While Kim Evans may have come from humble beginnings with her Little & Friday cafe in Takapuna, in true “hard work brings success” style, Kim now has her cafe in Newmarket Auckland, a hugely popular first book –Treats from Little and Friday, and most recently her hot off the press addition Little and Friday Celebrations.
Celebrations has a lovely medley of party recipes for a host of fun-filled occasions.  Kim has a knack of blending great recipes with super styling and her recipes not only taste good but they look fab too.
Little and Friday Celebrations is packed full of mouth-watering miniature tarts and cakes, savoury galettes, breads, biscuits and decorative cakes.  These can be for something as simple as a summer picnic, family get-togethers, birthday celebrations plus Easter and Christmas. Capturing the delightful style that has made Kim’s Little and Friday cafes so popular, the recipes in this book promise plenty of good times with friends and family – and make every day worthy of a celebration.
The Christmas market is sure to embrace Celebrations so if I were you I would secure a copy fast!

Strawberry Tart

This festive tart is also delicious made with sliced mango in place of strawberries.

1 recipe Sweet Pastry (see below)

Filling

4 cups Crème Patissière (see below)
3 cups frozen raspberries
1½ cups Crème Diplomat (see below)
2 punnets strawberries, sliced icing sugar, for dusting

Makes one 28cm tart

1. Line a 28cm tart tin with baking paper cut to fit.

2. On a lightly floured bench, roll out pastry to 3mm thick and line tart tin, making sure to press pastry into edges of tin. Rest pastry case in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.

3. Preheat oven to 180°C. Fill pastry case with Crème Pâtissière and scatter raspberries over. Place filled tart tin on a baking tray and bake for 50 minutes, or until pastry is golden. Allow to cool completely before removing from tin.

4. When ready to serve, cover tart with Crème Diplomat. Arrange layers of sliced strawberries over tart as pictured. Dust with sifted icing sugar.

 

Kitchen Notes
When transferring pastry to line a tart tin, drape the pastry over a rolling pin. Then roll it back off the rolling pin and lay over the tin. Gently press into the tin to line the base and edges. You will need to make a double batch of Crème Pâtissière for this recipe.

 Sweet Pastry

2¾ cups flour
1 cup icing sugar
pinch of salt
250g unsalted butter
1 egg
1 tsp lemon juice
½ tsp lemon zest
vanilla extract or paste, to taste

1. In a food processor, combine flour, icing sugar and salt and  pulse in 2-second bursts to aerate and combine.
2. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles breadcrumbs.
3. Add egg, lemon juice, zest and vanilla and pulse 10 times. The mixture should look dry and crumbly.
4. Turn out onto a clean work surface and gather mixture together with your hands. Gently shape mixture into a ball.
5. Wrap in cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours before using.

 Crème Pâtissière

500ml milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
½ cup caster sugar
3 egg yolks
¼ cup cornflour

1. In a saucepan, combine milk, vanilla and ¼ cup caster sugar, and bring to the boil.
2. In a bowl, beat together remaining caster sugar, egg yolks and cornflour until mixture is pale and thick.

3. Whisking constantly at low speed, slowly pour half the milk mixture into the egg mixture.
4. Return remaining milk to the heat and quickly add egg yolk mixture to milk, beating constantly. It is a real workout, but if you don’t beat it vigorously enough the Crème Pâtissière will be lumpy. Keep beating the mixture over the heat until it comes back to the boil, then remove from the heat, pour into a bowl and cover with cling film. Cool before using.

Kitchen Notes

Crème Pâtissière may be kept refrigerated for up to three days. Before using, beat with a wooden spoon, or in an electric mixer, to bring it back to a smooth consistency.

Crème Diplomat

1 cup cream
1 cup Crème Patissière (see above), chilled

Makes 2½ cups

Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Beat chilled Crème Pâtissière until smooth. Using a metal spoon, fold Crème Pâtissière through whipped cream. Refrigerate in an airtight container for up to three days.

Chocolate Salami

This is a super-easy, no-bake treat.

250g Super Wine biscuits
2 eggs
½ cup caster sugar
110g unsalted butter
1 cup good-quality cocoa
100g good-quality dark chocolate, chopped
½ cup pistachios
½ cup dried pears, finely chopped
3 tbsp Stone’s Green Ginger Wine
½ cup icing sugar

Makes approx. 20

1. Blitz biscuits in a food processor until fine crumbs form.
2. Put eggs and sugar in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Whisk until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has thickened.
3. Add butter, ½ cup cocoa and chocolate and whisk for 2 minutes or until smooth. Remove from heat and stir in biscuit crumbs, pistachios, dried pears and wine.
4. Turn mixture out onto a sheet of cling film and roll into a thin log. Wrap and refrigerate overnight.
5. To serve, mix together remaining ½ cup cocoa and icing sugar in a shallow dish. Unwrap Chocolate Salami and roll in cocoa mix. Cut into 1cm slices and serve in mini patty cases.

 

 

Reproduced with permission from Little and Friday Celebrations by Kim Evans.
Published by Penguin Group NZ. RRP $45.00. Copyright © Kim Evans, 2013
Copyright © Photography Tamara West, 2013

To enter into the draw to win one of 2 copies of Celebrations enter your details below

 

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