Neat Bakes partners Anita and ‘”CookieManster” Tayloe put a lot of love into making their delicious cookies and cakes. Photo: Marguerite McKinnon.
She is the heart and soul of Wagga cookie and cake business Neat Bakes, but when Anita Schnoegl shared her baking secrets with her partner Tayloe Plunkett, things really took off.
“Tayloe’s now better at making cookies than I am; he’s the Cookie-Manster,” Anita said.
Region caught up with the duo who run Neat Bakes to find out more about their love of baking and each other.
Neat Bakes’ dynamic duo Anita and Tayloe and some of their amazing cookies. Photo: Marguerite McKinnon.
Tell us about how you got into the cookie business.
ANITA: Believe it or not I was sacked from my first job after just two weeks for ‘being too slow’. I was mortified and just wrote that off for a little while, but the baking just flowed in somewhere.
TAYLOE: I’m Wagga born and bred and my background is Aboriginal and Irish, so I’m Wiradjuri and I have a lot of family here too. I am known as Tayloe Plunkett and Tayloe Ingram. My first cooking job was at Pizza Hut making dough for the pizza bases. I didn’t think I’d be making unreal cookies. It just fell into my lap and I love it. Anita taught me how to make them, and now she says I make them better than her.
Is “Neat Bakes” a play on your name, Anita? Do we get a cookie for getting it right?
ANITA: You will definitely get a free box of cookies; you’ve definitely got it right. Neat is definitely 100 per cent a play on Anita. Everyone calls me ‘Neats’. I’m a qualified chef and pastry chef, and now I’m a cake baker.
What is your secret weapon?
ANITA: Tayloe is the secret weapon I never knew I needed. He is my happy-ever-after. He is so good at cooking up new ideas and he sees little things that I’ve missed.
TAYLOE: If I could give her anything, I’d give her everything, and maybe the ability to say “no” to people more than I can.
How did your romance begin?
TAYLOE: We worked together at a cafe. Anita came in and cooked, and I was serving customers and on the till, and we would joke around. Then she started feeding me these little foods that I wanted, like a little hamburger, a little omelette.
ANITA: He had surgery so he couldn’t eat much so I used to make him little burgers and stuff like that and it just melted his heart. Neither of us were looking for someone as it was all about work. You go in and do your thing and you don’t ever think of your colleagues as potentials, no, no. It took a long time to develop.
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What is your signature dish?
ANITA: This is hard. It depends on the season, on my mood, and who wants it too. I do a really good beef Massaman curry, slow-cooked. It’s like a knife through butter. That’s my savoury. For sweet – I wish I could make a pavlova as good as my mum can.
TAYLOE: I do the cookies now and she does the cakes. The most cookies I’ve cooked in a day is 180 and I made them in batches of 60.
What is your super power that might surprise us?
ANITA: A lot of resilience and a kind heart. Maybe too kind for my own good.
TAYLOE: Thinking up and cracking new ideas. Anita could be stuck on something and I will just blurt out an answer and it’d be like, ‘That’s a good idea’. Like if something is missing in the baking, and I suggest putting something in, it is bang on.
How do you make such a variety of amazing cakes and cookies, and keep bringing out more varieties for customers? Are aliens helping you?
ANITA: No aliens, sadly. Tayloe and I put our heads together and come up with some beauties. Food runs in my blood so honestly it just comes naturally.
Who does the washing up at your place? Do you share?
ANITA: Tayloe, because he is a dish freak. He loves it. He doesn’t let me do many.
TAYLOE: I do the dishes so that she can concentrate on her cakes and so she doesn’t have to stop and go back and do the dishes. I started doing that to be what she needed.
Who is the boss in the kitchen?
TAYLOE: Me.
ANITA: Definitely Tayloe now, but it was me at the beginning four years ago when he was just helping me out doing dishes and keeping everything clean.
Describe a dream customer.
ANITA: A dream customer is polite, respectful and accepts that their order is in the hands of a professional. Some like to micromanage their order, and I do get it as cakes can be expensive, but they’ve come to me, so just let me do what I can do best.
For more information and to order online contact Neat Bakes via its Facebook page.
