The Victorian city of Ballarat is set to be overtaken with pies once again, thanks to the return of the popular Ballarat’s Best Pie Competition.

The 2025 iteration will see 35 sweet and savoury creations battle it out for the crown from August 1-31.

Returning for the third year, the contenders will compete across one month, although the pie judging and awards ceremony will take place on August 2. Included in the categories are:

• Ballarat’s Best Pie 2025 (grand prize, second and third)
• Best Savoury Pie
• Best Sweet Pie
• Best Bakery Pie
• New category: Brilliantly Unexpected Pie, and
• New category: Pie with Purpose

The People’s Choice Pie will be determined by public vote from August 2-31 and announced in early September.

Cookbook author and television presenter Julia Busutti Nishimura will take on the MC duties during the 2025 Best Pie Awards, while the judging panel will include food writer Richard Cornish and MasterChef Australia contestant and Ballarat local Time Bone.

The 2024 title was taken home by Itinerant Spirits’ wild orchard apple and vodka pie.

The current list of savoury contenders includes:

• Not Your Grandma’s Pantry: Barbecue duck and pineapple tart
• Eclectic Tastes: Beef bourguignon pie
• Itinerant Spirits: Beef cheek, merlot and cheddar pithvier
• Turret Bakehouse: Beef rendang
• Hideaway: Smoked brisket bourguignon pie
• 1816 Bakehouse: Butter chicken pie
• Aunty Jacks: Chicken pilsner pie
• The Market Hotel: Classic beef and Guinness pie
• Magnolia: Confit lamb pie
• The Red Lion: Drunken pork pie
• Drive Cafe: Eggs benny pie
• Red Duck Brewery and Distillery: El quacko pie
• The George Hotel: English Porky Pie
• The Shared table: Feral Pie
• The Boatshed Restaurant: Fig, rosemary and duck pie
• Elanora: Fish pie
• Roy Hammond: Galbi-jjim and bone marrow
• Hop Temple: Goat barbacoa
• Beechworth Bakery Ballarat: Gold digger pie
• Hotel Canberra’s Stables Cafe and Bar
• Cornerstone Cafe: Lion’s mane osso buco
• Dyers Steak Stable: Mrs Stewart’s classic beef and red wine jus pie
• Saigon Allee: Pie-bo
• 321 Cafe Learmonth: Pollo enchilada
• Nolans: Pork, mushroom and vermouth pie
• Aussie Oggie Pastry Company: Prawn and scallop pie
• Provincial Ballarat: Provincial pork pie
• Grainery Lane: Smoked Waubra prime lamb pie
• Emma’s Bakery: Tram car pulled beef pie
• Tuki: Trout, sorrel and yabby pot pie
• Soverign Hill’s Hope Bakery: Whiskey and stout slow-braised beef pie

The list of sweet competitors are:

• Mondegreen Cafe: Apple sty pie
• Kilderkin Distillery: Limoncello meringue pie
• Naomi & I: Mrs Browne Bakes’ raspberry goldfields cookie pie
• Lydiard General: Peach and Portuguese custard pie
• The Spanish Grill at Mercure Ballarat: Queso-mango cremoso pie