MONTICELLO, III (WAND) - While many teens spend their days on Tik Tok or watching Netflix, one Monticello teen uses her free time a little differently.
16-year-old Ellie Tanner has been baking for fun her whole life, but over quarantine, she got a bit more serious about her baking skills. As Ellie gained confidence in her skills, she took her baked goods to social media.
“I was like I need to get a job soon and I couldn’t find a job around here that was available and that I would have a lot of fun at." Ellie tells WAND News.
So, she combined her love for baking and her need for a job. The best of both worlds. “You can message me and just message me your idea and I can try it because I love trying things like that," Ellie says about her online baking business, E's Sweet Slice.
The Central Illinois Community did not disappoint and orders came rushing in. "I wasn’t expecting it all, I was hoping, my first goal was 25, to sell 25 things. But then, I ended up selling 50-70, in that range, so it was a lot. I was like, wow!" Ellie says.
From elaborate cakes to hot cocoa bombs, Ellie is trying to bake anything and everything her customers request. She says she has had orders from all over Central Illinois, like Monticello, Decatur, Champaign and Urbana.
E's Sweet Slice is just the start of her baking journey. “I want to go to culinary school so this is also going to help me open up and say hey I can actually do this now."
Find her Facebook page, E's Sweet Slice, here.
