Akiko White / Founder & Owner, Aloha Bites, Kailua, HI

Illustration Meets Island Flavor

From an early age, Akiko White’s world revolved around flour and paint. Growing up in Texas, she learned to bake with her grandmother and paint with her mother. She went on to combine her training as a professional illustrator and baker in a unique artform she calls ‘cakelustrations,’ which helped her win Best Designed Cake on Food Network’s “Cake Wars”.

Now living in Hawaii, Akiko makes custom cakes, cookies, and cupcakes in a rainbow of tropical flavors for her bakery, Aloha Bites. Another specialty is the award-winning line of small-batch preserves that make their way into many bakery offerings. Though much of the tropical fruit for Aloha Bites’ jams and jellies is sourced locally, Akiko uses The Perfect Purée Pink Guava and Passion Fruit Concentrate (also called Lilikoi) to maintain peak flavor and production out of season without reformulating recipes.

Passion Fruit in particular can be hard to source fresh because it’s popular with tourists and locals. “Sometimes I’ll get fresh, but when I run out, I don’t want to run out of product, so I use the purees,” Akiko says. Guava, meanwhile, is more available, but it’s labor-intensive. “It’s a pain to process,” Akiko says. “We chop it, we strain it, and then we put it through a juicer that brings out most of the purée.”

As demand outpaces local supply and she expands distribution on the mainland as planned, Akiko hopes to be able to scale her island-inspired recipes with The Perfect Purée. “Two of our top sellers are the Guava Jam and Lilikoi Jelly, and we buy hundreds of pounds of guava, but it’s still not enough for demand,” she says.

Preserving Family History

Akiko and her husband, Scott, started making preserves in Texas with Scott’s family recipes from Hawaii, where he was raised. In 2019, the couple moved with their three children to Hawaii. “My kids say it was a midlife crisis,” says Akiko, who now jokingly refers to her business as her ‘youngest child.’

Family history continues to influence the business. Tutu’s Calamansi Marmalade, inspired by Scott’s grandmother’s recipe, won a bronze medal at the Dalemain World Marmalade Awards in 2024 as well as a coveted Good Food Award in 2023.

Aloha Bites is also shaped by partnerships with the local culinary community. Friend and fellow Hawaiian culinary ambassador Sam Choy (another Perfect Purée customer) created Sam Choy’s Ulu (breadfruit) Fry Mix for Aloha Bites. And, Aloha Bites partners with Hawaii’s Kualoa Ranch for its line of KualoaGrown preserves, including Rangpur Lime Marmalade — another 2024 Dalemain World Marmalade Awards winner.

The preserves can be cross-utilized in salad dressings, marinades, tea, and cocktails. Akiko demonstrates their versatility in desserts, using Lilikoi Jelly on her signature cupcakes and other flavors in her jam cookies. “The whole idea is, if we’re baking something, we want to incorporate what we make in our jars with our baked items to showcase how those products work,” she says.

­User Tip: Batch Prep, Backed by the Refrigerator

It might go without saying that refrigeration is necessary for baking (especially in a tropical climate). But Akiko says it wasn’t until she began baking professionally that she realized she could make batter and store it in the fridge.

“I just saw a post where someone said they spend one day mixing all their dough and all their batters. They put it in the fridge, and they pull out what they need as they’re baking for their bakery for the week,” she says. “Most people don’t think you can put cake batter in the fridge and bake it whenever you need it. A lot of people think you have to make it right then.”

Cookie dough improves in the fridge, and cake batter doesn’t change after being refrigerated. “We always keep a little bit of batter in the fridge just in case somebody walks in the door and says, ‘Hey, I need a cake tomorrow.’ ”