Treats from Little and Friday

You know you're on to something when the queue for a cafe stretches out to the pavement most weekends. So it is at Little and Friday's two Auckland locations. Those in the know flock to the Little and Friday stores in Takapuna and Newmarket for addictive cream-filled donuts, buttery brioche, melt-in-the-mouth sweet tarts, and moreish savoury pastries.

In this delightful cookbook owner Kim Evans, a self-taught baker, shares the recipes for her most popular tarts, biscuits, savouries and cakes. Adapted for the home cook, Kim's approachable recipes and helpful hints allow even the novice baker to master the delights of her delicious cafe treats.

Format: Puffy cover hardback with fabric spine and marker ribbon.

SAMPLE RECIPE
Banana Cakes (pictured bottom left)

Ingredients
This is our interpretation of the Edmonds Cookbook Banana Cake. We make it as a double-layer cake sandwiched together with gooey caramel and mascarpone.

2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
125g unsalted butter, softened
¾ cup caster sugar
2 eggs
3 cups mashed banana
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp hot milk
1 cup walnuts

To assemble
½ cup Caramel (see page 161)
¼ cup mascarpone
1 recipe Cream Cheese Icing (see page 158)
chopped walnuts or banana chips, to decorate

Method

1. Preheat oven to 160ºC. Grease two 6-hole Texas muffin trays or two 23cm cake tins and line the bottom and sides with baking paper cut to fit exactly.
2. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl and set aside.
3. Using an electric mixer, beat the butter on a low speed until light and creamy.
4. Slowly add sugar and continue to beat on low speed until light in colour and fluffy.
5. Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition, and making sure to incorporate each egg before adding the next. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. With the mixer on low speed add the banana.
6. Dissolve baking soda in hot milk.
7. Fold flour mixture and milk into the banana mixture in three equal measures. Lastly, fold in walnuts.
8. Divide mixture evenly between prepared cake tins and bake for 20–25 minutes for small cakes or 45 minutes for large cakes, or until the tops spring back when touched lightly and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle.
9. Let cakes cool completely in tins before turning out.
10. If making small cakes, carefully cut them in half horizontally. To assemble the cakes, spread Caramel over bottom layer, then spread a thin layer of mascarpone over the top. Place second cake layer on top. Spread with a thick layer of Cream Cheese Icing. Drizzle with extra Caramel and decorate with walnuts or banana chips.

Kitchen Notes:
Place in an airtight container and store in a cool place (not the refrigerator) for up to three days. The banana flavour gets better with age at room temperature.

About the Author
A fine arts graduate, Kim Evans is a self-taught baker who started her Auckland bakery Little and Friday with just $3000. From small beginnings – a tiny shop-front open on Fridays only – she has established two popular Auckland cafes where on most weekends queues stretch out to the pavement. Kim and her team begin baking at dawn each morning in order to fill Little and Friday's glass cabinets with buttery brioche, sticky donuts, dainty cakes, and delectable tarts and savouries. She is a firm advocate of free-range and organic produce, and has planted her own cafe garden to supply herbs, salad greens and edible flowers. Kim surrounds herself with staff with a passion for food. ‘You can teach baking,’ she says, ‘but you can’t teach passion.'