 A black bun cut open, showing fruit cake interior | |
| Alternative names | Scotch bun, Scotch Christmas bun |
|---|---|
| Type | Fruit cake |
| Place of origin | Scotland |
| Main ingredients | Pastry,raisins,currants,almonds,citrus peel,allspice,ginger,cinnamon andpepper |
Black bun, sometimes known asScotch bun, is a type offruit cake completely covered withpastry. It is Scottish in origin, originally eaten on theTwelfth Night of Christmas, and now enjoyed atHogmanay. The cake mixture typically containsraisins,currants,almonds,citrus peel,allspice,ginger,cinnamon andblack pepper. It had originally been introduced following the return ofMary, Queen of Scots from France, but its original use at Twelfth Night ended with theScottish Reformation. It was subsequently used forfirst-footing over Hogmanay.
Black bun is a fruit cake wrapped in pastry. The cake itself is similar to a traditionalChristmas cake orChristmas pudding mixture, including ingredients such asraisins andcurrants along with spices such ascinnamon,black pepper andallspice.[1][2] It has been called a much bigger version of aGaribaldi biscuit, and it has been suggested that the latter's origin may have been influenced by the black bun because its inventor, John Carr, was Scottish.[3]
Outside Scotland, the black bun is also eaten in theAppalachia region of the United States.[4] In 2013, a recipe was demonstrated byPaul Hollywood on a Christmas special ofThe Great British Bake Off.[5] It was then set as the signature challenge in the 2025 Hogmanay Special.
The cake originated as a ScottishKing cake for use onTwelfth Night on 5 January – the eve ofEpiphany, and the end of theTwelve Days of Christmas.[6] It was introduced following the return ofMary, Queen of Scots from France, and the tradition was that a bean was hidden in the cake – whoever found it became the King for the evening. It has been recorded that Mary herself participated in such games, and in 1563 she dressed her childhood companionMary Fleming in royal robes and jewellery after Fleming became Queen for the evening. This stunned the English Ambassador, who wrote "The Queen of the Bean was that day in a gown of cloth of silver, her head, her neck, her shoulders, the rest of her whole body, so beset with stones, that more in our whole jewel house was not to be found."[7] Following theScottish Reformation in 1560, the celebration of Christmas was outlawed in Scotland and the related use of a King cake ended.[7]
The black bun type of cake in its modern usage dates from the early nineteenth century. Previously called Scotch bun and Scotch Christmas bun, the term "black bun" was first recorded in 1898, and may have been a result ofRobert Louis Stevenson referring to the cake as "a black substance inimical to life".[8]
After the Scottish Reformation, winter festivities were moved to the New Year in Presbyterian Scotland, so the cake has been commonly incorporated into the New Year festivities afterHogmanay, where people traditionally visit their neighbours after midnight to celebrate theNew Year. This is calledfirst-foot, and the gift of a black bun was meant to symbolise that the receiving family would not go hungry during the forthcoming year.[2] It was also used as a traditional cake to serve to those visiting homes as part of Hogmanay, to be consumed withwhisky.[9]
black bun.
