Pictured above: (l-r) Safina Ahmed learns the ropes from Rosie Ginday (Miss Macaroon)

A young pastry chef from Birmingham is set to rival the world famous patisseries of London and Paris after launching her own social enterprise producing macaroons.

Rosie Ginday has already secured orders from the Chameleon bar and restaurant in the City Centre and an American-themed bakery and is now setting her sights on targeting food fairs, fashion events and prestigious retailers like Selfridges and Harvey Nichols.

She is marketing the range - which includes orange, strawberry, passion fruit, dark chocolate and white chocolate flavours - under the Miss Macaroon brand and believes their exclusivity will see them soon replace cupcakes as the fashionable baked confection of choice.

There are also plans to use the business to give employment and training opportunities to young care leavers, ex-offenders and individuals not in education, employment or training.

Rosie, who has trained under Michelin-starred chef Glynn Purnell, explained:

"Macaroons, which have a crisp outer shell and rich creamy interior, are extremely popular in the cosmopolitan cities of London, Paris and Milan and I'm hoping we can create a similar culture right here in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

"University College Birmingham is letting me use their facilities to produce them at the moment and so far we have a growing list of five flavours."

She continued: "We've also spent a lot of time developing the Miss Macaroon brand so it creates the exclusive image for our products and we've settled on three approaches to market; selling them direct at events, in bulk to retailers and in gift sets of seven and thirty."

Rosie has always had a passion for helping others and this enterprise has been developed firmly with the intention of providing up to five training and employment opportunities in its first year. 

She is specifically looking to work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds and will give them the opportunity to learn how to make the macaroons or hone their skills in administration, supply chain management and marketing.

Stephen Wilkes, 18, has already benefited from a four-week placement with the social entrepreneur and she will soon be taking on Safina Ahmed and Terry Mcevilly for similar work experience trials.

"I've had some great support since coming up with the idea, including I-SE social enterprise awareness sessions, Business Link planning exercises, help with the actual business plan and then registering it as CIC (Community Interest Company)," added Rosie.

"My big break came when I entered and won Business in the Community's Dragon's Den competition, which unlocked a prize fund that involved pro-bono support from Shoosmiths, KPMG, PwC and Danks Cockburn."

She went on to add: "This means I've been getting legal advice on trademarks, I've been granted an assigned business mentor for three years and will benefit from public relations advice on the roll-out of my social enterprise."

The next stage of development is to start building the culture around macaroons and Rosie is hoping that people from the Midlands will join in the buzz that comes from eating, giving, sharing and creating them.

As part of this approach, she is urging people to be a 'Macaroonista' where they take pictures posing with macaroons and then send them in so they can be uploaded to the gallery at www.missmacaroon.co.uk or through Facebook and Twitter.