Coming Soon: West Auckland Bakery Butter Baby Is Opening Its First Bricks-and-Mortar Store

West Auckland gem Butter Baby is expanding its sugary grip on baked-goods lovers by opening its first-ever bricks-and-mortar store in Westgate, after previously only being available online.

The Westgate store will officially open its doors on Saturday, September 30, in a huge marker of success for the bakery that was born in owner Matilda Lee's parents' kitchen back in 2021. At this time, Lee was producing around 20 doughnuts a week to sell to hungry customers at her pop-up store at various weekend markets throughout Auckland.

Lee's baked goods soon developed quite a cult following, particularly her cinnamon bun brioche doughnuts and chocolate-chip cookies, as well as her East Asian inspired treats such as ube kaya cake and pandan cake. These cakes are similar to a sponge cake, but very vibrant in colour, with the ube (mashed yams) taking on a bright purple hue, and the pandan cake a gorgeous green. Very quickly, Lee was baking up to 300 doughnuts a week, and decided to swap her mother's pots and pans for her own space.

It was important to Lee to find a home for Butter Baby HQ in west Auckland, the community she grew up in. "West Auckland has a special place in my heart," Lee said. "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."

These nostalgic flavours of treats will rotate fortnightly, but will include Boston cream brioche doughnuts, raspberry and cream doughnuts, Lee's legendary cinnamon buns and cookies. Sweet and savoury versions of kuehs, a Singaporean steamed cake, will also make an occasional appearance on the menu.

With the opening landing just in time for Halloween, Lee and her team have dreamed up five special spooky doughnut flavours to mark the occasion, with some made out of activated charcoal and featuring skulls, creepy crawlies, gooey eyeballs and a 'blood'-filled centre. The scary snacks will be available throughout October.

The store mostly caters to takeaway customers, but will have a limited amount of seating if you just can't wait to tuck into your treat. The move into Butter Baby HQ means that Lee will be able to bake to her heart's content, producing hundreds of orders for takeaway and catering.

Lee will still frequent weekend markets and, if you can't get across to Westgate during the week, you can find her at Britomart's Saturday market every weekend.