Nyngan's Tommy Ryan famous for his donated baked goods

“You’ve got to get up early to cook them to make sure they’re nice and fresh,” Mr Ryan said. 

“You don’t want yesterday’s scones for today’s show.” 

For many years Mr Ryan has been baking and donating scones and fruit cakes for the community to help fundraise or for morning tea, simply because he “enjoys making them”.

Daughter Veneta Dutton said it gives him pleasure making people feel happy. 

“He’d give his last dollar away if mum would let him,” Ms Dutton said. 

Mr Ryan said he picked up his cooking skills from his mother who would cook them in a camp oven out bush when he was a kid. 

“I learned everything from my mother, I’ve just modified it a bit,” Mr Ryan said.  

He mentioned that he typically uses emu and ostrich eggs to enhance the richness of their flavour.  

Trying hard not to give away all his secrets, Mr Ryan said one of the main things is that there is no butter in his scones. 

“There’s no butter in the scones, you put butter on them not in it!”

While Mr Ryan revealed the ingredients to his flavoursome cheese and chive, pumpkin, and plain scones, he wouldn’t give away the secret measurements. 

Mr Ryan did however let it spill that the secret to the pumpkin scones is using condensed milk rather than normal milk.

“Pumpkin already has water in it, [using condensed milk] makes them sweet,” Mr Ryan said. 

It was revealed that his fruit cakes are also a popular request, and along with collecting and delivering newspapers to the hospital each day, every Sunday he bakes a fruitcake to go with it. 

“I do it because I enjoy it … and because everyone likes them.”