Spirit of Aloha | Articles | Island Chronicles | September/October 2005

Island Chronicles
By: CAROL SILVA

The Sweet Side of Hawai‘i

The people of Hawai‘i have always had a deep passion for baked treats and desserts. In an ancient day, steamy, earth ovens yielded savory puddings of pounded taro, yam, sweet potato or breadfruit generously laced with coconut cream and wrapped in ti or ginger leaves. No feast was complete without such a sweet accompanied by freshly cut sugar cane, a variety of juicy berries, plump bananas or mountain apples in season.

With the gradual introduction by foreigners of new food products, such as honey, syrup, molasses, chocolate, granulated sugar, milk, butter, flour and spices, desserts took on a radically new appearance and taste. In the early 1800s, simple ships’ provisions, including hard tack, were offered for sale by enterprising malihini (foreign) bakers, whose shops were established not far from the bustling harbor. Thus, items such as Saloon Pilot crackers or sea biscuits made their way onto ships, as well as into local households, becoming a favorite snack for generations of Island folk. From this and other early introductions to baked goods, the community was destined to develop a sweet tooth that eagerly supported bakeries and coffee houses in each port town.

One such coffee house and bakery in Hilo announced that it was opening its doors for business in January 1868. The owners promised to supply all the needs of the family by baking bread daily and offering teacakes and biscuits every day through the late afternoon. Cakes and pies of all sorts and crackers made to order rounded out the items advertised. In addition, the coffee house was touted as the “place to feast at any hour.”

Some of the cakes and baked goods that one would have found in a Hawaiian coffee house of that time included: cupcakes spiced with mace, a cinnamon-rice cake, a seed cake, quince pudding, a lemon cake using the juice of four lemons and a little rose water, cream cake, sponge cake with icing and gingerbread. Recipes for the above were given in a Hawaiian language newspaper dated 1865, along with baking instructions for pound cake, doughnuts, johnny cake and almond cake. Among the more unusual recipes were those for a bath cake (steamed with sugar and honey), a nutmeg cookie called Queen’s Drops, a black cake with raisins and currants and a bride’s cake with raisins, currants, orange and lemon zests, sweetmeats and a half-dozen spices, including ginger.

To accompany a delightful assortment of baked goods, hot and cold beverages were generally available. There was a pronounced fondness for hot chocolate, then tea or coffee. Fruit juices such as lemonade were undeniably refreshing, however, one of the most popular drinks of mid-19th-century Hawai‘i was wai momona (sweet water or soda water). Ice for flavored drinks, water or milk was also kept readily on hand.

Early on, ice came as ballast, packed in sawdust in the holds of ships sailing out of New England. These blocks of natural ice had been cut from the rivers of Maine and arrived in the Islands by way of Cape Horn five to six weeks later. The still-frozen blocks were then unloaded and immediately sold from dockside; it was expensive, limited in quantity and uncertain in availability.

In November 1858, a brief announcement appeared in the native press describing the arrival of the ship Mountain Wave out of Boston, carrying 200 tons of ice for sale. The ice was deposited in a new ice house constructed on the wharf for C.H. Lewers. In addition to selling ice for commercial and home use, Lewers advertised the first ice boxes, as well as ice-making containers. What a wonder these containers were! Water or milk was poured into a tin that was then placed within a wooden box. Ice chips and salt were sprinkled into the gap between the tin and wood containers. The lid was put on and in a matter of minutes there was enough ice or solid ice milk and ice cream to please and cool local palates.

Times and tastes have changed, but the love of desserts in Hawai‘i remains—at home, in the coffee room, at parties and especially at lū‘au, where there is never a shortage of home-baked cakes and goodies.                                   

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