FROM a 16-year-old teaching herself to make chocolates in the kitchen of her Welsh village home, to the winner of The Apprentice 2016, Alana Spencer has come a long way in the last few years.

Having been a regular trader at foodie events across the country as she built her cake business, she is thrilled to be returning to the Christchurch Food Festival for the third time today and tomorrow, where she will be part of the team of chefs taking part in demonstrations throughout the weekend.

Alana’s journey began in 2010 when she and her family moved to a hamlet just outside Aberystwyth. It was at the top of a hill, quite a distance from the nearest bus stop and, remembers Alana, there wasn’t much for a teenager to do.

“My mum bought me a book on how to make chocolate and I taught myself,” she says. “I was also into business, so I started making chocolates and selling them to friends and family. From then it just turned into cakes.”

Growing up in a “foodie family”, Alana was always into baking as a child, but says she was the only one keen on making cakes.

“My family all obviously benefitted heavily from it,” she smiles.

A huge fan of The Apprentice, Alana actually first applied for the junior version of the show aged just 16. While she managed to get quite far in the casting process, she wasn’t selected for the show on that occasion.

Following a five-year gap, which she spent building her own cake business – originally called Narna’s Cakes – Alana applied again for the programme, going onto become the winner of the 2016 series, and a 50/50 business partner with Lord Sugar.

“It’s draining,” she says of The Apprentice process, which included an episode filmed in Poole at the town’s Boat Show.

“The average day would start at 5am or 6am and finish at 10 or 11 at night – that’s constantly on the go, so it’s very tiring.” I managed to use it as a diet – being away from my cake business.

“The first few weeks were horrendous, but after I got through that I formed some really good friendships. It’s a really odd environment - it is incredibly competitive, but you hang out with these people in the day and in the house and you care about them.”

Friendships aside, Alana says she marked out fellow finalist Courtney Wood as a contender from the word go, and admits she was worried at the prospect of going head-to-head with him for the prize.

“It was a shock when I won,” she admits. “It was kind of like it didn’t really sink in for a while. It was just before Christmas, so I had Christmas to get my head around everything that happened. I just had a month of weird, non-reality.”

Since the show wrapped, Alana has spent time working on her business model with Lord Sugar, and recruiting ambassadors to attend local events and build their own businesses with the Ridiculously Rich brand.

She is also hoping to set up her own YouTube baking channel and has created a six-month subscription package, with customers receiving a different selection box every month, which is allowing her to be creative in the kitchen and produce some new recipes.

As well as all that, she is still attending food festivals around the country, and is looking forward to heading back to Christchurch this month.

“I’ve done the Christchurch Food Festival for a few years – it’s always been one of my best shows,” she says, “it’s a great atmosphere. This has been a core part of my business for the last four or five years. It’s very tiring, but it makes your heavy week of baking all worthwhile.

“It definitely helps sales and it’s really good fun.”

n Alana Spencer will be at the Lovett Demonstration Theatre on Christchurch Quay at 3.15pm today. To find out more, visit christchurchfoodfest.co.uk