Working in the unpredictable world of modelling and acting, Xanthe Milton lived close to the breadline. Less than three years later, she is the Cookie Girl, with a stream of TV appearances, and celebrity clients including KT Tunstall, Caprice and Jade Jagger. Comedian Russell Brand recently announced on his radio show: "I'm in love with the Cookie Girl and it's making me ill."

Milton says: "With a daughter to support, I needed to find a way to bring in a decent income. I have been baking cookies since I was six—everyone likes my baking."

Being an actress, Milton donned a peasant frock and lace apron and, with a basket of freshly baked cookies on her arm, knocked on the doors of offices near her home in West London. "The staff used to call out, 'The cookie girl is here!' and that's where the name came from," she explains.

Having spent just £30 on ingredients, baking trays and a mixing bowl, Milton was in business. "People always think you need funding," she says. "It just goes to show, if you have a good idea you can immediately generate an income."

But it hasn't been easy. "I would bake in the morning, go out and sell those cookies, come back, bake another batch and then go back out and sell those—all with a big happy smile on my face," she says. With blistered hands and a broken oven door that she had to wedge shut for six months, Milton admits: "At that time I couldn't see where I was going with the whole thing."

That all changed with an order from Selfridges last year, but she didn't like the way the process spiralled out of her control. Now she has her own delivery driver, four "fantastic bakers" (who work part-time depending on orders) and she knows what's going on all the time. "I'm careful about how many people I take on. I want the business to have a home-spun feel, I keep a tight rein on production. I'm still very hands on and make the cookies quite often."

Milton's priority is her customers. "I'll do whatever it takes to fulfil their orders—even if it means having to send something out at a loss," she says. "I love the freedom—I like to be able to go in the direction I want to go."

And Milton wants to go in many directions: wheat-free cookies; aprons and tea towels handcrafted by people who find it difficult to get work; even a Cookie Girl clothing line.

But for now she'll stick with what she does best. "People pay a premium for our cookies," she says, "because they are premium products. The cookies taste incredible because they are made with so much love."