With over 65
recipes, Treats From Little and Friday is a stunning celebration that
shares Kim’s most popular cakes, loaves, biscuits, slices, sweets, tarts,
doughs, savoury tarts and pies. Full of easy helpful tips and with sections on pastry,
preserves, finishing and fillings, these approachable recipes have been adapted
for the home cook so that even the novice baker will be able to master the
style and delights of Kim’s delicious café treats. This simply designed ribboned
hardback with luscious photography from Rene Vaile is sure to make your mouth
water. Treats From Little and Friday is set to become a staple in
every bakers repertoire.
The Little and
Friday story
As a self-taught
baker, baking has always been part of Kim Evans life. Her journey to Little and
Friday began in Sydney New
Zealand Christchurch ,
Kim, a mother of two, returned to Auckland
Kim has a strong
focus on the process of natural farming and organic produce. Little and Friday
has a working garden that grows all the salad greens, herbs and tomatoes in her
baking. She uses free-range meat and has developed strong relationships with
local farmers. These relationships have lead to a great contra arrangement,
whereby Little and Friday reduces its waste by giving food scraps to local pig
and chicken farmers in return for free-range pork and eggs.
Kim says the
community based feel to the café has meant that ‘Little and Friday has become
the bustling neighbourhood local: parents congregate around the communal table
to catch up while kids entertain themselves covering the pavement in chalk
drawings. By 10 a.m. the sleepy street is overrun with foodies from further
afield, who appreciate seeing bakers bringing trays laden with treats straight
from the ovens to their plates … As the day goes on, the cabinet and shelves
empty out, the ovens are turned off and latecomers scavenge through the slim
pickings of the day’s leftovers. The street breathes a sigh of relief and
reverts back to its former sleepy self – until tomorrow.’
Little and Friday
is simply special and with Treats From
Little and Friday we hope we’ve captured the essence of this unique
neighbourhood bakery and cafe. This is a book that gets the taste buds going
and offers every Kiwi (no matter where they live) a taste treat and the chance
to get passionate about baking.
And the publishers have kindly agreed to let me publish a recipe from the book, here it is:
Banana Cakes
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 fl our
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
¼
cup mascarpone
1
recipe Cream Cheese Icing
chopped
walnuts or banana chips, to decorate
Makes 12 small cakes
or one 23cm double-layer cake
1.
Preheat oven to 160ºC. Grease two 6-hole Texas
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.
Caramel
2
cups caster sugar
600ml
cream
Makes 3 cups
1.
Place sugar in a small saucepan and just cover with water to achieve a wet sand
consistency.
2.
Bring to the boil but do not stir. Using a wet pastry brush, clean down sides
of saucepan to remove any stray sugar crystals.
3.
Continue to boil until the sugar turns amber. At this point, quickly remove
from heat.
4.
In a small saucepan, heat cream to boiling point. Gradually add this to
caramelised sugar, stirring constantly to achieve a smooth consistency. This
may take a while but it will eventually combine.
Kitchen
Notes
Timing is paramount with Caramel. Both the cream and the sugar need
to be really hot when they are combined.
Cream Cheese Icing
Makes 3½ cups
125g
unsalted butter, softened and cubed
500g
cream cheese, cubed
1
cup icing sugar, sifted
1.
Thoroughly cream butter in an electric mixer on high speed, continuously
scraping down sides of bowl.
2.
Soften cream cheese by squeezing through your fingers and add to butter.
Continue beating on high until there are no lumps, scraping down sides of bowl
frequently.
3.
Turn mixer to slow speed and add sifted icing sugar. When icing sugar is fully
integrated, turn up speed and beat until mixture is smooth. Refrigerate in an
airtight container for up
to
2 weeks.
Reproduced with permission from Treats from Little and Friday
by Kim Evans.
Published by Penguin
Group NZ. RRP $44.99. Copyright © Kim Evans, 2012
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