Proud: James Walker, Lina Galati and Damien Gow with the award-winning and delicious donuts.
Photo by
Isabelle Harris
Cobram bakery Hungie Fangs has another award under its belt, taking out first prize for its cinnamon donut and third for its jam donut in the Bakery Association of Australia’s National Donut competition.
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The inaugural donut competition, held as part of the Baking Industry Trade Show in Melbourne from May 31 to June 2, has put Hungie Fangs on the map once again.
Hungie Fangs’ Damien Gow said he was ecstatic at taking out two prizes for the bakery staples.
“I was jumping around the house like a maniac, we were really really excited ... it’s fantastic, it really is,” he said.
“From the young apprentices to the girls up the front to us bakers in between it really is a real team effort and we’ve all lapped up the bloody glory of it.”
Mr Gow and head baker James Walker owe their success to quality ingredients and taking their time in making them, as well as years of experience.
“Our patience with the mix is probably key to the success, the other thing is the quality of the ingredients ... that’s one of the main reasons, it’s quality ingredients and bloody damn good bakers,” Mr Gow said.
“We take our time on the whole process ... everything is made from scratch,” said Mr Walker, who entered the competition for the first time and won third place with his jam donut.
“A lot of people go years in competitions and get nothing out of it, so it’s a big thing to be on.”
They both said their wins were incredibly rewarding for their personal development as bakers.
Sweet treats: Boxes of the freshly-made cinnamon donuts often sell out quickly, with Hungie Fangs turning out hundreds of them per day.
Photo by
Isabelle Harris
Since winning the award, they have made close to 2000 donuts in three days that regularly sell out, using roughly 60kg of mix in that time.
They have also attracted customers from as far as Echuca, with more expected to make the trip in over the coming weekends as news spreads.
Bakery owner Lina Galati said they had been “absolutely flat out” and the recent attention had raised their already high profile even further.
“Just having the news out there boosted our sales and our business so it gets people into Cobram,” she said.
She said visitors would come for the donuts, but also spend money and time at other businesses in Cobram, bringing a mutual benefit to everyone.
“They’ll come and have a look around, and they might decide hey, during the summer we might come down and have a good look around and stay.
“It’ll bring people here, while they’re thinking of what to do.”
The bakery has previously won bronze for its hot cross bun in 2018 and bronze for its iced donut in 2020 at the Victorian Baking Show, as well as three gold awards in the 2020 Great Aussie Pie Competition.
First-year apprentice Declan Cheong also won gold for his honey mustard chicken pie at The Great Aussie Pie Competition in 2021.
The bakery has also been awarded for its bread at previous baking industry competitions.
