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Sally: I was travelling around Canada and started working in an Aussie M: I got home one day and there were three people in the driveway with
pub. I was the waitress and he was the chef, that’s how we met. How clichéd. groceries, including someone from Salsa with their staff meal.
We met in November, then in December he asked my sister if he could
marry me. She said no. It sounds so lame, but we just knew it was right. He S: It was then we truly realised what it means when they say it takes a village
proposed in St Paul’s Cathedral in London in the Whispering Gallery at to raise a child. We would never have asked for this kind of help, and to
have people extend that was extraordinary. By this stage, my mental health
Christmas. He pulled out this giant box and I was like, “That had better not
be a f*** Pandora bracelet…”. had really deteriorated and to top it off I got pneumonia and had to go back
to hospital, leaving Mike at home with three children this time. We had no
Mike: As a joke, I convinced her that instead of engagement rings, money left after day care and hospital bills. By the time I returned home, we
engagement bracelets were in. I kept saying ‘you’re not a ring person, so you were in some fairly significant debt, with no way of seeing our way out. Mike
wouldn’t be upset… right?’ had been making doughnuts at home for a while by this stage, just playing
with recipes. We thought if we could sell them at the markets while he was
S: Anyway. It was a ring. Thank god. So, we went and had a bottle of still working at Mocka’s, it would get us out of trouble. We sent a few samples
champagne and then to dinner and it was just a comedy of errors. The out to friends in lined cereal boxes for packaging.
restaurant sewerage backed up, they were playing some godawful hardcore
music in the background, the food was diabolical and they lost my coat. M: I made some doughnuts for a chef mate for his birthday and sent them
to the restaurant where he worked. The restaurant owner (who I also knew
M: But it was great… sort of. well) happened to be there, and the next time I saw my mate he told me that
S: My visa was about to expire, so we decided to go back to Vancouver, finish the owner had eaten the lot! The owner called me a couple of days later and
work then get married in Vegas before heading back to Australia. said “So, what’s the story with those doughnuts?”. The owner then offered
up his shop at night after they were closed for us to make doughnuts under
M: And I organised everything. Which is funny, because… well, look at his food licence, asking nothing of us except some doughnuts in exchange.
our lives now. She organises everything. But this time, I did it. I booked the We had no idea at what was going to happen – maybe they’d sell, maybe
flowers and an Elvis and a chapel that wasn’t totally cheese ball. The chapel they wouldn’t. Within a week, the cafe was getting phone calls asking when
was actually heritage-listed – it was the one in which Elvis got married in the doughnuts were arriving, how many, could they order some. People were
the movie Viva Las Vegas. Flowers, photography, the reception was chicken literally waiting at the front door each day for doughnut delivery. I would
wings and beers at Hooters. $600. Bargain. start making them at 2am, deliver them,, go to work, head back to make
S: Mike even found some coupons and got us five nights at the Bellagio dough… then go to bed and start the cycle again. We took some samples
Las Vegas. Romantically, I then resumed my travelling while Mike went around to a few restaurants who jumped on them straight away. We started
back to Wisconsin to wait for me! He couldn’t wait, of course, and caught a at one dozen for each venue, then it quickly grew to two and even more. We
Greyhound bus to meet me in New Orleans. were still working out so many kinks, like how long the doughnuts would
keep for, how long the glaze would last, but people just couldn’t get enough.
M: All the way from the top (of the US) to the bottom. On a bus. That’s love.
S: At our first market stall at Port Douglas Markets, we sold out within
S: It was about then that I’d started telling Mike about Port Douglas and hours. Our only promotion was through social media and word of mouth.
how wonderful it was. We had planned to arrive in May, and coincidently We blindly thought that it was a bit of a novelty, and anyone who’d wanted
it was on Carnivale night. Our plan was to stay for six months for season, a doughnut had probably already got them, so next week won’t be as big.
then move to Melbourne, then back to the States to live. We got in here in Wrong. Even bigger. Soon it was April and Easter, then school holidays.
May, but I was pregnant by July… so we stayed. Life seemed a little simpler Every week just got bigger. In that time, we had gone from making a couple
to navigate here. Mike walked into a job at Salsa, and I got a job at On The of dozen a day to almost 1000 a week. We then started supplying Cairns
Inlet. When our son Beau came along, we couldn’t sustain Mike working cafes and Rusty’s markets.
nights. Beau was a difficult baby – very colicky, crying for 13 hours a day and
was inconsolable. It was brutal. So not only did we start to look for day jobs, M: That was the tipping point where I had to quit my day job.
but we also thought we’d just have another baby, to roll the non-sleeping all S: Mike had worked 100 days straight, and life was just crazy. We started
into one. with absolutely nothing. We’d literally emptied our bank accounts to get
M: We walked into Mocka’s Pies and asked if there were any jobs going for the first weekend at the markets and for decent packaging – cereal boxes
Sal. Cheekily she asked if there was one for me too, and the owner, Nigel, obviously wouldn’t do. The whole idea with the doughnuts was to get us
said yes. I had no idea about baking. What could possibly go wrong? It was out of debt, so there was simply no option for us to take out a business loan.
just pies – no breads or sandwiches, and I was his first real employee. M: Fast forward to today and although it varies throughout the season, we’re
S: Then we had Waylon, and he was a premature baby. That was fun. He making up to 2000 doughnuts each week. That’s just me, with Sally’s help
was born at 34 weeks and spent time in NICU. Our third, Luke, was even one night a week before the markets. Everything we do is manual. Our dough
better - he was 29 weeks when my waters broke. For 51 days, I was living is a sour dough base, not just a mix. The whole process takes two days. The
across the road from Cairns Base Hospital. My waters broke 17 times and dough needs to be mixed, kneaded and rested on one day, and be rolled out
was admitted to the birthing suite eight times. Mike was at home looking on another day with baking after that. This allows the yeast to really develop,
after both Beau and Waylon and trying to work; the kids got croup, it was a giving it that sweet, ester flavour as the yeast continues to ferment. The glaze
nightmare. But during this time, the people around us were extraordinary. is adjusted according to the humidity during the year and flavours are based
We had friends coming around to the house to clean, to change sheets, to on events and popularity. I’m probably the only person who wishes it was
bring food, to come over in the middle of the night to mind the kids when the hot, sticky wet season all year round. Yeast likes 30C and 80% humidity.
Mike would inevitably get a call from the hospital.

PORT DOUGLAS MAGAZINE 61