I have a pretty realistic view of my personal strengths and weaknesses.  One thing I know about myself is that I cannot multi-task very, well really not at all.  I am a serial do-er.  I work on one thing, get it done, and then move on to another.  Every now and then, however, I seem to forget this fact and venture into multi-tasking madness.  This never ends well.  My latest experience with trying to do too many things at once was no exception.

My (very pregnant) daughter offered to have our family Easter celebration at her house this year.  This kept her close to home (and the hospita) and also meant that she didn’t really have to get dressed to be in public.  Yoga pants and bare feet were perfectly acceptable.  She offered to prepare the all of the food and I was responsible for our family’s traditional Easter egg game….that’s a story for another post.  I should have been good with this arrangement and gone along with my business.  But, I didn’t.  I decided that I was going to make Hot Cross Buns.  I’ve done it many times before.  No big deal.

Getting the buns made took a little bit of planning because, though they are not difficult to make, like any bread, they are time-consuming because they require two rises.  Finding a long enough stretch of time in between church and other obligations took some thought.  I also wanted them to be as fresh as possible on Sunday when we ate.  After some strategic planning, Saturday morning was designated as bun baking time.

The dough making process went as planned as did the first rise, which took the expected hour.  I then shaped the buns and placed them on the baking pans for their second rise.  This is where my issues started.  For whatever reason, the second rise took longer for the dough to double than did the first.  This was a problem because I had budgeted just enough time for the buns to rise and then bake before we had to leave the house to take Simon to puppy school.  The buns weren’t ready to go into the oven at the point I needed them to be.  I was faced with a dilemma – Go ahead and bake them even though they hadn’t risen enough; or, let them rise for another hour or so and bake them when I got home.  Because I wanted things done, I opted to go ahead and bake them even though they hadn’t risen quite enough.

Bad decision.

Even though I had shaped the buns into smooth balls, they baked off in such a way that they looked more like drop biscuits…or moon rocks.  It was very strange.  I assume this was because of their abbreviated rise time, but I’m not sure.

I took the buns out of the oven and let them cool while we were gone for dog school.  When I got home and looked at them again, they were officially deemed ugly!  My older daughter said that they weren’t necessarily ugly, they were “rustic.”  That’s it.  Rustic Hot Cross Buns.  Looks aren’t everything, so I decided to taste one.  At this point they did not have the icing “cross.”  They tasted better than they looked, but there was definitely something “not quite right.”  Despite that, our jury of three decided that they were edible.

I placed them in a covered container so that I could ice them Sunday right before we left to go to my daughter’s house.

The icing is a simple powdered sugar and milk mixture that is piped on the buns in a cross shape that was scored into the buns before baking.  As I have done before, I used a “squirt” bottle like a fast food ketchup bottle, to “pipe” the icing.  All was good until the very last bun.  Instead of grabbing a bottle with a screw on lid, I grabbed the ONE bottle that I have that snaps on.  Because I was at the end of the icing, I had to squeeze it a little harder to get the last of the icing to come out.  I squeezed just hard enough that the lid popped off and I discovered that there was a whole lot more icing left in that little bottle than I thought!  Several of the buns were now fully iced.  Again, not a deal breaker in terms of their edibility, but things definitely were not going well.

Because Weber is such a good sport, he offered to take one of the icing drenched buns off of my hands.  When I asked how it was, he took a big gulp of coffee and said that they were super dry, even with all the icing.

With that, I called this year’s Hot Cross Buns experience a dismal failure.

I pulled leftover cinnamon rolls that we made for Christmas out of the freezer and put them on my stack of stuff to go with us for lunch…and threw the Hot Cross Buns in the trash.

Another reminder to myself that I can only do so much.  And when I push that “so much” over the limit to “too much,” the result is not pretty.

I am happy to report that we had a great family Easter celebration even without the #&*% Hot Cross Buns!

Our original plan was for me to share this recipe alongside Tracey’s Carrot Cake yesterday, but that just didn’t seem appropriate!  I may try to make the Hot Cross Buns again, for no particular occasion, with the hope of better results.  When I do, I may share the recipe then.

I am glad that I can laugh at my failures.  Life would be really tough if I couldn’t!  Let’s just say that I have A LOT of laughter in my world. 🙂