An Irish teenager has converted a vintage pony box, which she bought from a man in the midlands of Ireland, into her own portable pop-up bakery. Alice Kelly, 18, from Leinster in Ireland shared the step-by-step renovation progress on TikTok in over (60?) videos, which have amassed millions of views. “I was inspired by a local portable coffee shop made from a pony box, which I passed on my walks during the Pandemic and imagined myself selling out of one - except I don’t like coffee, so I decided a bakery was more my style!” she said. Alice spent €590 for the pony box, which she found second-hand online with her father and has turned it into the home of her From Scratch Bakery business. “I was originally supposed to pay €600, but the kind man gave me €10 back for the fuel it took me to get there!” The renovation process was an ambitious project for the teenager who had “barely used a hammer before”. From cleaning, to stripping back the six different colour coats of paint, to adding wheels and wiring, Alice “highly doubted” she could do it at first. “I’m really grateful for my Dad who's been by my side the whole process.” “The internet has been a great source for learning as well, although there’s not much about renovating vintage pony boxes!” Now that her pop-up bakery build is complete, Alice hopes to start selling her bakes at public markets around Ireland soon. “I’ve been baking since I could hold a spoon, so around three years old I started baking on my own. “I’m grateful my passion has stuck with me for so long,” she said. Reacting to the response she’s had online, Alice said it “feels surreal” to know how many people have seen her videos. “I made a TikTok because I loved what I was doing and wanted to share it with the world - I didn’t expect millions of people to see it!” It makes me so happy when people come up to me in public and say they recognise me as “the girl who renovates the pony box”. Alice plans to start culinary school in September, but says her bakery business will still be her “main priority.”
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Fun