Claire Ptak’s The Violet Bakery Cookbook includes recipes from the London bakery, sharing their delectable confections. 

Friands are little French almond cakes, which we love at Violet because they are moist and tasty and also so easy to make. In this version, I substituted hazelnuts and pistachios for some of the almonds because I had a few left over that I wanted to use up. I really like the way these turned out, because the hazelnut has a lovely light flavor and the pistachio gives them a pretty pop of color. It is another recipe that we can have fun with at Violet, as the nutty base lends itself to a variety of seasonal fruit toppings. Here I’ve used raspberries, but you could use any berries you like, or slices of peaches, nectarines, plums, figs, or whatever.