Feast Your Eyes on Delectable Macarons and More Sweet Treats at this Kaka‘ako Bakery

Flour + Butter opened Nov. 1 at the Imperial Plaza.

January 3, 2017

Maria Kanai,

Photo: Enjy El-Kadi

French macarons (not macaroons) are tricky little beasts to make. So whenever we see an array of beautiful, perfect examples like the ones on display at Flour + Butter bakery, we feel awe and respect.

“It’s the oven that’s the tricky part,” says owner Jennifer Daza, who’s worked at La Palme d’Or Patisserie here and also studied at Le Cordon Bleu in Las Vegas. Her bakery, Flour + Butter, just opened on Nov. 1 at the Imperial Plaza. “You have to know your oven; it has to be at the perfect temperature for macarons to turn out well,” she says. “Humidity is another factor. Even now, when I put macarons in the oven, I have to cross my fingers and hope that they turn out nice!”

The pistachio macaron ($2.25) is a good example of Daza’s pastry-making technique. It’s a delicate, cloudlike cookie with a great balance of firm-but-dissolves-in-your-mouth, and is dipped in dark chocolate, which complements the pistachio nuttiness. Daza says her passion is macarons because she enjoys their versatility. “With macarons, I can play with the flavors and the colors,” says Daza. Other popular flavors include salted caramel, liliko‘i, cotton candy and PB&J.

Jennifer Daza runs Flour + Butter with her mother, Edna, and sister, Veronica.

Photos: Maria Kanai

Daza, who runs the bakery with her mother, Edna, and sister, Veronica, obviously channels her friendly, artistic personality into cute designs and tiny adornments. For example, there’s a Christmas-themed array of red and green cream puffs, dusted with plenty of powdered sugar, with an eggy, custard filling. These aren’t as sweet as they look, and Daza says she’s not into overbearing, sugary flavors for her pastries.

There’s also a tiramisu éclair ($3.25), a pretty little thing with a rich chocolate filling and mascarpone cream, dusted with coffee and cocoa powder, and tiny red and green dotted sprinkles. Like the cream puffs, these aren’t overly sweet, so, if you’re looking for something more sugar-coma-inducing, get the chocoholic cupcake ($3.25).

Tiramisu éclairs ($3.25 each).

Or maybe the gingerbread cupcake ($3.75). It’s an immediately “aww”-inducer, with a gingerbread-man-cookie topper and cookie-butter icing. The apple pie cupcakes ($3.75) have real, fresh apple chunks inside and the chocolate peppermint cupcakes ($3.75) have a lighter, airier icing than we’re used to. There are also pink velvet, black Hawaiian salt lava caramel, lemon blueberry and other nonseasonal flavors, and even dog treats ($1.50) made with oats, peanut butter and banana.