Bakery Of The Month

Humpty Doo Bakery – The place to get your cakes, pies, and pastries in the Northern Territory

Recently we spoke to the owners of the award-winning Humpty Doo Bakery, Elliot and Lisa Wilson, about, their history, how they built a successful regional bakery, and what it is they love most about the running their baking business.

Elliot began his career as a baker by accident in 2002 when he applied for a part-time job at Woolworths while attending high school. He was accidentally offered a service station attendant role until they realised he wasn’t 18 and offered him a bakery assistant role instead. A year later this happy accident led to Elliot leaving high school and accepting a full-time baker/pastrycook apprenticeship at Woolworths.

Elliot loved the challenges of being an apprentice, always wanting to improve and show value, while making mistakes and learning from them. Eventually it became apparent that he had chosen the correct career path, and his passion was rewarded when he received the 2007 Most Outstanding NT Graduating Apprentice and was the runner-up for the 2007 Austin Ash Northern Territory Apprentice of the Year Award.

This then lead to Elliot representing the Northern Territory in the 2007 Bake Skills Australia national baking competition held at Fine Food Australia. He then spent the next ten years honing his baking, production, and management skills at various bakeries and franchises throughout the Northern Territory and South Australia.

Lisa grew up baking all the old favourite slices, biccies, and Women’s Weekly cakes at home with her mum and grandmother where she learned countless skills in the art of cake decoration. Although she has never qualified as a baker or pastrycook, Lisa has more than seven years of experience working and managing the bakery alongside her teacher Elliot. Lisa is the duo’s sweet tooth and has a passion for decorating birthday, special occasion, and wedding cakes. However, lately her role has been more focused on the production of sweet baked goods to meet the increased demand from customers.

In 2017, the couple started their own business in a new shopping centre on the outskirts of Darwin. The business was successful in that location for two years before relocating and taking over the long-term original bakery in the rural town of Humpty Doo.

“We had big shoes to fill and have certainly proven ourselves to the local community”, said Elliot, “we love the rural community and our regular customers who come from near and far”.

Humpty Doo Bakery produces a broad range of products from savoury pastries to sweet treats, with their specialities being bread, pies, and doughnuts. The business is a proud supporter of the local community providing wholesale sourdough loaves and brioche buns for local food businesses and donating product to sporting club BBQ’s, events, and fundraisers.

Both Lisa and Elliot are thankful the 10 team members who work at Humpty Doo Bakery and are proud to say they all go above and beyond for the customers. Being located in the famous little town of Humpty Doo means they get many travellers passing through on their way to Kakadu stating that they have some of the best pies and pastries they’ve ever eaten. Evidence of this can be found on the Humpty Doo Bakery Facebook profile where they have an average rating of 4.9 from more than 50 glowing reviews. The business has even had a visit from Pyney the pie man, receiving an overall rating of 42/50 for the Chunky Steak Pie.

The accolades don’t stop there, Humpty Doo Bakery has also received multiple awards, such as Most Successful Bread Exhibitor (2022), Most Successful Savoury Pastry Exhibitor (2022 & 2023), and Champion of the Show (2023), at the Northern Territory Baking Show run by CDU Tafe and the National Baking Industry Association.

Elliot and Lisa love the freedom their baking business brings to enjoy time with their young family and other hobbies. “The business has given us a family friendly lifestyle and rewarding career where we can explore our love for creating delicious and crowd-pleasing products.”

When it comes to running the business and maintaining their local success Elliot and Lisa take the time to talk face-to-face with their regulars to get genuine feedback about products and customer service. They encourage people looking to join the industry to persevere and stay dedicated to their business goals.

Elliot recalls, “Someone once told me that great Bakers should not just be judged on their ability to make great product, rather their ability to fix their mistakes on the fly”.

For those heading to the Northern Territory looking for a banger Aussie bakery, we encourage you to drop in and visit Elliot and Lisa at Humpty Doo Bakery, Shop 15, 28 Fred’s Pass Road, Humpty Doo. We have been told the que to order is worth the wait and to expect high-quality baked goods across the board.