WHILE most schoolboys spent their half-term holiday having a well-earned rest, young entrepreneur Jonny Mitchell has barely had a break.

At the tender age of 12, the Botley youngster has set up his own baking business and is already filling orders for the likes of Oxford High Street Art Gallery and Cheltenham Ladies College.

Today saw his biggest order to date, providing cakes and biscuits for 350 guests attending the Diamond Light Source summer open day at Harwell Science and Innovation Campus.

He spent all day in the kitchen yesterday cooking up 48 cupcakes, 36 brownies, 40 flapjacks and 40 cookies.

Jonny said: “I have always liked business and I have had a few businesses but they never really worked.

“I wanted to have another one and I thought cakes because it seemed like a sensible thing to do and it’s taken off from there.”

He said his favourite baked goods were brownies, but the best sellers were cookies.

The savvy youngster, who regularly donates 10 per cent of his proceeds to children’s charity Viva and will give the entire proceeds of today’s event to the cause, said Lord Alan Sugar was his biggest inspiration.

He said he hoped to continue running the business alongside his studies, and go on to university, then become an entrepreneur with the cake operation ‘Mitchell Just Son’ as his main business.

The name is a cheeky play on dad Jamie’s lack of involvement in the business, set up last year after an unsuccessful attempt at a pond digging enterprise.

Jonny said: “I want it to become quite big and successful.”

The young entrepreneur buys all his own ingredients, which he keeps in his own kitchen cupboard, but has so far been able to use the equipment within the family home.

The 12-year-old said he had started making money from the business – but would not be drawn on how much.

His mum, Viva fundraising manager Jo Mitchell, said she was proud of her son’s achievement – but limited his orders to two per week to ensure he had time to get his homework done.

Mrs Mitchell, 41, said: “We are really proud of him and we think the quality of the products he produces is really high.

“He focuses a lot of his time on it and plans well in advance when he’s got to do an order.”

She said she believed the experience had taught him important lessons about time management and planning – along with providing a host of delicious baked goods for the family, who acted as willing guinea pigs for new recipes.

Jonny came to the rescue for today’s event when the original charity selected to cater had to cancel at the last minute. The Harwell Science and Innovation Campus holds a summer open day every year giving the public a chance to look around the research facility. The centre will cover his costs only.

He had to stock up on more than 2kg of butter, 17 eggs, and about 1.5kg each of flour and sugar for the job.

Where possible, Jonny sources ingredients from Fair Trade sources.

The enterprising schoolboy documents his growing business on his blog, jonnymitchell.wordpress.com

Prices for Jonny’s treats range from £3 for truffles to £8 for a batch of 12 brownies.