Hokulani Bake Shop

We take cakes/​cupcakes really seriously where I’m from. It is what it is.
With places like Bakeshop, Angel Cakes, DC Cupcakes, and Charm City Cakes, it’s hard not to be biased when stepping out of the DC/​Maryland/​Virginia area and trying other places.
So when I saw that Hokulani Bake Shop had not only competed, but won the prestigious Cupcake Wars challenge on Food Network (of whom Duff Goldman of Charm City Cakes from my hometown of Baltimore is a regular judge), I figured this place was the real deal.
Unfortunately, this bakery left a lot to be desired.
I do give them credit for quite a few unique flavors. With options like Strawberry Guava, Lilikoi, and Okinawan Sweet Potato, there’s definitely a Hawaiian twist going on here.
But a part from that, my overall experience was pretty average. The Red Velvet cupcake was probably the biggest letdown since it’s my favorite; it was super dense.
And for almost 4 bucks a pop per cupcake, it was pretty hard to rationalize given the size; these things are tiny.
It didn’t help that I wasn’t particularly greeted when coming in here. The store person just gave me a kind of «What do you want?» demeanor.
So even biases aside, I really just have to give this place an average rating. Of course it’s going to be better than going an picking up a dozen cheap cupcakes from Walmart, but there was nothing here that really wowed me.

Amazing flavors. Definitely try the salted caramel and the guava cupcakes. Only negative is that the cake is a bit on the dryer side compared to other cupcake stores like Georgetown or Spinkles. They also deliver which is a huge plus. We ordered them online and had them delivered to our hotel in Waikiki. Marie even emailed me to confirm our room number to ensure we received the order without any issues. Great customer service!

Yuummmyyyy so good. Please come here and try one of the local kind cupcakes because it’s the most amazing cupcake ever. Very buttery and moist. Some cupcakes can be dry but not these. They taste like diabetes so try not to eat too much. The people who help you out here too are really sweet and if I remember correctly I believe they were in cupcake wars from the food network so even more reason to check them out. Go! Because if you love cupcakes than this is the place to go. You will be so happy you did.

Best cupcakes (and selection) ever! So so ONO! I’ve lived across the US and had the pleasure of tasting many a cupcake, but these really stand out in my mind. I ordered a random assortment of 12 for the hubby’s birthday dinner, and loved every single one I tried. They were perfectly moist with excellent texture. Flavors were explosive and they satisfied every taste bud. I regret not taking a picture, but as you can see from other Unilocalers, they are adorable. I recommend them all! Frosting to cake ratio was spot on. Everything was awesome, and this will be our go to bakery for all upcoming events. I was actually recommended by a local friend to try this place, and I’m glad I did.

New owners and hands down the most unprofessional people I have ever dealt with!!!
My fiancé desperately wanted a cupcake wedding cake from Hokulani at our reception. I would do anything to make her happy and so I physically walked in and left my contact information, my finace and both sent emails, I called and left our information (again), and finally I called once more and by sheer luck Charise answered the phone. After going back and forth through email Charise and I confirmed a time for us to meet to go over what my fiancé and I wanted and to taste some product.
I took a day off, and my fiancé took a long lunch so that we could meet her at 11:30, as I was flying out on a buisness trip the next day. We showed up and she wasn’t there!!! In fact the staff hadn’t the slightest clue as to where she was, so eventually called her. I received not a single communication from her that she would not be able to keep the appointment!!! Her response was to have her staff to ask me if I could come back in 2 hours!!! She didn’t even have the decency to apologize to me personally for wasting our time!!!
Two thumbs down!!! Poor customer service or rather non-​existent customer service, and personally the cupcakes are highly over-​rated!!! My co-​workers daughter makes better cupcakes.

Knowing that I absolutely love cupcakes, one of my dear friends sent me a box of Hokulani Bake Shop cupcakes for my birthday. They were delivered fresh to my house and, much to my delight, they were nicely intact.
Working at Sprinkles Cupcakes certainly spoiled me, since I now compare every cupcake I eat to that standard. … and, let’s just say that Hokulani doesn’t even come close. I normally don’t mind if pastries are a little dry, but these cupcakes were DRY.
I did enjoy the variety of flavors that she sent me (it was a box of six), but the cakes were still dry. After I put them in the fridge, they were most definitely dry and hard. However, I’m willing to give some of the other cupcake flavors (i.e., the chocolate ones) a chance if I ever visit the shop in person. Based on my current impression, though, I probably wouldn’t go out of my way, since the cakes were drier than most. That was a shame, since I really enjoyed the frosting and creative flavors.
Here are the ones I tasted:
«Red Velvet»: Every good red velvet cake has cream cheese frosting, so at least this measured up to my standards for red velvet. This cupcake is baked from scratch with lots of love, buttermilk and vinegar and comes topped with the bakery’s signature cream cheese frosting. Of all the cupcakes that came in my box, this one had to be my favorite. The cake itself wasn’t heavy (just dry), and I loved the rich cream cheese frosting. If the cake were more moist, this would have been the ultimate concoction. Red velvet is one of my favorite flavors, so I’m glad my friend included this flavor in my assortment.
«Strawberry Guava»: This cupcake was probably the prettiest one in my assortment. It features a 100 percent natural strawberry and guava cupcake that’s topped with cream cheese frosting. I shared this cupcake with my cousin, who thoroughly enjoyed it because it was a twist on the traditional strawberry cake. She liked the lighter guava flavor – which also made the cupcake pinker – and the sweet cream cheese frosting that balanced out the cake.
«Lilikoi»: I thought this was a lemon cupcake until I looked up the different available flavors on the Hokulani website. This original flavor uses 100 percent natural passionfruit purée and is topped with lemon-​zested cream cheese frosting and yellow sugar sprinkles. Since I don’t love lemon, this cupcake was a little too tart for me, but lemon lovers are sure to be pleased. This cupcake is a good option for those who don’t like super sweet treats, as the cake isn’t very decadent, but the lemon cream cheese frosting provides the perfect hint of sweetness and zest.
«Chocolate Peanut Butter»: Since I love peanut butter, I wouldn’t mind giving this cupcake a chance. It features Guittard semi-​dark chocolate chips and comes topped with a creamy peanut butter frosting. I’m hoping the medley has a strong peanut butter flavor, but I guess I’ll have to find out for myself. To me, there is no better blend in the world.
«Filled Red Velvet»: This is the other cupcake that I’m intrigued to try because it sounds so unique. It features the original red velvet cupcake that’s filled with cream cheese frosting and topped with it as well. Sure, it sounds super sweet, but I have a high tolerance when it comes to sweets. I’m especially interested to try it because it includes a double dose of the cream cheese frosting that I actually liked from Hokulani.

Hokulani cupcakes makes great cupcakes! I’ve been to Hokulani a couple years ago and recently just went back. It feels like there are so many more flavors to choose from now. I had such a hard time choosing just six on this day. It helped when I decided I’ll obviously be back sometime real soon to try the other options.
As hard as it was I chose my 6 and even ordered one of the specials of the day, the salted caramel. The cupcakes were made nicely and it tasted really great.
Customer service at the store was really great as well and the staff was so friendly. Can’t wait to come back and try more flavors.
They also validate parking!

FYI. New shorter hours… On Sat. 10 – 2. :-)
Salted caramel cupcake! They make their own salted caramel from scratch. To DIE for!

This place used to be super awesome and my choice for cupcakes. But seems like they’re riding on their name and fame. Ordered about 40 for a bridal shower in various flavors: snickerdoodle, lilikoi, red velvet, peanut butter, guava, coconut, and carrot cake. The flavors were good but overall the cake was on the drier side, definitely different from what I remember.
Although, I will throw in an extra star for creativity for their shave ice cupcakes. It looks gorgeous and it’s filled with azuki beans. I bought this as a special treat for myself in exchange for lugging around 40 something cupcakes. And that one was definitely worth the calories.

Suddenly got a craving for a treat on a Saturday day and saw this gem on Unilocal.
Parking is free and no hassles at restaurant row (no ticket taker) and also the shop gave us a validation just in case.
Cupcakes tasted great. Red Velvet was delicious with deep taste and nice creamcheese frosting. Chocolate cupcake was pretty good but a tiny bit too sweet for me.
Best of all, the person working there was charming. She was a calm person but cheery – listening to Disney tunes while she baked. Sort of like a scene out of Enchanted with Amy Adams… :)

The frosting is bit too sweet for me. The texture of the cupcake is my thing. Firm and moist inside.

Last minute birthday rescue!!!
The night before my brother-in-law’s birthday, my husband thinks it would be cool to send him something. We looked up the traditional things like flowers and fruit boquet (boring and over done)… then i googled «bakery delivery honolulu» and this place came up. Being too late to order online, I called out to their shop (thank goodness for the time zone difference) and spoke with Charice who was more than happy to help get an order put together (she was very friendly and made the process go smoothly). A dozen cupcakes later, birthday success! They were delivered the next day (his actual birthday). Yay!
The pricing for each cupcake is what you would expect at a gourmet cupcake shop and delivery fee was nominal.
The reviews on Unilocal were VERY helpful!
Can’t wait to try them when we head over to Oahu in July 2016.

Service — 3 stars
Parking Validation — 5 stars
Quality — 3.75 stars
Convenience of ordering — 5 stars
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Ordered a week ahead for a pick up on a Friday. It was fast and easy to order via the phone. They emailed me my receipt right after. I called the morning of and asked to pick up my small order an hour and a half early, because my boss had last minute decided I should get it before work, versus leaving in the middle of the day before our client event. They called me back a few minutes later (since no one answered) and said it was doable since it was a small order. Good service there.
I drove to Restaurant Row, parked, and hunted the store down (never been there myself personally). To my lovely surprise, they validate for 1.5 hours! This is great, especially since I doubt I can get reimbursement from work for such a paltry sum.
They had just opened so I understand it’s a little slow going, but what got me was that it was a completely new person helping me, who did not know where to get more bags or to get appropriate sized boxes for my cupcakes. It was frustrating and I’m sure those waiting behind me also got frustrated. There were at least 2 other workers there (one of whom was definitely a baker) and they didn’t come out to help either. I understand it might not be their jobs, but with the small store quickly filling up, it was not a fun experience, especially as I thought it’d be a simple pick up and go.
We ordered red velvet cupcakes, a monthly staple. I have had it before and think it’s good as far as cupcakes go, but as I’m not a cupcake connoisseur, cannot have too much of a critique either way. I like that it’s not toooooo sweet as many cupcakes tend to be, but it’s still a little too sweet (with the frosting) for my liking.

I needed to order 300 mini cupcakes for a trade-​show booth at a corporate event and I was on a budget. I’m from Chicago so couldn’t taste test. Instead, I called multiple bakeries and the best prices were definitely at Hokulani. Based on the solid reviews, I decided it was a safe bet, and I’m glad Unilocal didn’t steer me wrong!
Taste: These cupcakes were awesome! The vanilla were the best, but the red velvet cream cheese were also a huge hit! We passed them out at our convention booth all day, but fell victim to eating at least 3 – 4 a day ourselves… life in Sales is tough… yes.
Appearance: The cupcakes were very cute overall but frosting was pretty messy/​sloppy looking on several of them. Likely no one cared or even noticed but me, but if I was spending my own money on these for my own party I might not have been so pleased.
Customer Service: Very good. My order was taken promptly and it was exactly right. When i picked up the cupcakes, the girl at the store actually helped me carry them (300!) out to my car which was a full block a way — so nice of her!
Overall, if you’re looking for a great tasting cupcake at a great price — this is your place!

So although this isn’t the healthiest of hobbies, I’ve recently decided to hunt down the best cupcakes on the island. My reasoning is that I’m helping a good friend of mine to find the perfect cupcakes for her wedding day, but really, she’s already decided on having a traditional tiered cake and I just love me some cup-​keikis.
I wanted to like Hokulani. Really, I did. I had heard great things about their sumptuous cupcakes and not-​too-​sweet frosting. Unfortunately, the lilikoi and carrot cake cupcakes I sampled didn’t quite live up to the hype. Following is a break-​down of each.
Lilikoi — Being that it’s the tail-​end of summertime, the homegrown taste of the lilikoi growing in my mom’s backyard is still fresh on my palate. I was spoiled with homemade lilikoi juice, butter, and cheesecake while visiting my family on Maui, but we never got around to making cupcakes. Since Id heard raving reviews about Hokulani’s lilikoi I had to give it a go. While the flavor of the batter was alright it was a sadly muted, and not the bright pop of passionfruit flavor I had hoped for. The cake itself, while dense, was dry and crumbly, which made eating it messier than it should have been. Surprisingly, the frosting was my favorite aspect — creamy, sweet but not overly so, and highlighting the lilikoi flavor well. However the top was sprinkled with yellow sugar, which in my opinion cheapened the cupcake’s class.
Carrot Cake — This one wasn’t stellar. Cinnamony, just as I was expecting, but the carrot seemed like an afterthought. It didn’t even really seem to feature in it, and on top of that the cake itself was dry. Frosting was cream cheesy, as is traditional, but I couldn’t decide if the little carrot piping on top was cute or plain reductionist, as if signaling to the eater, «I’m supposed to be carrot cake!» I probably would not decide on this again.
Maybe it was because it was near the end of the day, or because I only tried two of their offerings, or maybe they were just off their game, but Hokulani is not the star of this little island-​wide cupcake competition of mine.
2.5 stars

I ordered custom aloha lei and airplane cookies from the Waikiki location and was told to pick it up here. I came here about 530pm after work and picked it up. The same girl who helped me at the Waikiki location just so happened worked at this location that day.
She opened the box and showed me the cookies I said okay that’s fine. What I should of done was looked at all the cookies before leaving and counted it. But seriously though, who has time to do that especially when you’re in a rush to head to the party you planned for and need to set up the favors for it.
So when I got home to sort it all out. I was shorted an Aloha Lei cookie as you can see in the picture and a couple of them were cracked. It was already too late to go back because they had already closed. I had no time to go to the Waikiki location as I had to get ready for the party. I was pretty disappointed that I had planned for 20 favors only to be shorted on that day. So someone didn’t have a favor.
I left a message on the answering machine that night for a call back to refund me since I was shorted. I got no response all day the next day so I called again and left a message, still no call back. So I emailed the girl who took my order since we were in email communication regarding the order details. Still no response! Funny thing was, she was so quick to respond when she had to email me that the airplane cutter she told me was a different one than the one they have so I had to choose another design.
I would think after 3 days, I’d get some kind of response. I called for the 3^rd time and got a hold of the manager, Ana. She was such a sweet lady who was understanding of my situation as I explained everything that had happened within the week. Apparently she was unaware of the messages that was left and the unresponsive emails that was happening between me and the worker. She offered to compensate me back for the cookie I was shorted and gave me complimentary cupcakes to pick up.
I wasn’t intending to get any free stuff from them I just wanted to express my unsatisfactory experience of ordering from them. I was refunded the money back within the week and picked up 4 cupcakes that was left from Ana. So I thank you for them! It’s been a while since I’ve tried their cupcakes probably back when their business was booming from winning the cupcake wars. The best was the red velvet one! Yummm, so moist and flavorful. Even in the frosting, it wasn’t too sweet but just the perfect amount. Probably why it’s one of their best sellers.
The other 3 flavors that were in the pack were the lilikoi, classic vanilla, and strawberry guava. It wasn’t as good as the red velvet but they were decent in flavoring. It doesn’t seem as fresh as other cupcakes I’ve tasted before as it tasted a bit dry and the frosting was melted losing its cupcake piping features. Could it have been because it was already at the end of the day? Possibly. I thought the presentation could of been a little better for representing as the award winning cupcake wars competitors for Hawaii.
For $ 2.75 — $ 3.75 price range cupcakes? Hmmm. seems a bit out of my price range. Not too sure if it’s worth it for mediocre tasting cupcakes, aside from those red velvet cupcakes that will probably be the only reason I’d be back for. Maybe I need to try those that are freshly made in the mornings to justify if these are worth the prices.
As for the cookies, they were actually good and I got compliments from my friends that it was tasty. However, the design presentation wasn’t all perfect as you can see in my pictures, some of the lettering and areas of the design were not neatly done but the quality of taste was up to par. All their cookies there are $ 4+ each and I personally think it’s costly for a cookie size as that. I spent $ 85 on a batch of 20 customized cookies.
Other than that, my experience from both bakeries was just less than average. I wish I was given better customer service from the worker that was helping me. I’m an avid supporter for local businesses so I suppose I was expecting a lot more from from recent visit and purchase I made.

My favorite is the Lilikoi, it’s so darn yummy!!! I live across the street so I’m there every week!!! Yummmmm! Can’t get enough and I sound like a weirdo!
Try their cupcakes!

Dishing out $ 35 for a dozen cupcakes felt a bit out of my price range, but that’s the price of quality – and these cupcakes truly are top quality.
I know this because I tried making some cupcakes at home myself, and I don’t think I could pay someone $ 35 to eat them.
Thank goodness for Hokulani Bake Shop, because there really is no other place in the downtown area to get cupcakes – and to make a statement on my man’s 30^th birthday by delivering these to his office, it had the exact impact I intended.
I give one star to my boyfriend/​coworkers for not saving me one, though. Like, seriously?

So I picked up a friend from the doctors office and she wanted something sweet to eat. I normally don’t eat sweets so I had no clue of where to find something. So where do we search? Why, Unilocal of course!
Unilocal found us Hokulani Bake Shop located in the Restaurant Row complex. There is ample free parking and they are located directly mountain of the Row Bar. It’s a small shop with a large refrigerated display of cupcakes. My friend chose two cupcakes for just over $ 6. Again, I must be living in the prices of many years past because $ 6 sure seems expensive for two cupcakes but she loved it! She chose a lilokoi cupcake and what appeared to be strawberry. Gobble gobble! It was filling so she didn’t eat the other one and gave me the other to take home for Mom.
Apparently Hokulani Bake Shop is very famous having won some cupcake competition. Good stuff!

I’ve picked up cupcakes before from Hokulani’s Waikiki location, but this one is far more convenient. It’s tucked away inside Restaurant Row, just off to the side of the Row Bar (the outdoor bar there).
I worked with one of the staff over the phone ahead of time to coordinate an order for my friend’s birthday celebration, which was a quick and painless process. Picking the cupcakes up was also quick and easy — plus they present them to you in a really nice re-​bag with the Hokulani logo on it for easy transportation.
The only reason I’m knocking off a star is because I was shocked to find that a dozen cupcakes came out to about $ 44 after tax. Had my friend not hinted that she wanted to try the new seasonal flavors (chai, Okinawan sweet potato, mocha), I would have chosen a cheaper option. Super yummy, but probably will not buy in bulk again.
PARKING: Free with validation at Waterfront Plaza parking garage.