Getting creative with the unexpected.

After a run of Woolworths campaigns, my next collaboration took me into completely different territory.

Nestlé’s #AddMmmore campaign was built around some of their hero pantry products, and I was sent a box containing KLIM Milk Powder, Nestlé Cocoa, Ideal Evaporated Milk, Full Cream Sweetened Condensed Milk and Dessert & Cooking Cream.

The idea was essentially to show how these everyday Nestlé staples could be used to add a little mmm-more to what you were cooking.

For me, though, the campaign became an exercise in creativity.

A few of the products weren’t ingredients I would naturally reach for in my everyday cooking, which meant I couldn’t simply fall back on recipes I already knew.

I had to experiment.

And I loved that.

THE CREATIVE PROCESS

The question I kept coming back to was:

How do I use these products in a way that still feels like me?

I didn’t want to create recipes just because they technically worked with the ingredients.

They still needed to have the personality that had started defining Tayla Made Food — interesting flavours, beautiful presentation and, wherever possible, a slightly unexpected twist.

Some products naturally belonged in something sweet.

Others gave me the opportunity to move in a completely different direction.

And that contrast became one of my favourite parts of the campaign.

CREAMY BACON LINGUINE

KLIM Milk Powder + Dessert & Cooking Cream

For the savoury recipe, I used the KLIM Milk Powder together with Nestlé Dessert & Cooking Cream to make a creamy bacon linguine.

Pasta was a great canvas for experimenting with both products because they could contribute to the richness and creaminess of the sauce without the recipe feeling overly complicated.

The result was comforting, indulgent and incredibly simple.

It also taught me something I have carried into later projects: sometimes an ingredient you wouldn’t normally think to use can become incredibly useful once you stop looking at it only for its obvious purpose.

FUDGY PECAN BROWNIES

Nestlé Cocoa

With the cocoa powder, brownies felt inevitable.

But if I was going to make brownies, they needed to be the kind I actually wanted to eat.

Rich.

Dense.

Fudgy.

And loaded with pecans.

The cocoa became the hero of a deeply chocolatey brownie, while the pecans added the texture that stopped them from being one-note.

This was one of the more familiar recipes in the campaign, but it still allowed me to focus on the things I loved most — texture, indulgence and creating food that looked every bit as good as it tasted.

VANILLA & BASIL ICE CREAM

Full Cream Sweetened Condensed Milk

This was where things got a little more Tayla Made.

Using Nestlé Full Cream Sweetened Condensed Milk, I created a four-ingredient vanilla and basil ice cream.

Basil in ice cream isn’t necessarily the first combination that comes to mind, which was exactly why I wanted to try it.

The condensed milk provided the sweetness and creamy base, vanilla kept the flavour familiar and the basil introduced something fresh and unexpected.

It was simple, slightly unusual and incredibly good.

And recipes like this are exactly why I enjoyed the campaign so much.

It pushed me past the obvious answer.

CREATING OUTSIDE MY COMFORT ZONE

What I remember most about #AddMmmore is how much it encouraged me to play.

Working with products I didn’t regularly use forced me to think differently about ingredients rather than automatically relying on familiar recipes and techniques.

I had to ask more questions.

What else can this ingredient do?

Could something traditionally used in baking work in a savoury recipe?

Could a very familiar product become part of a flavour combination people weren’t expecting?

That process of experimenting became as important as the finished content.

It reminded me that creativity isn’t always about having endless ingredients and possibilities.

Sometimes a limitation is exactly what gets the best ideas out of you.

THE LITTLE EXTRAS

Nestlé also understood how to make the campaign itself feel special.

Alongside the products, they sent the cutest collection of little gifts and accessories — including a Polaroid camera, film and a few trinkets.

Years later, I still use that Polaroid camera.

And I think that’s part of why this campaign has stayed with me.

It wasn’t only about receiving a brief, creating content and moving on.

There was a sense of playfulness around the entire experience, from opening the package to experimenting with the ingredients and finally creating the recipes.

THE TAKEAWAY

#AddMmmore was one of the first campaigns that really pushed me to create outside of my normal ingredient vocabulary.

Instead of being given something I already knew and loved cooking with, I was asked to find inspiration in products I may otherwise have walked past in the grocery aisle.

And that challenge made the work better.

It taught me to look at ingredients differently, trust the slightly strange idea and keep experimenting until something clicked.

Because sometimes the most interesting recipe starts with an ingredient you had absolutely no idea what to do with.