AN ACTRESS has combined her passion for fitness and baking to launch a business making high-protein brownies.

Roslyn Paterson, 31, who is also a personal trainer, has spent years perfecting her recipe and has now set up her home bakery Whey'd & Measured.

She managed to raise more than £650 for a charity close to her heart by donating half of her profits as part of a birthday fundraiser.

Roslyn, of Gourock's Castle Gardens, said: "I've had the idea for a long time.

"I had always made cakes for friends and family.

"As a personal trainer I decided to merge the two but it's taken me five years to come up with a recipe that I thought people would like to eat."

The caramelised sweet-potato high protein brownies - which weigh in at only 151 calories each - have proved an unexpected smash hit.

Roslyn said: "It's exploded. I've been taken aback at how popular it's been - it's kicked off so quickly.

"Fitness has really taken off and this gives people a treat with a bit of chocolate without giving up their healthy eating.

"I've made around 2,500 brownies in the last two months and can now speed up production to making 250 in six hours."

Orders have included 600 for the 20th anniversary of Buchanan Galleries in Glasgow and the opening of the local Venus Gym.

Roslyn processes orders via Facebook, Instagram or through her mobile phone and delivers to Cafe Balfe in Greenock and the Spinnaker Hotel in Gourock, where customers collect their cakes.

They also come in chocolate, choc orange, peanut butter and caramel flavours.

The new business has given Roslyn the chance to raise funds for charity CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably, which is leading movement against male suicide.

She said: "I decided I was going to do something for charity and decided to donate half from every £10 box of brownies I sold.

"I've also had donations from friends and family because it is such a worthwhile charity.

"It is really close to my heart."

Roslyn says she has suffered from depression herself and is keen to raise awareness in a bid to banish the stigma around mental health.

She said: "I had depression when I was in drama school.

"I talk about it a lot, so people tend to talk to me about it."

Busy Roslyn, who graduated from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts in London in 2012, is still managing to juggle her acting career with her other commitments

The actress, who has landed such top roles as Lady Macbeth not once but twice in her career, says acting is her first love.

She said: "It's my passion.

"I've been shooting a film through in Dundee and a met some wonderful people there.

"I met some directors and actors I'd really like to work with again."