A TEENAGER has launched a successful business using kitchen skills she learned from her late granny.

Rachel Agnew won a competition for young entrepreneurs after the now sixth-year pupil at St Ambrose High School, in Coat­bridge, got baking lessons at her gran's knee.

To win the annual Dragons' Lair competition, run by North Lanarkshire Council and Business Gateway Lanarkshire, the 17-year-old had to sell her business idea, 'CuteCakes by Rachel', to a hard-headed panel of judges from local businesses.

And demand for her baking venture is rising as fast as the cakes.

She said: "I have already set up my own website with a gallery of cakes and a full price list.

"I can make anything from a wedding cake to a vanilla or chocolate sponge to dairy, gluten, egg and lactose free and pretty much to whatever price and design the customer wants.

"So far I've been asked to make everything from an Angry Bird-style cake to a fairy castle and even a giant bumble-bee. My customers hit me with some pretty wacky ideas."

Rachel bakes all the cakes at home.

She said: "I got into baking from watching my gran, Amy Bain, and eventually helping her. She taught me all of my baking know-how."

Sadly, Amy passed away 18 months ago but Rachel said: "She was happy at least one of her grandchildren had picked up the hobby she loved so much. It's something that keeps me baking.

"I want to make her proud."

But turning a hobby into a business came almost by accident.

Rachel said: "My first cake, and biggest so far, was a three-tier wedding cake for my cousin.

"I heard the bridesmaid, who had never made a cake before, had offered to make the cake, so I offered my services. At the wedding people told me I should start taking orders so I took that and ran with it.

"I get inquiries through my website, but most of my orders come via my Facebook page which shows all of the pictures of cakes I have done previously."

Rachel was encouraged to enter the Dragons' Lair competition by St Ambrose technical teacher Patricia Delaney.

Rachel said: "This is definitely a future career for me. I'd like to go to university and study business, then go on to develop my own cake business."

stef.lach@ eveningtimes.co.uk