Ka means “good” in Maori, and there’s no denying these boys make a mean pie.

The team at Ka Pies hand make a lot of pies – gourmet pies, breakfast pies, Maori-style pies, classic pies, and even a few sausage rolls. But there’s one variety that’s selling as fast as the bakers can make them: the Thai Curry Vegetable Pie.

There’s good reason the Sunshine bakery is getting so much attention. The team recently took home the trophy for the 2016 Australia’s Best Pie, a fought-over annual pie competition held at Foodservice Australia.

The vegan curry creation was the product of two Altona mates, who opened the Sunshine bakery just two years ago. After the Zealand-born Doug Meijer and Adrian Apswoude bought the Hampshire Road bakery, they were left with only $800 in the bank. Today, their bakery opens to the public and wholesales to more than 40 food retailers in Melbourne, New South Wales, Queensland and even New Zealand.

t’s an impressive feat, particularly considering the boys had no baking experience.

The pair’s winning pie was selected from 1700 entries, with judges marking on colour, consistency, pastry thickness, and how much ‘puff’ the top had.

The Thai vegetable curry pie was originally vegetarian before the pair realised, with a small alteration, they could market it to a wider audience – vegans.

“We realised our pastry had 10 per cent butter and we’re like, if we just eliminate that 10 per cent butter, it becomes a vegan pie and that’s another point of sale,” Mr Apswoude said.

Mr Meijer said all of the pair’s pies were ‘New Zealand style’.

“We use 100 per cent puff pastry and all of our fillings are made from scratch, with the best quality ingredients we can source,” he said.

“They’re a hand-crafted boutique pie and we’re very proud of what we have produced in the past 20 months.”