IT'S all eyes on the pies for Stephens Bakery as they're in the running at the World Championship Scotch Pie Awards.

The Dunfermline bakery went head to head against almost 500 of the best pies on the market and proved they were a part of the upper crust as they bagged a place on this year's shortlist for the World Championships.

Scottish Bakers organise the competition each year to highlight the skills and talent in the Scottish pie industry.

Chief executive of the association, Alasdair Smith, said: “Announcing the shortlist is always a great moment as it’s the first time our entrants get an inkling that their pies have been judged as amongst the best in the land but it’s always great to be recognising products which have been lovingly made from scratch from locally- sourced ingredients, freshly made daily by skilled craftspeople.”

A total of 60 pie-fessionals made up the panel of judges who determined who made the cut as they evaluated each entry painstakingly on taste, touch, appearance and smell across a range of categories, including the iconic Scotch pies, football pies and savouries, macaroni pies, steak pies, sausage rolls, cold savouries, hot savouries, vegetarian savouries, haggis savouries, bridies and apple pies.

The winner of the Scotch Pie category will be announced at the Scottish Bakers awards lunch on January 24 at the Westerwood Hotel in Cumbernauld. The ceremony will be presented by TV personality and pie award presenter Carol Smillie.