The smell of freshly baked doughnuts, mixed with that gentle waft of brewing coffee is usually enough to hypnotise any passer-by to take a sharp left into DoughHeads at the Junction Fair Shopping Centre. If that doesn’t entice them, the glass cabinet full of loaded delights topped with Nutella, salted caramel, lemon meringue and the classic cinnamon sugar does the trick. For those rare few that can’t be tempted, the new addition of creamy homemade gelato in flavours like rich mango, or popcorn and Maltesers is sure to get mouths salivating and tip them over the line.
Anna Farthing is the mastermind behind the continually evolving face of Newcastle’s sweet treat institution, DoughHeads. She has come a long way since her first market stall, selling petite cupcakes at her children’s primary school fete and Anna is the first to admit that the path to DoughHeads’ current successful Newcastle store hasn’t all been smooth sailing.
After school Anna moved to Newcastle from the mid-north coast, married her sweetheart and began a family. In amongst the motherhood haze of raising a brood of four children, Anna tapped into a love her nanna had ignited within her and began to bake. Her talent for sweet cooking delights such as children’s birthday cakes, treats and homemade sauces led her to set up a cupcake stall at Newcastle’s Olive Tree Markets called Sweet Boutique.
“I made a range of petite cupcakes like the patty pans my nanna used to make with elaborate flavour combinations like maple bacon, lemon meringue and rose and lychee,” remembers Anna. “These were different to what others were making at the time. I baked everything in my home kitchen with my young kids around me.”
“I made a range of petite cupcakes like the patty pans my nanna used to make with elaborate flavour combinations like maple bacon, lemon meringue and rose and lychee,” remembers Anna.
The juggle of mothering young children whilst cooking up to one thousand cupcakes for her market stall was intense, but Anna loved the creativity of concocting new flavours and the freedom of working for herself. Gaining popularity, Anna invested in her cupcake business, gutting her home laundry, and converting it into a commercial-grade kitchen.
After taking six weeks off when her fourth child was born, Anna returned to a changed market. “Cupcake Espresso had just opened up a shop and there was the first dedicated bagel stall, someone selling macarons, and homemade chocolates,” says Anna.
“More and more people were making cupcakes similar to mine so I had to really think about how I could do something different that might fit into my life with four kids.”
After experimenting with brownies, and homemade marshmallows, Anna says she kept learning and trying new things in her kitchen. Eventually the decision to launch a confectionery brand with products that had a longer shelf life became Anna’s focus. “I started making beer and pretzel caramel chews, maple and bacon popcorn, and salted caramel sauces and I began working on the branding for this new business,” says Anna.
Things started getting serious when Anna engaged a branding agency to help flesh out her confectionery idea. To pay for the process of launching her sweet treat range, Anna remembers needing instant cashflow on the side, so she relaunched her cupcake market stall but decided to sell doughnuts instead. “My son suggested I call it DoughHeads so we ran with it. We had a cheap logo made with the name, but I still thought of it as a side hustle,” says Anna.
My son suggested I call it DoughHeads so we ran with it. We had a cheap logo made with the name, but I still thought of it as a side hustle.
“I’d only ever made a few doughnuts before, and I’m not qualified as a baker so learning to work with yeast and getting the mixture right all came from trial and error.”
Little did Anna know, that with the help of a fun Instagram account that showcased amazing flavours like the Stikki Rikki (AKA a chocolatey peanut butter creation covered in crushed nuts and pretzels), a cult DoughHeads’ following had begun. Her very first market stall, nicknamed Operation Doughnut, saw doughnut fans cue for hours as Anna and her family hand-dipped each ‘naked’ doughnut on site.
“We ran out of icing, and I had to make a mad dash home and make more before we completely sold out at midday,” says Anna. “People were raving about our doughnuts and asking where we would be next, so we gradually expanded to more markets, sometimes selling 1,000 doughnuts at a time. It was wild because I was still cooking them in my little home fryers!”
Finally she took on a commercial kitchen space and opened a pop-up stall in the Hunter Street mall. Anna says the entire process was a steep learning curve. All the while, DoughHeads kept growing in popularity. Customer demand for Anna’s delicious treats meant more staff, and eventually, two years after her first doughnut market stall, Anna opened her flagship DoughHeads shop at
The Junction.
“Throughout the whole process I was so naive and always worked things out on the fly,” says Anna. “Opening my ‘Willy Wonka’ style doughnut shop where people could actually see the doughnuts being made with fresh ingredients, was a dream come true. It was an amazing time to see everything I’d worked for come together.”
People were raving about our doughnuts and asking where we would be next, so we gradually expanded to more markets, sometimes selling 1,000 doughnuts at a time. It was wild because I was still cooking them in my little home fryers!
Anna’s business kept expanding but a sharp reality check from her accountant when the market cooled, led to the huge decision to scale everything back and return to the core of why she started DoughHeads in the first place. “I started cooking because I wanted to create amazing flavours and give people a moment of happiness when they ate my products,” says Anna. “So, I simplified everything, worked 150-hour weeks and re-focused on the values at the heart of DoughHeads. It was only then that I felt truly happy and proud of what I had created.”
A chance introduction with gelato mastermind and Gelatissimo, Australian founder, Domenico Lopresti, saw Anna realise another dream – adding gelato to her doughy menu. With out-of-this-world flavours in true DoughHeads’ style on the cards for Anna’s gelato freezer, this little family-owned doughnut shop just keeps evolving.
“We’ve rebranded and found that sweet spot in the business and I’ve got this great feeling of fulfilment,” says Anna. “We do three or four weddings every weekend and many corporate events. Our original staple doughnut flavours are still a hit, and now we have delicious gelato,
like the mango that tastes like you’re biting into a juicy, sweet Kensington Pride. It’s an incredible place to get to after nine years in business – and I feel like this is just the beginning!”
NATIONAL WINNERS
For the second year in a row, Doughheads has recently taken out the top spot at the National Donut Competition in Melbourne, with their traditional jam donut (‘Pump Up the Jam’) scoring first place in that category. Their Original Glaze also came in at second place, showcasing their dedication to perfecting classic treats.
Words: Odette Tonkin | Photography: Katie Wade
As seen in Swell Issue 18.
