Baking history has been made over the weekend as hopeful bakers from across Victoria battled it out at the prestigious Baking Association of Australia’s Victoria Baking Show where Australia’s best hot cross bun was officially crowned.

North End Bakehouse in Shepparton has taken top gong for their hot cross buns, snatching back their title as the best of the best in the HCB world, a crown they wore in both 2021 and 2022. Now they’ve come back swinging taking out blue ribbons for both their hot cross buns and vanilla slice, the first time in the Baking Association of Australia’s history that the same entrant has won both prizes.

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Judges for the Victoria Baking Show are widely considered the foremost authorities on all things baking, tasting their way through hundreds of entries across 30 categories. To determine Australia’s best hot cross bun, the judges sampled entries from a record-breaking 130 bakeries from NSW, VIC and SA. 

The competition doesn’t end at the Easter treat, however. Judges critiqued everything from sausage rolls to baguettes, pasties, pies and flan – presumably in their stretchy pants. 

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The buns in question come from a long line of innovative HCBs that the Shepparton bakery has cooked up over the years. In their seriously impressive trophy cabinet, North End Bakehouse have taken out first place for ‘most innovative hot cross bun’ in 2023, 2022, 2021, and 2020, no mean feat.

A huge congratulations to the whole North End Bakehouse team, it’s going to be a busy Easter!

See the full list of winners at the Victoria Baking Show website.

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