This BBQ joint just earned a top prize at the Ontario Butter Tart Festival

With pecan taking home Best in Show as well as the traditional categories for both professional and home bakers, the domination of the Big Pecan cabal at the Ontario Best Butter Tart Festival remains as strong as ever, with fans of Team Raisin once again shut out of the winner’s circle.

On the bright side, a first-time entry from a legendary Port Perry barbecue joint took home the top prize in the traditional category (professional), with a pecan butter tart (what else) from Haugen’s scoring highest with the judges.

There was no love for raisin butter tart fans, continuing a trend (at the professional level anyway), that has gone unchecked since the first butter tart championships was held in the Georgian Bay town in 2013.

Kudos to Haugen’s, known around the region by generations of of chicken and ribs lovers but not known for its baked goods. In fact, the winning tart was made by a Haugen’s baker at borrowed premises in Toronto owned by Circles and Squares – two-time winners in Midland in 2023 and in 2025 – who purchased Haugen’s earlier this year.

“It’s awesome. Absolutely awesome,” said Kyle Sherwin at Haugen’s. “This was the cherry on top for the team for all their efforts.”

Sherwin, who acknowledged the lack of love for raisin by the judges, said Haugen’s is in the process of creating a proper bakery on site in Port Perry.

“We’re going back to the glory days of Haugen’s. Everything’s going to be baked in-house, from breads to pies … to butter tarts.”

With more than 300,000 butter tarts to sample, hundreds of vendors and glorious sunshine (until near the end of day when a storm rolled in off the bay and nearly sent a few tents into the drink), visitors had plenty to choose from at the annual event, which celebrates Ontario’s quintessential treat.

The first printed recipe for butter tart filling, published in 1900 in the Royal Victoria Hospital Cookbook in nearby Barrie, called for 1 cup sugar, ½ cup butter, 2 eggs and 1 cup of currants, so purists know that adding raisins is not a sin.

The judges in Midland didn’t get the same memo, with first place in the traditional (professional) category reserved for pecan (six times), maple pecan (twice) and plain (twice). Team Raisin? Zero.

Raisin lovers have not been completely shut out – there’s still lots of love in the amateur category, as the Pecan Illuminati neglected to let the home bakers into their secret cabal. In 2018-2019, while classic lovers were enjoying a brief run of success with the pros, home bakers Debbie Lloyd (2019) and Tonya Louks (2018) were winning blue ribbons in the amateur division for their raisin butter tarts.

Most butter tart vendors at the festival on Saturday were busy promoting their pecan, plain or wild flavours, yet a visit to the Rosemount General Store booth found them sold out of raisin tarts.

“I thought everyone hated raisin,” the young lady at the counter, raisin-crusted tongue firmly in cheek, was asked. “I know, right?” was the response in a similar vein. “But we’re all sold out.”

The consolation prize of a classic tart with homemade potato chips – winner in the wild category in 2023 – would have to do.

The BETTER Tarts booth

Lisa Fillion, who earned a third-place ribbon in Midland as an amateur/home baker in 2022 before winning multiple trophies on the butter tart trail after turning pro, had been entering her locally legendary raisin butter tarts in the competition for a couple of years before the prejudice against raisin became clear and she began entering pecan or wild style tarts.

Now the owner of BETTER Tarts of Orono in northern Clarington, Fillion entered a Strawberry Cheesecake Crunch in the wild style category this year.

“I might switch back and enter traditional next year and try raisin again,” she said with a smile.

Business was booming all day at her booth, at least until the storm brought a torrent of wind and rain that threatened to spoil the party.  “It’s been great. I’ve been busy all day and some people said they came up here just to see me, so that’s been awesome,” she said in the early afternoon. “I had a great day, sold out of all my 6-packs by 2:30-ish.”

Heroism in Midland

The Best in Show winner this year was a pecan butter tart made by Mississauga baker Lori Goldie (who racked up honours at last year’s event as well as November’s Royal Winter Fair), who also won first prize in the amateur wild category for a lemon lavender butter tart.

First place in the professional wild category went to Milano Pizza’s Lemon Meringue Butter Tart.

Rosemount General Store, an iconic butter tart bakery located between Barrie and Orangeville and a multiple award winner over the years, earned a second-place ribbon for their plain butter tart in the traditional category, while Haugen’s added a third-place prize in professional wild style for a root beer float butter tart.

No raisin tarts on the list, however. It may be all sweetness on the surface in the butter tart world, but there’s a dark and sticky (but still delicious) underside to the annual competition to crown Ontario’s best butter tart.

At least there are no calories in the ooey-gooey treats on Ontario Better Butter Tart day. True story.