The bakery also fared well in several state competitions, finishing second in the meat pie and traditional pastie categories and third in the fruit scone and vanilla slice categories.

It was the second time Golden Nugget has been within reach of the coveted title after finishing second in the 2018 competition.

Owners Alicia and Wal Matthews said there was a little bit of competitive frustration at not taking out the title, but they were proud of the achievement.

"We know that our buns are up there with the best of them and we're just proud of the quality of what we're producing," Mr Matthews said.

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Mr Matthews said the key to the buns' success was the use of fresh Australian ingredients but would not divulge the secret spice mix.

"We use Australian fruit in the buns. We also use whole fresh oranges, we don't use the packaged peel. We put the oranges through a food processor and put them through the bun which gives them much nicer flavour as well as a really good spice mix that we put in as well," he said.

From buying a classic country bakery at Wendouree 22 years ago, the couple have been able to expand the business to become a Ballarat institution with three drive-through bakeries across their four locations.

Ms Matthews said it was a quick decision to open a drive-through bakery 15 years ago.

"This building was sitting vacant, Wal came home one day and said, 'what do you reckon about a drive-through bakery?' We didn't take too long really to think about it, we just thought that it would work and people would like that," she said.

"The first probably nine months were very hard, not many cars. You kind of think you're going to open a drive-through business and everyone will know that we're here.

"I had all this stuff on and all these girls at the front and day one, we had five cars go through. Nine to 12 months later, we kind of got happening and haven't ever looked back from there."

Despite the expansion, the couple have been deliberate in their focus on Ballarat and retaining the traditional country bakery feel.

With national chains eyeing off Ballarat and one of the next big markets outside of the capital cities, Mr Matthews said their only worry was doing everything they do to the best of their ability.

"We find that we've got an awesome staff, awesome people behind the counter that really embrace our regulars and have them coming back," he said.

"We don't look at ourselves [as an institution]. It's certainly been suggested before and it's fantastic, it's humbling and we always keep looking at what we could be doing better more so than looking at what we have done.

"We're rapt with what we're doing, we employ 90-odd people now between the four stores. Pretty much all locals, so we obviously realise that we're contributing a fair bit towards the community in that respect."

While Golden Nugget has been able to expand successfully, Ms Matthews said they were content to keep the business Ballarat-focused.

"We just feel if we were to branch out of Ballarat, it's very hard to keep the quality of our product there. If you're transporting it to a location a couple hours away, that kind of thing, then you need to start looking at baking the products the day before," she said.

"Our business would lose a bit of what we are if we were to grow bigger. We love that we bake everything in our bakehouses. It's all fresh, the bakers are starting at midnight and that element, that's what people love. I think people love the freshness and that we're a real bakery."

While many businesses were struggling through the COVID-driven lockdowns, Mr Matthews said the Ballarat community rallied behind the business which was able to stay open thanks to its drive-through model.

"They were unbelievable to us, we didn't have to cut one hour or lay one person off through the entire period because we were supported so well from the Ballarat community," he said.

"We thank them so much for coming out and supporting us and keeping us continuing on through such an uncertain time."