Jamaican Easter Bun

Jamaican Easter Bun

In Switzerland, Easter is the time for certain sweets.  Chocolate Easter bunny is possibly the most popular.  Available at supermarkets and pastry shops, Easter bunnies come in all shapes, sizes and to suite all tastes.  Another Easter favourite is Osterfladen, a tart generally made with rice or semolina and apricot jam.  Yet another Swiss Easter pastry is Colombo Pasquale, a yeasted cake shaped like a dove with outstretched wings. The top of the cake usually has a generous coating of powdered or coarse-grained sugar and almonds. https://cuisinehelvetica.com/2016/03/24/easter-foods/

In Jamaica Easter bun is the favourite pastry for this season.  Traditionally eaten on Sunday with slightly salted cheese after the morning church service or mass.  Although Jamaicans have long since broke from this tradition and Easter buns are available all year round.

Jamaican Easter bun has its origins in the hot cross bun.  When the British colonized Jamaica in the 1600s they brought their Easter traditions and hot cross bun was one of them. These buns were made with honey, marked with a cross on top and eaten on Good Friday.  Over the years hot cross buns, gradually transformed to the loaf shaped Easter bun, made with molasses and without a cross.

Easter bun has a surprisingly long history that dates to the Babylonian empire.  Then hot cross buns were offered to the goddess Ishtar on sacred occasions. Later the Greeks adopted this practice in honour of the moon.   The tradition made its way to England where it was Christianized, and hot cross buns became a symbol of the Good Friday cross.
Unlike the hot cross bun Jamaican Easter bun is packed with spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, cherries and raisins.  Here are a couple Easter bun recipes:

Grace Homemade Easter Bun https://gracefoods.com/recipe-a-z/recipe/1575-homemade-easter-bun

Immaculate Bites: https://www.africanbites.com/jamaican-easter-spice-bun/

Also visit our gallery for contemporary Jamaican/Caribbean fine art: https://www.experiencejamaique.com/product_gallery

Revised March 2021

April 2017