Delectable donuts for a cause: Why Pinky’s lemon butter is the talk of Central Queensland

Pinky Neven. Image supplied

When life (or in this case a listener) gives you lemons, you don’t make lemonade. If you’re Pinky Neven, you take it up a notch. You make world class lemon butter.

In regional radio, local content is king, and Pinky – who hosts Triple M Central Queensland Breakfast with Justin ‘JL’ Loomans – is always on the lookout for things to see, do, talk about and be part of.

One day, while Pinky was flipping through the Rockhampton Agricultural Show Guide seeking content ideas, the cookery section caught her attention.

Pinky was immediately transported back to her childhood days, when she made lemon butter with her grandma.

“I decided to pay homage to her and enter!” says Pinky.

“A lot of batches were made until eventually I was happy with my entry, using lemons from a listener’s tree.”

Pinky won first prize, setting in motion a delicious chain of events.

“A local business called Galactic Donuts asked if they could use my recipe to make a lemon butter infused donut covered in buttercream icing and toasted coconut,” says Pinky.

They made 200 donuts. Within two hours on a weekday morning, they had all sold out.

2025 rolled around and a colleague encouraged Pinky to enter her lemon butter in the Show again.

She won a blue ribbon. Again.

Then came a great opportunity to help others in need.

“We had recently spoken to a local charity on the show regarding homelessness locally due to the colder weather,” Pinky explains.

“They were trying to complete a project, to renovate a bus that could host laundry facilities, showers and visit spots where people and families are sleeping rough to cook a hot breakfast.”

“They were short on dollars and due to listeners still calling at times requesting the lemon butter, I asked the team if I could make a batch, have a Brekky OB, invite the donut shop to be on board and donate all money to The Shelter Collective.”

The answer was a resounding yes.

“Within 2 weeks we were ready to go,” says Pinky. “Thanks to local businesses who offered up their commercial kitchen and head chef to oversee my cooking and another business that supplied the labels.”

“Selling 500 donuts at $5 each and 54 jars of lemon butter plus some generous donations from local businesses and prominent people, we raised $5k in one morning!”

Pinky said they even had listeners turning up paying $50 for a jar.

“The charity needs more money of course, but we made a small dent and everyone got the taste test after all,” says Pinky.

“Even weeks later, I keep getting buckets of lemons dropped off to me at work and home,” she laughs.

Life is now literally full of lemons for Pinky, who continues to get requests for her famous lemon butter.

You can hear Pinky & JL on Triple M Central Queensland every weekday morning from 6-9am.