Gather all of the ingredients together. Remember to have the butter and milk at room temperature.

Beat the egg and finely grate the zest from the lemon. 

Place a sieve over a mixing bowl and add the strong white flour, salt and mixed spice and sieve into the bowl.

Add the butter to the flour mixture and, rubbing all ingredients between your hands, form a crumble.

Make a well in the flour and spice mixture and add the lemon zest, sugar, yeast, egg and milk.

Mix this together to form a sticky dough.

Now, flour your work surface and knead the sticky dough into a firm dough. This will take around 5 minutes.

Once the dough has firmed, add the fruit to the dough. Then, make a ball and add the dough ball to a greased bowl, cover and leave to rest at room temperature for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, knock the dough back and let rest again, this time for 30 minutes.

After 30 minutes, split the dough into 10 even pieces. 

Roll each piece into a ball and place on a greaseproof baking tray.

Place the tray in a large polythene bag and let rest for 40 minutes.

While resting, preheat the oven to 220C / 200C Fan. Also, make the cross mixture by mixing 2 tablespoons of flour with 2 tablespoons of water.

After the dough balls have rested for 40 minutes, and using a piping bag an and small nozzle, pipe crosses on the buns.

Now, bake the buns in the oven for 18-20 minutes or until the buns have started to colour.

While the buns are baking heat the maple syrup of low heat until the syrup becomes the consistency of water. Be careful not to boil and burn the syrup.

Once the buns are baked, place on cooling wires and, using a pastry brush, cove each bun with the liquid syrup.

And there you have it. Homemade hot cross buns in plenty of time for Easter. Or any time you fancy. Yum!