There are few things more delicious than a butter tart — the crumbly pastry and syrupy filling are the stuff of dessert dreams and I will not be convinced otherwise.

And this weekend, Circles & Squares Bakery in Toronto took home 1st place for Best Butter Tart in the professional category, beating out the stiff competition.

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While it's not the first time a Toronto bakery took home the first-place prize (that title went to Baxter Kitchens in 2016), the festival is typically stacked with bakeries and sweet shops from outside the GTA and the competition is fierce, making this year's wins extra special for David Baxter, the owner of Circles & Squares.

"It was a big deal to all our staff as we work hard on it every year," says Baxter. 

In addition to the pros, there were also tons of amateur contestants showcasing weird and wonderful flavours, like chocolate & house-made potato chip, double coffee crisp, and pumpkin (among others). 

This year alone there were over 200,000 different flavours to try.

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In fact, Circles & Squares also scored 2nd place for their "wild-style" entry, a decadent salted chocolate and peanut butter version.

They also won 2nd place back in 2018, where they debuted a classic butter tart stuffed inside a Hello Dolly butter tart. Talk about layers of flavour!

"[The festival] was always a nice way for us to actually see the customers that buy what we bake," he explains. 

Since starting in 2013, the Ontario Butter Tart Festival has sold hundreds of thousands of sweet treats.