Meet Mandurah locals Lucy Skyler and Oriwia Mills, the dynamic aunt and niece duo behind Big Fat Cookie in Mandurah Forum, and now Milk + Creme.
When their lease ended at the Forum over a month ago, they knew it was time to fulfill their dream of having a physical shop front closer to the foreshore.
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"We had been thinking about it for quite a while. We decided if we were going to do the shop, we were going to give ourselves three or four weeks to do it.
"We have been non-stop every single day for the last four weeks. We've renovated the store ourselves," Ms Skyler said.
Describing themselves as the 'ying to each others yang', Ms Skyler develops the recipes while her aunt, Ms Mills, covers the baking.
"I have always had businesses. My first one was when I was 13 baking cookies and cupcakes. I taught myself, learnt everything from the internet," Ms Skyler said.
This isn't the first time the family duo has worked together. Before their cookie business, the two had a side hustle creating macrame decorations.
"We did that for a little while on the side then started to looked for other work.
"We started the cookie business from home in September 2020. It was completely unintentional, I was making other foods for parties and had left my full time job because we really liked food.
"We decided to give it a go, making the cookies was kind of an add on and they became the most popular," Ms Skyler revealed.
Playing on their successful home-baking business, the duo decided to open a physical shopfront in Mandurah Forum last year.
Their store, Big Fat Cookie, focused of course on indulgent, 'meal-size' cookies.
With their lease up and re-branding to Milk + Creme not long ago, the team are bringing in other elements to their baking business and improving upon their already successful cookies.
"We're going to be stocking a range of pastries from Zonts Bakehouse. We'll also be doing soft serves, drinks, coffee," Ms Skyler said.
"We've also adjusted the menu a bit, the cookies were enormous so we're making them smaller. Everyone loves cookies, but we wanted them to be more complex.
"When we think of a new flavour, we think of all the different components that can go into the cookie. Changing the dough, different textures, we break down what people want and put it into a cookie," Ms Skyler revealed.
Milk + Creme will be opening their doors February 12 at 11am. Located at 25-27 Mandurah Terrace, they will have limited edition cookies available for the whole opening week or until sold out.
With Valentine's Day just around the corner, Milk + Creme will also be offering Valentine's gift boxes and heart shaped cookies available for purchase in store.
