At the recent 2025 Glen Innes Business Awards, the prestigious Business of the Year Award was won by Sweetie Pie’s Bake Shop, which also won the Hospitality Award. Opened in 2021, this popular bakery is well-loved by locals and visitors for its renowned array of savoury and sweet treats. Sweetie Pie’s is owned and operated by Pastry Chef Nicole Hyde and her wife Zaylie Hyde who is the Business Manager.
According to Nicole “Glen Innes weather is a pie maker’s dream. The weather is perfect. In summer it is very hot in the kitchen, but being from the Central Coast, here is never that hot for me, and it is the best place to work in winter – nice and cosy”.
Together for nine years and married for six, Nicole and Zaylie were living and working on the Central Coast of NSW and looking for a shop with a house to set up their new business, but without success. Nicole’s parents had met in Glen Innes (where her mother was born and educated) so her father suggested that they check it out, describing it as a “a beautiful country town”.
This proved to be a great suggestion and in 2020 Nicole and Zaylie found their shop and house, in Edward Street. The property required extensive renovations, most of which they carried out themselves. Given both still had day jobs on the Central Coast, every weekend for a year they drove 500 kms each way to complete almost all of the renovations themselves, bar those where they really required the expertise of a tradie.
Note that this was 2020, when Covid travel restrictions mandated that Nicole and Zaylie had to apply, repeatedly, online for travel passes to allow them to move between the Central Coast and rural Glen Innes. As the pandemic worsened it became more difficult to get the passes. This affected their out-of-town suppliers too, who were also obliged to apply for permission to travel. By 2021 the couple decided to move here to complete the renovations, with Zaylie working in hospitality in Armidale to tide them over. They recall with huge smiles how proud they were when eventually Sweetie Pie’s opened for business on 25 October 2021.
Unfortunately, in the second week of trading their massive second-hand oven shut down and they were advised that it needed a new part which was ordered and installed. The oven started working again – until it blew up. Not deterred, they bought a smaller oven, which also blew up. They were then advised that they needed a power upgrade which finally fixed the problem. It is easy to understand why Sweetie Pie’s now has both electric and gas ovens.
Since then, the bake shop has flourished and won countless awards in the lead up to being named Glen Innes’ Business of the Year. How did they become so successful? What are the ingredients for a prize-winning bakery? Zaylie says “hard work”. Nicole says consistency with your food and service, and through keeping the business small. “I want people to enjoy every bit. Everything we sell is baked with love. Not manufactured”. Zaylie adds “as soon as you expand, the product changes, especially if you have other locations to manage”. They hope that one day their daughter Venus will be their apprentice. Already, at just two years of age she watches the preparation and cooking with deep interest, playing with the pie tins and trying to make pastry.
Most days Nicole starts work at 1am and earlier if there are extra orders. Each day she bakes thirty different flavours of pies, plus rolls and quiches. The glass cabinets are also laden with temptation – cakes, slices, biscuits and their now-famous profiteroles.
Nicole was invited to prepare towers of profiteroles adorned with gold and toffee for the Business Awards that were held on 9 August, and says she was incredibly honoured to do the dessert catering. On the day before the event, after a normal day’s trading, she started making the 43 towers – each requiring 10 profiteroles, to a total of 430 – working until 9:30pm. After one of her power naps, Nicole returned to the bake shop around midnight and then filled, dipped and finished them before starting the busy Saturday trading.
This helps explain why Nicole did not make it to the Awards. “I had the suit ready and was prepared to go but then when I finished the Saturday shift I had a bit of a nap”. This left her feeling “completely zonked” so she asked Zaylie to go in her place with senior Sweetie Pie’s team members Tala and Katie. Zaylie said that because of the last-minute rush, when she accepted the Business of the Year award she gave “the worst speech I had ever given. It was so unexpected to get the Hospitality Award, but getting the big one was incredible. We are so grateful. Nicole and I are glad to have this opportunity now, through the News, to thank all those who put so much hard work into the Business Awards event. We felt very supported that night by our Glen Innes community”.
Zaylie adds “I really love the community here and all the ‘hellos’ I get walking down the street”. When asked what would make living in Glen Innes better for these fabulous foodies, Zaylie says “a sushi train” while Nicole would like to see “more fun things to do, like ten pin bowling.” When friends and family visit, the Hydes like to relax over a good meal – typically breakfast – at The Local or an early dinner at the Services Club where the children’s equipment is a winner for Venus and her little friends.
And just in case you were wondering, Nicole’s favourite pie is the Chili Mexican or the Steak and Cheese. Zaylie says “I love them all” but singles out the Satay Chicken and the Creamy Curried Scallop. In the sweets department Zaylie’s favourite is the custard tart and Nicole’s, would you believe, is still the profiterole.
