Daily Dough Co: Meet owner Emma Peat, 19, who runs two doughnut stores

She’s the 19-year-old taking the dessert industry by storm, opening doughnut stores in Wyong and Terrigal. Meet Emma Peat, the face behind Daily Dough Co.

Meet the young entrepreneur behind the Daily Dough Co.

When Emma Peat lost four jobs during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, she started baking at her home in Tumbi Umbi.

She started baking cakes then moved to doughnuts and was having a blast baking for her family and friends as she perfected her recipe.

The feedback was so positive she decided to take a risk and launch her own business.

The 19-year-old entrepreneur now owns and runs the Daily Dough Co which has two Central Coast stores and sells around 2000 doughnuts a day.

19-year-old Emma Peat is the owner of Daily Dough Co in Terrigal and Wyong.

“On the first day I started selling the doughnuts from home, I sold 18 doughnuts,” she said. “It kept building up over the next few months and when I was selling 300 a day, mum and dad’s home kitchen was getting too small.”

She now has stores at the Wyong Milk Factory in Wyong and along Terrigal Esplanade.

Ms Peat employs 38 staff members and her family has been on board from the beginning, with her mum in charge of accounting and dad and brothers experts at fit out and repairs.

She said the past year had been a “whirlwind” after losing four jobs when the pandemic struck, from her role as a pastry chef to a salesperson at Foot Locker.

“I lost them all overnight,” she said. “It was devastating.”

The doughnuts are made fresh every day.

Ms Peat opened the Terrigal store in December 2020.

She has created her own doughnut recipe, with a massive range of decadent flavours and described them as “amazing”. Flavours range from cookies and cream to Nutella overload, caramel fill and passionfruit and the popular original glaze. There’s also a creme brulee flavour with home made toffee that cracks just like the popular dessert.

“We make them with love and they are made fresh every single day,” she said.

“We also make dessert boxes, doughnut bouquets. We literally can make anything out of a doughnut. And we have such a passion for fresh doughnuts.

“We never keep them overnight. But we don’t waste anything, if we have any leftover we give them away.”

The doughnuts are a hit across the Central Coast.

Ms Peat said she operated differently to a traditional baker, not keen to return to the long hours during her pastry chef days.

“The team here start at 6am and we continue making fresh doughnuts until about 5pm,” she said.

She said she was incredibly proud of her staff and said every day was different.

“I have learnt to just trust myself,” she said. “With my family and amazing team, we can get through any challenge. I love the life I have created for myself and my team.”

Ms Peat had a visit from Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business Stuart Robert and Robertson federal Liberal MP Lucy Wicks this week.

Ms Wicks said the recent budget will see small businesses benefit being able to write off the full cost of assets to expand their businesses.

Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business Stuart Robert and Robertson federal Liberal MP Lucy Wicks visit the store in Terrigal.

Tasting the doughnuts at Daily Dough Co.

“Daily Dough Co is just one example of a business that is prospering in our local economy, backed by our plan to create jobs and secure Australia’s recovery,” she said.

Mr Roberts said the Daily Dough Co was a “wonderful example of what Australians can do”.

“This is a great success story. This is one of 16,600 small businesses here in the electorate of Robertson,” he said,

“Over 5600 of those businesses had JobKeeper during COVID and it’s been tough. And a lot of businesses are still recovering. But $202m in the cash flow boost is all about helping our businesses grow. And this is what the federal government’s budget is all about. It’s been a hard 12 months for so many of us in so many areas. And this budget is designed to allow businesses to recover and grow.”