You can now go nuts for the Ken Behren donut
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If Canberra was a donut, what flavour would it be? A classic chocolate? A basic but underrated cinnamon? A nice and simple glazed vanilla?
For Kelly Anne Carroll, the Canberra donut is a delicious Underground Spirits Gin and Tonic cake base and glaze, with almost burnt orange caramel and dried orange and rosemary garnish.
Available next week, the Ken Behrens donut is a limited-edition flavour from Weekly Donut Box, a new small business dedicated to making artisanal, hole-y desserts for Canberra and the surrounding region.
With over 10 years of experience making donuts, Kelly has always wanted to open up a donut shop in Canberra and with the help of her partner Jake Stalker, Weekly Donut Box officially launched at the end of July, on Kelly’s 31st birthday.
“I just wanted to bring happiness to people really, especially during lockdown periods,” says Kelly. “My family has a small business and they’ve lost a lot of money in that time so if I could just bring happiness to people, that’s all I really want to do.”
While Weekly Donut Box is currently a side hustle for the couple, Kelly says donut making has always been a part of her life. With a Hungarian and Romanian background, growing up Kelly would watch her grandmother and mother in the kitchen baking and cooking Eastern European food.
“I grew up making Fánk, a Hungarian donut and I guess that’s where baking came from for me, it’s always been a part of my DNA as long as I can remember,” she says.
Working out of their home kitchen, the concept is simple. Each week Kelly releases a new menu of flavours online, made with different types of donuts, from classics to beignets, which can be made into custom boxes.
Located over the border in Queanbeyan, Kelly and Jake are offering contactless delivery for all orders with a 20 kilometer radius from Queanbeyan West, but she says depending on the size of the order they’re willing to do special deliveries to bring some freshly made sugar and sweetness to the lives of Canberrans.
“I have so many flavours, I’ve planned them out for the year,” says Kelly. “We’ll do over 300 flavours and my biggest challenge now is working out which ones stay in.”
With limited donuts available each week, there’s no promise that the Ken Behrens donut will be back. Inspired by Canberra’s climate and the communities ‘sophisticated’ taste in nightcaps, Kelly says gin was the only choice for flavour.
“For me, gin is good for cold months and it’s good for really, really hot months too and Canberra gets both,” says Kelly.
“I really wanted to use a local company and for this I had a clear vision, it was going to be gin and tonic.”
Working with Underground Spirits to bring the flavour to life, Kelly is passionate about working with local small businesses, especially during times of hardship. While the ACT and NSW are in lockdown, Kelly has no plans on stopping her donut distribution and plans to continue to collaborate with others.
“I just think it’s important for all small based businesses to stick together and promote each other’s products,” she says. “We are a big country town, and there’s so many people that support local, we don’t have the big freight hubs like Sydney, so people are buying local more than other places in Australia.”
“We’ve got to support each other. We’ve got to promote each other’s products and see where we can kind of generate interest in each other’s work.”
