Two 11-year-old bakers from Truro High School have just been named the most profitable company in the country - and are now planning to put their award-winning earnings towards a charitable cause.

Against tough competition from 28,000 budding young entrepreneurs, Plum Stringer and Daisy Jones scooped the Highest Profit award in the nine to 11-year-old category at the Young Enterprise National Fiver Challenge Competition finals.

The girls racked up an impressive profit of £600.95 over the course of the competition and are planning to donate a sizeable proportion of the amount raised to the Children’s Hospice South West’s Little Harbour Centre, supporting families in Cornwall.

Plum and Daisy have been best friends since they were four and have been whipping up sweet treats at home for almost as long, so the competition offered a rare opportunity to turn their passion for baking into a new business.

Setting up shop as ‘Plum Cakes & Daisy Bakes’, the girls created a whole host of artisan baked goods and sold them to the general public through local cafes and pubs. These included Lily’s Café in Truro as well as the Rising Sun in St Mawes, the Harbour Inn in Padstow and the London Inn in Padstow.

Spurred on by their national success they are planning to remain open for business and will continue giving a percentage of their profits to the Children’s Hospice South West.

Daisy said: “We want to support children who are in a less fortunate position than ourselves and this seemed like a great way to do it.”

Plum said: “We love baking together – it’s yummy, it’s fun and, because we’re doing a lot of it, we’re getting quite good at it. We’re spending every evening baking at the moment and the whole house smells of chocolate all time.”

The ‘Fiver Challenge’ involved all of the school’s Prep 6 students, who were tasked to come up with a business idea and turn a profit in just four weeks, all with an initial investment of just £5.

The project was part of Truro High School’s Future Ready Programme which provides girls of all ages with the opportunities to learn new life skills, develop entrepreneurial skills and be best placed to make informed decision about their futures.