot cross cake

CBD and South Yarra bakery Le Yeahllow is known for making hyper-realistic cakes that look like other objects (the most notable being its Jeff Koonsian balloon puppy cake). It’s unsurprising, then, that the team has released a trompe l’oeil hot cross cake. Made to look like hot cross buns, it is actually an entremet cake with a hot cross bun sponge in the centre, topped with a layer of chocolate cremeux and then encased in all-spiced whipped ganache. The cake is available from Monday April 7, as a single “bun” or in larger slabs of six or nine.

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Hot cross doughnut

Over 70-year-old Melbourne market staple American Doughnut Kitchen has taken classic cinnamon doughnuts and added a chocolate cross. The hot cross doughnuts will be available from the Prahran Market location on Tuesday April 15, Thursday April 17, Saturday April 19 and Sunday April 20. The best part? They come with a pot of milk chocolate ganache on the side for dunking and drizzling.

Hot cross crème brûlée

While a traditional hot cross bun is still technically part of this creation, the Q Le Baker team has taken it up a notch with custard and caramelised sugar. The Prahran Market bakery’s traditional hot cross buns are cut in half, filled with vanilla custard and topped with a sugar coating that will shatter when you bite into it.

Hot cross cruffin

For their hot cross cruffin, croissant queen Kate Reid and the team at Lune have taken the bakery’s buttery croissant dough and added dried fruit, candied peel and mixed spices. It’s then filled with brown-butter mousseline (made by whipping butter into pastry cream) and finished off with a classic cross.

Hot cross croissant wheel

Croix Croissant, a Flemington favourite that recently opened a second store in Richmond, is making hot cross croissant wheels. Laminated dough, made using plenty of French butter, is shaped into a cylinder and filled with hot cross bun-flavoured diplomat cream and marmalade. The buttery creation is then rolled in walnuts for an extra-crunchy exterior.

Hot cross cinnamon scroll

For its non-conventional take, Penny for Pound has taken cinnamon scroll dough and added spiced brown sugar and sultanas before glazing it with vanilla sour cream and topping it off with a cinnamon cross.