It began with two grandmothers, a little boy and a rather large batch of buttery scones.

Finlay MacDonald was just 18 months old when his granny began showing him the magic that can come from sifted flour, fresh eggs and sprinkled sugar.

Every Sunday afternoon they would bake scones together, and when his other granny visited, his little fingers helped create spiced mince pies, strawberry jam tarts and dumplings.

"She would come round with cakes to decorate, too," says the now 17-year-old Finlay from the Glenshiel area of the Highlands.

"I grew up in the company of really nice people who loved cooking."

When he was 11, Finlay learned how to bake bread. It was the beginning, even though he was just in primary school, of a cocoa empire to come.

"I learned how to make bread and I thought I could make a bit of money out of this," says Finlay.

So each Monday morning, along with his schoolbag and books, Finlay took a freshly baked loaf to school.

Each week, he came up with a different creation. His teachers loved it. He began leaving order forms in the staff room. Intrigued, they began filling them in.

Within weeks, Finlay had a local delivery service up and running as his teachers subscribed to his simple yet successful bread service.

The little boy with the tousled brown hair was learning.

A few years later, though, as much as bread was fun, his true passion emerged. During a work experience placement at a hotel in Dorset, a chef showed him how to make chocolates.

It was a revelation. The way the sugar, cream and cocoa mixed and melted into smooth little chocolatey jewels was perfection.

An excited Finlay had found his calling. Buzzing with inspiration he travelled back to his home in the Highlands and got to work.

The money he had saved from his bread business paid for his chocolate equipment.

"The idea that I could make my own chocolates really appealed to me," he says.

"The idea of managing my own time and doing what I want with my own life always appealed to me, rather than following someone else's ideas."

Finlay began a seasonal chocolate business selling his creations at his school fair and putting order forms out around the local church and in his school.

Working out of the kitchen in his family home, with a little note sellotaped to the door saying Chocolate Factory in red ink, Finlay was in his element.

His parents' cupboards became filled with bottled and bags of cinnamon sticks, vanilla essence, crystallised ginger and more.

The proceeds he made from his sales either went straight to charity or became reinvested in his kitchen equipment.

His friends were thrilled as free samples came their way from the boy they described as the young man "who never stops smiling".

Each month, his skills as a chocolatier grew as much as his business did. A dark chocolate ganache with a bold lime flavour emerged.

As did another dark chocolate ganache with the intense flavour of ten year Talisker from the Isle of Skye.

He had chocolates that tasted like warm sticky toffee pudding, velvety salted caramels made with Isle of Skye Sea Salt and white chocolate ganache flavoured with martini and lemon.

He added white chocolate shells filled with a ganache flavoured with heather honey and raspberries from Blairgowrie.

By the time he left school in June last year, Finlay's Chocolates of Glenshiel had a name, a brand and most importantly, a market.

"I'm now saving for a new premises in Glenshiel so we can run tourist demonstrations on chocolate making and about the local produce we use to make them," says Finlay.

"I want it to be more of an experience than just a product."

The luxury chocolates have been sold to business events and weddings and Finlay is now optimistically in talks with high-end hotels and supermarkets.

"It's been brilliant," he says a little bashfully. "I've got so much going on but I'm a person that needs to keep busy so it all suits me."

Last year, Finlay's success resulted in him receiving the Young Scot award in enterprise for his work.

He has also been offered an unconditional place at university to study his passion further, though that is on hold for now as his chocolate empire grows.

Determined to showcase the best of the Highlands, he is working on producing chocolate boxes paired with whisky with flavoursome infusions of ingredients such as honey and oatmeal for cocoa lovers.

"It's a passion," he says. "And my plan is to keep it growing."