Hello Kitty, Hula Hula Pie, mint chocolate chip , gingerbread spice cupcakes and cupcake push pops by Kapaa, Hawaii's Sugar Mill Cupcakes

These cupcakes are all by bakery and custom cupcake company Sugar Mill Cupcakes, who I didn't even realize were in Hawaii, a state I'm planning to return to this fall, when I started this post! All photos via their Facebook page. They can be reached at 808-635-2856 or orders at sugarmillcupcakes.com and you can find out more at sugarmillcupcakes.com.




Hula Hula Piebr>

Mint chocolate chip


chocolate brownie, cookie dough stuffed and rocky road


gingerbread spice cupcakes with candied ginger


cupcake push pops!

Congratulations to Hokulani Bake Shop for winning Cupcake Wars

I don't have a TV so I rarely get to watch Cupcake Wars on Food Network but last night I did and was excited to see Hokulani Bake Shop, which I visited several times during my vacation in Honolulu, Hawaii in January, win! Visit them at and on Facebook. Photos below were from my trip. Their shop in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki is tiny but you can then take your cupcakes out into the shopping area and the backdrop is gorgeous fountains, or walk across the street to the beach! The cupcakes were very good too, all moist and interesting flavors. I had meant to blog about it while I was there because I tried their carrot cupcake on National Carrot Cake Day but time got away from me. They also had cute cupcake-shaped cookies. Their Cupcake Wars audition video is from their site and YouTube.












inside the red velvet cupcake


snickerdoodle cupcake


cupcake cookies

Bubblegum confetti cupcakes and a box of amazing looking ones from Brandon Cakes

Bubblegum confetti is a flavor of cupcake I've never heard of before, which is saying something! These are all by custom cupcake company Brandon Cakes, based in Kailua, Hawaii, via their Facebook page. Oahu cupcake bakers: I am missing your island and plotting my return in the fall, so when I need a little of the aloha spirit, I look up the bakers I met on my trip and you never fail to impress me. Call or text 808-780-3505 for orders and questions and visit brandoncakes.com for more information and full flavor listings.

Gorgeous and delicious cupcakes from Frosted in Honolulu, Hawaii

I owe you a longer post about Frosted, based in Honolulu, Hawaii, which is coming, but before I get a chance to do that I wanted to share the beautiful and delicious cupcakes I got to taste, courtesy of Frosted owner Melissa, while I was in town. They were gorgeously decorated and, without being heavy, were wonderful and rich, the kinds of cupcakes you want to finish, but don't need to finish in order to feel like you've eaten something delicious. The first three photos are by me, the rest are via Facebook, and the last photo is of custom music cupcakes, via Frosted on Facebook, by KAI-PHOTO HAWAII. Frosted does custom cupcakes and cakes and asks for several months notice for weddings. Find out more at frostedhawaii.com.

Chocolate raspberry Valentine's Day cupcakes and cupcake push pops

From Honolulu, Hawaii's Let Them Eat Cupcakes, some festive chocolate raspberry cupcakes and cute cupcake push pops decorated with a cupcake on the side! Via their Facebook page. Visit letthemeatcupcakes808.com for more information and see their Facebook page for weekly flavor updates.

Mahalo, Hawaii, for all the delicious and beautiful cupcakes!

I'm at HNL (Honolulu International Airport) and while I could easily stay another week, I have to get home, and then get to Milwaukee for the last Iron Cupcake Milwaukee. Mahalo (thank you) so much to everyone who made me feel at home in Honolulu and whose cupcakes I got to try. I will be back, for sure. These gorgeous and delicious flower cupcakes are by custom cupcake and cake pop maker Sweet as Sugar, who you can find on Facebook. You can reach them at info at sasugar.com or 808.294.4803 and find out more on their blog.

Lemon lime loveliness and donuts atop mini cupcakes by G.I. Cakes

I've been busy being on vacation in Hawaii so I haven't had as much time to blog about all the fabulous cupcakes I got to indulge in and the wonderful people who came out at our meetup, but I will in full this week, plus will be working on interviews with the many wonderful bakers I met, and I already am planning a return trip to Honolulu, maybe in November for my birthday.

Some of the cupcakes that most impressed me were the lemon lime mini cupcakes by G.I. Cakes. I love lemon curd, and these were the perfect mix of sour and sweet, with little candies dotting them. I kept bringing people over to these and saying "You have to try this" and delighting when they enjoyed them as much as I did! The donut mini cupcakes were also utterly adorable and delicious; I've seen and eaten donut cupcakes, but never mini ones. Also the minis were perfect for a party like that because it allowed us to sample more flavors (I ate 2 of the lemon ones though!). They can be reached at getsome at gi-cakes.com or 808-691-9122, and you can follow G.I. Cakes on Facebook and @stayfrosted on Twitter.

Honolulu's Let Them Eat Cupcakes launching three new flavors at First Friday tonight: Salted Caramel, White Russian and Ume

Honolulu cupcake bakery Let Them Eat Cupcakes brought some amazing cupcakes to our Honolulu cupcake meetup; they were so large and beautiful looking, with 7 awesome flavors.







I didn't get to try them all so I'm excited about tonight's First Friday in Honolulu's Chinatown to get to try the ones I missed and these exciting new ones below. Let Them Eat Cupcakes is a bakery and also does custom cupcakes. Contact them at 808-531-CAKE (2253) or nick at letthemeatcupcakes808.com and kawehi at letthemeatcupcakes808.com and find out more at letthemeatcupcakes808.com.

Photos below via their Facebook page.

1. (by popular demand) MOCHI, plus three NEW flavors...

2. SALTED CARAMEL ( a brown sugar cake with a salted caramel center, a caramel buttercream and a salted caramel topping)

3. WHITE RUSSIAN (an espresso and cream marble cake, a white chocolate and Kahlua ganache filling, topped with a Kahlua and vodka buttercream)

4. UME ( a white cake... with a ribbon of ume throughout, an ume buttercream, topped with a sugared ume)

their Ume cupcake

Li Hing Lemon, Angry Gorilla and Banana Split cupcakes by Brandon Cakes in Honolulu, Hawaii

Brandon Cakes brought what I think were the biggest cupcakes to our Honolulu cupcake meetup. They were majestic looking, as I hope you can tell from below. I'd never had nor heard of Li hing* and it was interesting, a very strong taste that took some getting used to for me, but I liked the lemon cake and frosting (and the Li Hing lemon cupcake got rave reviews from several attendees). I preferred the banana split, which had a light, spongy filling, and a good combination of flavors and textures. I ate so many cupcakes I had to take some home, and those are a bit of a blur in my mind so I can't tell you much about the angry gorilla, but it's part of a whole line of alcohol-based cupcakes Brandon Cakes sells. All of Brandon's cupcakes were gobbled up fast. If I have time during my last 3 days, I will try some more but I have had such an amazing time in Honolulu, I'm already plotting when I can come back!

They're based in Kailua and do custom cupcake and sell their cupcakes at Food Company on Tuesdays and Thursdays (The Enchanted Lake Shopping Center, 1020 Keolu Drive, Kailua, HI). You can find out more at brandoncakes.com and on Facebook and @brandoncakes on Twitter and contact them for fastest service by phone or text to 808-780-3505 or by emailing sales at brandoncakes.com. You can also email kuhpkeyk at gmail.com to get on their email list for flavor updates.












inside the banana split cupcake




me with Brandon

*Once again, some info from Wikipedia, this time on Li Hing:

Li hing mui is salty dried plum. It was made popular in Hawaii by Yee Sheong, who in early 1900, had began importing Li hing mui and various other preserved fruits from China to Hawaii. The Li Hing Mui craze was started by Yee and flourished with the company he founded, Yick Lung. It can be found in Hawaiian and Asian markets. It has a strong, distinctive flavor, and is often said to be an acquired taste, as it has a combination of sweet, sour, and salty taste. It has also been described as tart, and even tangy. Originally from China, the name "li hing mui" means "traveling plum". "Li hing" is "traveling" and "mui" is "plum."

Sriracha hot sauce on a bacon cupcake? We tried it and liked it! Hot and sweet!

At our Honolulu cupcake meetup on Tuesday, I challenged podcaster, blogger and all-around awesome guy Doc Rock to put Sriracha hot sauce on one of Annie Cakes Irish bomb cupcakes, and he did! Here's what happened:


the cupcakes!


preparation


hot sauce cupcake happiness

He loved it so much that I felt compelled to try it myself:



After I added that much Sriracha, someone told me "It's not ketchup!" I'm used to spicy food so Ithought I was prepared, but that first bite was pretty hot. I tasted mostly the hot sauce, but then soon after the cake's sweetness caught up with me. Her chocolate cake was very rich and sweet and wonderful, the way a chocolate cake should be, and that made this one-two punch of spicy and sweet that was amazing. You can experiment with differing amounts of hot sauce but this would be great with savory cupcakes or ones that are rich and intense like these bacon cupcakes.

One warning: If you're at an event like a cupcake meetup, I recommend eating your hot sauce cupcake last, so that you can fully appreciate all the other cupcakes. I saved mine until I was ready to eat non-cupcake food, and it was perfect, almost like a reverse dessert, the savory/spicy/sweet thing you eat when you're done with purse sweets. Maybe someone can incorporate hot sauce into a cupcake?

Want some of Annie Cakes' amazing cupcakes? Contact her at anniecakeshawaii at gmail.com and visit her Facebook page.

For those who don't know about the wonder that is Sriracha, here's some info from Wikipedia:

Sriracha (Thai: ศรีราชา [sǐrātɕʰā]) is a type of Thai hot sauce, named after the coastal city of Si Racha, in the Chonburi Province of central Thailand, where it was first produced for dishes served at local seafood restaurants.[1] It is a paste of chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar and salt.[2]

Honolulu cupcake excitement for tonight's meetup: chocolate mint marshmallow cupcakes by Tiramisu Cupcakes

I'm not sure which type of cupcakes Tiramisu Cupcakes will be bringing to tonight's Honolulu, Hawaii Cupcakes Take the Cake meetup, but I'm excited by this photo of their chocolate mint cupcakes! From their Facebook page (email tiramisucupcakes at yahoo.com for orders and inquiries). See you from 6-9 pm tonight at The Greenhouse Innovation Hub at 685 Auahi Street in Kaka'ako! I'll post a recap for those who can't make it and will be blogging about Hawaiian cupcakes all week.


Chocolate cake w/ mint marshmallow frosting and chocolate mint bits.



More from their Facebook page:

Tiramisu [Tir-a-mi-su]:What's in the name? In translation, tiramisu means "pick me up," or "lift me up". It is also the cupcake that started the YummyCups craze. As a former co-founder of YummyCups, I found it only "fitting" to name my new adventure after the cupcake (tiramisu).

I also like that they put a cupcake on the side of a cake!