Here are some general tips for making memorable buns.
Be generous with all the enriching ingredients: an extra egg; 10-15% more butter than normal; 20% more fruit (currants, sultanas, etc.; a little extra spice. [Remember – adding egg and butter may mean you have to call up a little more flour].
Spices: you are rewarded if you grind them on the baking day, everything is so zingy and flavoursome. In my bakery I would ask all staff to put in an extra hour right before bun season, and out would come the old coffee grinders. There would ensue a frenzy of grinding and sieving, followed by re-grinding of the coarse bits caught in the sieves . Gradually a huge mound of freshly ground spices would rise on a large sheet of brown paper on the work table. About two kilos or more.
Ferment your dough as for normal buns, remembering that with such a rich and spiced dough it is best to watch that the first rise achieves less puffiness than a normal bread dough. For such rich doughs I would always make a ferment (in the English baker's lexicon a ferment = wet sponge, highly yeasted).
Crossing. See the photo at the top. Keep the piping nozzle well above the buns as you swish along. The buns must be placed on the trays in neat rows to enable accurate piping.
A rich burgundy red, these dyed eggs are sunk into easily expanded gaps between the strands of the enriched 3-strand plait that is the normal style of this bread.
The photo below shows them ready for final proving, each plait getting one egg, but you can insert two or three into the plait if you like. The dyed eggs have to be inserted fairly deeply to avoid them exploding in the oven.
Here is the recipe for the dye, a simple and natural affair that you would find cloth and wool dyers have used for millenia. In the kitchen save your onion skins for a week or two.
Put skins, vinegar and water in a saucepan, bring to boil, simmer for 30 minutes. It will look orange.
In a stainless steel pan, add cooled, strained dye and the eggs – in one layer totally covered by dye.
Boil over medium heat, cover and simmer 12-15 minutes to redden the eggs. Take out the eggs with a slotted spoon.
When the eggs are dry gently coat them with veg oil. One way to do this would be to rub them with an oil-soaked piece of kitchen paper.