The Northend Bakehouse in Shepparton took home first place for two titles: Innovative Hot Cross Buns and Australia's Best Hot Cross Bun.

For the innovative category, the bakery entered a vanilla slice hot cross bun which was made from a sweet custard flavoured dough filled with vanilla slice custard, topped with icing and a pastry cross.

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According to the owner, Matt Aylett, the bakery's unique spin on what is a traditional favourite (hot cross bun) is what made them stand out and win.

"Everyone loves vanilla slice and it's just something a little bit different," he said.

The Elmore Bakery, came in second place in the Innovative Hot Cross Bun category.

The Northend Bakery also came in first for the Australia's Best Hot Cross Bun category, two years in a row.

Mr Aylett said the key to achieving a good traditional hot cross bun was simplicity.

"We just put it down to just doing everything nice and simple and doing it well.

We just used simple fruits and spices," he said.

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Previous winners handed their trophies to the new winners, so in a strange but amusing move, Mr Aylett handed over the trophy to himself.

The bakery has been enjoying the success of the competition with more customers coming into the store and almost selling out of all their products everyday this week and greater interaction on their social media pages.

"We're taking it as a chance to get more customers. Our bakery is tucked away in an industrial estate so we're constantly finding ways to gain new customers and this helps people come looking for us."

Sharps Bakery from Shepparton won Australia's Best Vanilla Slice.

Bakery owner Brad Sharp said COVID-19 had a negative impact on them as they could no longer enter baking competitions, which provided an opportunity to tweak and improve their products and gain valuable feedback.

"It was great to get back into competitions.It was fantastic to come out on top," Mr Sharp said.

Mr Sharp's mother attended the baking show on his behalf as he could not attend.

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When he and his wife found out they won the title after taking over the bakery from their parents who ran the bakery since 1977, they were "ecstatic."

"It's great to keep the tradition going," he said.

The response from the community has been positive Mr Sharp said, especially on social media.

The bakery is receiving calls congratulating them from all over Australia, and even customers driving from hours away to go into their store.

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