The Great Australian Vanilla Slice Triumph competition held in Merbein has been welcoming bakeries from across the country since the 90s.
But who competes?
And who wins? Well — this time at least — Shepparton’s North End Bakehouse does.
Representatives from North End Bakehouse were among those in attendance on Saturday, August 19, but this was not their first rodeo.
“We’ve been chipping away at it for a while and trying to get up to first and we managed to get it this year,” owner Matt Aylett said.
“We go up there [to Merbein] and take mixes and all the ingredients and everything and make it all up there so that way it’s as fresh as it can be.
“On the Saturday morning you prep it all and take it down and judges and they get until sort of two or three o’clock in the arvo to judge it.”
When the judges announced the winner, Mr Aylett said it was almost a relief after trying for so many years to get the trophy.
“All of the organisers and a lot of people there know that we’ve been going at it for a while so it’s really good,” Mr Aylett said.
“We had one of our apprentices get third place in the apprentice category.”
Their secret? Attention to detail and aiming for perfection, Mr Aylett said.
“It’s really just down to taking our time and perfecting everything, the judging comes down to everything,” he said.
Since their return from glory, vanilla slices have been flying off the shelf.
“We are just selling out, everything is gone,” Mr Aylett said.
“We just keep making more and more and trying to keep up with the demand.
“Just today we made 25 slabs, there’s 32 pieces so we got up to over 1000 a day and tomorrow will be well over 1000.”