Amie

AMIE Milton went to university to study public health promotion and wound up ditching it to bake delicious, sugary cakes instead.

In the space of 18 months, the Zumbo’s Just Desserts contestant found her weekend hobby skyrocket into a booming career and now has 100,000 social media fans hanging on her every post.

Each day, Milton, 24, shares stunning pictures and videos of her latest baking creations on Instagram to rave reviews.

“It’s a bit crazy actually,” she says. “This all happened quite quickly.”

The delicious creations are then shipped off to a growing roster of adoring clients, from brides to boardroom bosses.

It all began with making the odd cake for friends and family but has turned into several big orders a week for customers across Queensland’s southeast.

“It’s all from word of mouth and social media. I do one a day on average — weddings, birthdays, corporate functions. Each time I make one for a client, I shoot it for my (Instagram) feed.”

It delivers a sweet little income, but Milton says it’s not about money. This is purely a passion project.

“I studied something totally different at uni, so I figure I could be in a Monday to Friday job right now, doing the same thing every day, but with this I get to do what I love, have lots of variety and be creative,” she says.

“I actually studied about how to teach people to be healthy but now I’m making cakes — that’s totally out of left field, I know.”

For her day job, she works a few days a week in the office of her parents’ landscaping business, but every other spare moment is spent in the kitchen.

While she rarely has any time off to relax, Milton says she couldn’t be happier.

What makes her story even more remarkable is that Milton is self-taught. A cake decorating book led her to online instructional videos and blogs.

“I’d teach myself techniques and practice and practice,” she recalls.

“I was studying at uni and didn’t have a lot of money so I couldn’t afford to do proper classes.”

Milton admits she found the experience of competing in Channel Seven’s hit new baking competition, tackling tricky challenges alongside other talented home bakers, to be a steep learning curve.

“I’m a cake decorator so other desserts were tough to master,” she says. “But I had such a great time. I learnt a lot and made new friends.”