It gives little testimony to the pastry cook's skill (7)
I believe the answer is:
tartlet
'it' is the definition.
The definition suggests a singular noun which matches the answer.
'little testimony to the pastry cook's skill' is the wordplay.
'little' says to take the initial letters.
'to' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other) (I've seen this in other clues).
'the pastry' becomes 'tart' (type of pastry).
'cook's skill' becomes 'le' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
The first letter of 'testimony' is 't'.
'tart'+'le'='tartle'
't' after 'tartle' is 'TARTLET'.
'gives' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for tartlet that I've seen before include "Small flan" , "Small filled pastry case" , "little cake" , "fare" , "little sweet pastry" .)