Stephen after a slice of the Great British Bake Off action

With subscription services growing in popularity and scope, it is easy enough to collect all of your necessary basics and creature comforts without ever leaving the house.

Along with luxury and novelty products, and standard grocery deliveries from your local supermarket, more and more companies are offering subscriptions to meal kits, featuring easy to follow recipes and all of the ingredients needed to whip up a culinary masterpiece in your own kitchen.

As well encouraging people to move away from packaged, ready-to-eat meals and takeaways, the kits aim to get people thinking outside the box, so to speak, and having a crack at using fresh ingredients and recipes they may not have thought to try before.

And the latest of these services was born in the Black Country, an idea started when 27-year-old Stephen Olliver (CORR) got bored of baking the same old brownies and chocolate chip cookies with his girlfriend.

Baking Fresh, launched last month, sees a box of sent to subscribers containing an easy-to-follow recipe card, and all of the ingredients needed, in the exact quantities needed.

And with the Great British Bake Off pulling in up to 10 million viewers a week during its latest series, business is booming.

Stephen, of Compton Road, Chapel Ash, says he is not much of a baker himself, but was tired of baking the same old standard recipes.

Working from home as a mobile phone seller, he had been turning the idea over in his head of setting up a subscription service, but the market was already filled with companies offering make-up and beauty products.

Looking up recipes on the internet, Stephen said he often found mistakes in measurements or a lack of details - crushing up a packet of biscuits only to frustratingly find the resulting mixture barely covered the base of the tin, for example - and thought there must be a better way.

Searching for similar baking delivery services on the internet, he didn't come across anything and thought there was an opportunity to start something new.

So, teaming up with a chef to create unique recipes from scratch, Baking Fresh was born.

He said: "I am not a prolific baker and it is a bit of a leap into the unknown for me but I am really looking forward to the challenge.

"With television programmes like the Great British Bake Off continually growing in popularity and more baking or cake shops popping up across the country, it seems everyone wants a slice of the industry. I want to offer people the chance to experience the whole process.

"For four years I worked for myself selling mobile phones to businesses but I was losing the passion for it, whereas this just feels right."

Committing to his new business full time and investing £10,000 into it, for the past six months Stephen has been busy searching out suppliers, developing branding and a website, working on recipes with professional chef Kathy Slack, and sending out sample kits.

While it is hard to set growth targets with such a new concept and nothing to base it on, Stephen hopes to expand beyond the West Midlands and become a nationwide company, eventually employing staff.

So far, Baking Fresh has nine recipes on its website to choose from, with more to come each month, and they have all been taken for a test run and given the seal of approval from the toughest of kitchen critics: his mother.

Stephen says initially the plan was to surprise people each month with a different recipe, but feedback during testing showed they preferred to have a selection of recipes to choose from themselves.

At the moment, people can choose from recipes like pink peppercorn chocolate cake, hazelnut and coffee meringue roulade, green tea and chocolate parfait, and cardamom and mango doughnuts.

When developing the recipes with Kathy, Stephen said he wanted to strike a balance between being creative but not overly complicated, and putting a twist on more traditional recipes.

He explained: "It was more the experience, the idea of getting the enjoyment of baking and sharing what you have created with family and friends.

"I think it is that excitement. I think when it comes to baking or cooking, I am going to cook one unusual meal I have never cooked once a week, but I think people fall out of the habit.

"This is something to look forward to, you pick a recipe of what you are going to share with the family that week of the month, that Sunday dinner, and that excitement is part of enjoying it.

"They are all designed to be simple, the roulade sounds fancy but is probably one of the easier ones to make. It is about creating something fancy, without having to be a brilliant baker."

Baking Fresh boxes cost £14.99 each month, and are delivered free to addresses in Cannock, Dudley, Wednesbury, Walsall, Willenhall and Wolverhampton, with delivery £4.99 elsewhere.

For more information visit the website www.bakingfresh.co.uk, email hello@bakingfresh.co.uk or call 0800 772 3931.