Nick and Henry Burch on building Butter Baby, and lessons from mother Tory Burch

Jakarta-based upstart doughnut and dessert brand Butter Baby has a backstory like no other.

“There [are] these ancient Sumerian texts on clay tablets that tell the story of the Anunnaki,” says Butter Baby’s co-founder Nick Burch. “The Anunnaki [came] to Earth 400,000 years ago because they’re having environmental problems on their planet, so they try to solve these problems [by acquiring] gold, and Earth has a surplus of gold. We switched gold with butter, and that’s where the story of Butter Baby came from.”

Nick launched the venture with his twin brother Henry in Indonesia just last year, and the twins rant over each other excitedly at lightning speed, geeking out over the discovery of ancient mythical deities whom New Age theorists consider to be extraterrestrials. If the premise sounds a little crazy, that’s because it is – as Nick admits himself.

“It’s a butter alien who’s a failed inventor in Butterlandia,” Nick explains. “No one believes that he has invented interdimensional travel. But then Sour Baby, the evil villain, takes over, and they lose their core source of butter. Butter Baby is their last hope, and he travels the cosmos and crash-lands on planet Earth to find butter to save his planet.”

This wild creative universe stems from the twins’ deep dive into “esoteric studies of multiple different religious beliefs”, Nick says. Meanwhile, the conflict between Butter Baby and his arch-nemesis embodies “unity, consciousness and connection between all human beings,” Henry adds. “I don’t want to get too deep here, but it’s representing the yin and yang of humanity.”

Whatever it all means, it is clear Butter Baby has landed on a winning formula. The brand has expanded rapidly since its launch, with five locations across Jakarta already – including a prominent outpost at Indonesia’s primary travel hub, Soekarno-Hatta International Airport.