Method

1. Warm the milk in a pan till it's just steaming.

2. In a mixing bowl, add the flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, sugar, yeast and orange zest. Next, add in the butter and rub the mixture together between your fingers so that it starts to resemble bread crumbs.

3. Gently pour in the warmed milk, and add the eggs and raisins too. Attach the beater attachments onto your HM4 mixer, and then use it to mix it all together in the bowl until it forms a dough. 

4. Next, knead the dough in the bowl for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is smooth. If using the HM4 hand mixer, change the attachments and add on the dough hooks. Knead the dough for 5-10 minutes.  

5. Transfer the dough into a clean but lightly oiled bowl, and cover the bowl with clingfilm. Leave it to rise until it's doubled in size - this usually takes 1-2 hours.

6. Once the dough has risen, remove from the bowl and knead lightly on a floured surface.

7. Split evenly into 12 balls and place onto a lined tray with about a centimetre gap between the balls.

8. Cover with lightly oiled cling film, and leave again to rise whilst your oven preheats to 200C/180C fan. Ideally, leave them 45-60 minutes. 

9. Just before putting them into the oven, prepare the mixture for the white crosses. Whisk together the flour and water until it makes a smooth mixture, and then carefully pipe it onto the buns to form the crosses.

10. Bake in the oven for 20 minutes at 200C/180C Fan. 

11. Once baked, brush lightly with apricot jam and then leave to cool fully.