If there’s one thing Marks & Spencer does well, it’s a hot cross bun, and this year the retailer’s range is particularly special as Easter 2025 marks 50 years of their Luxury Hot Cross Buns.
To celebrate the selection is better than ever, and it even contains an industry first – chocolate-filled hot cross buns.
M&S recently unveiled its new lemon curd-filled hot cross buns, and now they’ve announced the first-ever Dippy Egg Hot Cross Buns (£3.50 for a pack of six), which will be available from March 26.
The intensely chocolatey buns have been hailed a ‘game-changer’ by the supermarket, and feature a soft cocoa bun and a gooey yellow and white chocolate filling.
As the name suggests, they’re reminiscent of a classic dippy egg, or dare we say it… a Cadbury Creme Egg.
Metro was lucky enough to get an exclusive first try of the new hot cross buns and we can confirm, they taste ‘phenomenal’.
Courtney Pochin, Metro’s specialist food writer, said: ‘If you’re a chocolate lover, you need this phenomenal treat in your life this Easter.
‘The cocoa buns are pillowy soft and rich, and the white chocolate filling is silky smooth but tastes a little custardy, making the whole thing oh so decadent. It’s like an indulgent pudding, but in a small snack-sized format.
‘For the best experience, grab a bun in both hands and tear it open before taking a bite, so you can really appreciate the gooey filling, that’s been double injected into the bun to look like an egg with a perfect runny yellow yolk.
‘It’s hard work to resist the urge not to polish off all six in one sitting, but there’ll be zero judgement if you do – they really are that good!’
And Courtney wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Lifestyle reporter, Eleanor Noyce, added: ‘These are simply divine. I’m actually almost annoyed that I’ve discovered them, as now I’ll simply be forced to eat them most days until the Easter Weekend – and will inevitably miss them when they’re gone.
‘The bun itself is super fluffy (much moister than most supermarket hot cross buns), and the gooey inside is delightful. The stuff of dreams, truly.’
Lead product developer Sandy Tchilinguirian is also, unsurprisingly, a big fan of the Dippy Egg hot cross buns as she helped to create the unique product.
Referred to as the queen of mince pies and hot cross buns at M&S, Sandy has worked for the retailer for five years, and jokes that it’s Christmas and Easter all year round for her.
She has a real soft spot for the brand’s Luxury Hot Cross Buns which she calls the ‘crown jewels’ of the range and urges customers to try them as part of a bacon sandwich by adding crispy pancetta bacon and lots of butter.
Sandy claims the new Dippy Egg buns took ‘months and months’ to get right, and she’s ‘very excited’ they’re finally going to be available for shoppers to buy.
‘We have brought our customers on a journey with our hot cross bun range, and we’ve been introducing products for people who want to partake in hot cross buns, but might not enjoy vine fruits like sultanas,’ the expert tells Metro.
‘So far we’ve done this by bringing in non-fruited items like Extremely Chocolatey hot cross buns and cheese ones.’
‘We’re also working on new products that really excite us, like the Dippy Egg buns. We are the first to market the double-injected chocolate sauce, and that will be a true game-changing innovation, as there are no chocolate filled hot cross buns on the market.
‘This particular product has been a real labour of love, we’ve been perfecting it over months and months to ensure we deliver that perfect Dippy Egg, look, feel and taste.’
She continues: ‘There were various sources of inspiration for the Dippy Egg hot cross buns, but we’ve definitely built on the back of the success of our Extremely Chocolatey buns, as we felt that there was an opportunity to deliver even more chocolate and even more fun for customers.’
‘Easter is synonymous with eggs, hot cross buns and chocolate and we wanted to bring all of those very visual associations together and create a new format for people to enjoy.’
‘The result is scrumptiously chocolatey, but not too sweet,’ adds Sandy.
As well as the Dippy Eggs, the hot cross bun range at M&S this year also features brand new Heat to Eat Cinn-A-Yum Buns which are ‘soft and sweet cinnamon buns, enriched with butter and finished with a drizzle of white icing and cinnamon sugar’.
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For those who want something a little more traditional, there’s also new Collection Fruited Hot Cross Buns which contain 36% fruit and are made with Wildfarmed flour. These buns are packed full of juicy M&S Earl Grey Tea soaked Vostizza currants, Chilean flame raisins, Chilean jumbo golden raisins, sweet cranberries, diced apricot and Italian candied orange peel, and finished with a vanilla glaze.
And a few favourites are back, including the Luxury Hot Cross Buns, Blueberry Hot Cross Buns, Millionaire’s Hot Cross Buns, Extremely Chocolatey Hot Cross Buns, Extremely Cheesy Hot Cross Buns and Bramley Apple Hot Cross Buns.
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For those who aren’t so keen on buns, there are also some other new seasonal treats in store, such as an Easter Colin the Caterpillar Cake, a Flossy the Highland Cow Cake (launching April 8), and a Speckled Egg twist on the retailer’s famous cookies.
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