Brioche donut, cinny bun and cookie bakers, Butter Baby, are thrilled to announce the official opening of their new flagship kitchen and very first shop at Unit 70, 11 Northside Drive in Westgate, West Auckland.
The new store is based on a takeaway concept where customers can order from the full range of Butter Baby’s brioche donuts that will rotate on a fortnightly basis. The takeaway menu will also feature cinnamon buns, their cookies and the brand’s best-selling Pandan and Ube cake slices. Wellington-based Flight Coffees will cater the takeaway brewed coffees with a selection of canned cold brews with flavours like Oat Milk Strawberry Mocha, Oat Milk Chai Latte and Oat Milk Flat White.
Founder and Baker, Matilda Lee shares her excitement for the opening, adding that West Auckland has a special place in her heart.
“It is where I grew up, and that was where we ‘Westies’ used to say everything was ‘best out west”. With the rapid growth and development of the Westgate area over the last three years, I am excited to be a part of its exciting food scene and to provide a culinary experience that introduces nostalgic new flavours with a contemporary twist,” said Lee.
Butter Baby began as an experiment in her parent’s Henderson home kitchen, where Matilda shared she was using her mother’s pots, utensils and oven to produce about 20 donuts for her very first-weekend market pop-up store. Soon she found herself selling donuts at two to three different markets each week, with demand growing to 300 donuts and various other goodies. At that point, she realised the need to expand into a full kitchen. Her new kitchen and shop, known as the new ‘Butter Baby HQ’, will allow her to produce double or triple the number of goodies for not just the markets, but also to cater to customers who want to order walk-in takeaways, events and special occasions.
Working collaboratively with up-and-coming interior designers, ‘Studio We Are Young’ and Brave Construction, who project managed the facility, a relatively compact space of 72 square metres was efficiently maximised, resulting in a concept kitchen with an edgy simplicity and an industrial feel.
The shop’s design features an open studio floor plan with two levels. The upstairs loft serves as an admin office whilst the ground level houses a compact cold room where all the baked goods are stored and a fully equipped industrial kitchen.
In the middle of the kitchen is a sleek four-metre-long stainless steel benchtop that doubles as a workbench, coffee counter and daily display where daily patisserie favourites are showcased. A small bench with limited seating allows customers to wait for their goodies to be packed and enjoy a takeaway coffee.
Bringing a pop of colour into the stainless steel surrounds, is a burnt butter orange light feature that stretches through the front to the back of the kitchen, illuminating and highlighting the bench space below. The Butter Baby logo is also unmissable. The red, orange and white logo features boldly on the roll-up garage door entrance and the delivery van, parked just outside the premises
A daily menu of brioche donuts featuring Kiwi favourites like the traditional Boston Cream, Raspberry and Cream, and popular Singapore heritage flavours like Pandan and Sago and Filipino Ube will be staples, with a new menu introduced every fortnight.
There will also be a selection of cinnamon buns, cookies (Choc Chip, Salted caramel coconut, birthday cake), Pandan and Ube cake slices alongside the occasional selection of local Singaporean sweet or savoury steamed cakes known as ‘kuehs’.
