Start by making the dough: add the yeast, flour, salt, cardamom and sugar to a large bowl. In a separate container beat together the milk and egg. (To speed up rising you can microwave the milk/egg mixture until lukewarm — approx 35 degrees celsius.)

Pour the egg/milk mixture into the flour mixture and mix until roughly combined using your hands, or a stand mixer with a dough hook. Mix in the butter gradually in 3 or 4 stages. Knead the dough for 10 minutes to develop the gluten. (Initially mixture will be quite sticky, but after a minute or so it should become a smooth dough. Sprinkle on some extra flour if it seems too sticky to Knead.)

Put the dough back into the bowl, cover and leave somewhere warm for 20 minutes for a first rise.

Meanwhile, make the cinnamon filling: add the marzipan/almond & sugar, cinnamon, vanilla sugar/sugar & vanilla and butter to a bowl. Beat together until well combined and smooth.

Finish the dough: Sprinkle some flour on a worktop and turn out the dough onto it. Pat the dough into a rough flat rectangle, then roll out with a floured rolling pin to a 3–4mm thick rectangle, a little taller than wide. Spread the cinnamon mixture evenly over the dough, then fold the dough in half (cinnamon inside, short edge to short edge). You should have a rectangle of dough roughly twice as wide as it is tall.

Slice the dough: Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, slice your dough rectangle into strips about 1cm wide, or according to the number of buns you want. (Slice from the edge opposite the fold towards the fold. I.e. slice from the long edge of your rectangle to create more short strips rather than fewer long strips.)

Assemble the buns: To make the buns we coil a strip of dough around two fingers held slightly apart in a Bhi shape. Take a strip of dough, hold each end and gently shake and stretch it to about 30–40cm long. (If the strip is uneven, stretch wider parts more.) Holding one end of the strip between your thumb and one of the two fingers, begin coiling the strip around the two fingers. Wrap at least twice, ideally 3 or 4+ times. Each coil should create a twist in the strip....

(Tip: I use my oven to rise the dough: place the buns in a COLD oven with a digital instant-ready thermometer inside the oven so that you can see it though the door glass. Turn on the oven to the lowest temperature for 5–10 seconds at a time until the thermometer reads 35 celsius. Leave the oven off, but check the temperature every 20 minutes or so and re-warm as required.)

Prepare the syrup: While the buns are cooking add the sugar and water to a sauce pan (ideally with a heavy base) and place the pan over a medium–high heat. Once the mixture starts to boil, stir it every 30 seconds or so. After a few minutes it should thicken a little into a runny syrup. Take it off the heat. (Note that it should not caramelise — if it does you've heated it too much.)