North End Bakehouse is stepping up to challenge for the title of Australia’s best hot cross buns for the second year running.
Bakery owners Matt and Shekiah Aylett are making the trip to Bendigo this weekend, February 26 and 27, to defend their prestigious title as the nation’s best bun-makers, and to try out something a little different.
The Victorian Baking Show has amalgamated with both the Victorian Training Trophy and the Australia’s Best Vanilla Slice Competition, at which the baking couple finished second last year.
“It’s a bit different this year, the Victorian Baking Show has always been in Shepp since it started but due to COVID-19, they could not get anyone to host it here,” Mr Aylett said.
“It’s going to be a big weekend and we’re hoping to go back-to-back with our awards, at least some of them anyway.”
At last year’s event, the Ayletts took first place for their traditional fruit hot cross bun and another blue ribbon in the innovative category for their Vegemite hot cross bun.
The crowd favourite vanilla slice hot cross bun collected second place, and the Ayletts are hoping to go one better this weekend.
With the merging of the shows the Ayletts are hoping to add a bit of pizazz to their sweets repertoire, but they’re not willing to share their secrets just yet.
“We have been a bit slow this year, so only this week we have been playing around with a few different ideas to see what we can do — it’s always best to wing it and do it last-minute,” Mr Aylett said with a laugh.
While they’re looking for something a little ‘out there’, when it comes to the ever-trusty fruit hot cross bun, the bakers tend to stay traditional in a ‘don’t fix what isn’t broke’ mindset.
“There’s no secret, everything’s just simple — we don’t overcomplicate it and add any extra bits and pieces to make it fancy or anything,” Mr Aylett said.
The award-winning buns will be in store from next week onwards for the Easter crowds to enjoy.