Snuggy Bear. Strawberry shortcake. Kūlolo crunch. These are just a few of the ice cream pie flavors at Slice by HB Baking.
The business, which used to be located in Kilohana Square, closed its storefront when its lease ended in June. Once the shop closed, business owner Heather Lukela was presented with a lot of opportunities to pop up in friends’ spaces or work markets.
She took some time to figure out what worked best for her business, and looked into the rules of opening a food truck in a residential area.
“I found that it’s possible to operate from home, as long as the truck is on private property and you have the owner’s consent,” she says. “I was talking to my friends that live on the main road (in Moanalua Valley) about my plans to pop-up in my driveway. Without hesitation, they said, ‘Why don’t you just do it here? You’ll be way more visible.’
“That says a lot about this community,” Lukela adds. “All of my neighbors have always been so supportive and helpful.”
Originally, Lukela intended to open the business’s pink Slice Cream truck every other week, but decided on monthly pop-ups. She says she still fills custom cake and pie orders, and weekend orders are constant. The business still participates in the monthly market at Pearl at Kalauao, along with private events.
“I do the majority of the production for the truck,” she says. “Since we’ve closed up at Kilohana Square, I’ve continued to fill any orders coming in through calls, messaging or email. With the Moanalua pop-up, I’m pretty busy, despite not having a shop.”
At pop-ups, the biz features fresh pies ($15), dorayaki ice cream sandwiches ($7), and cutie pies ($8 per cup or two for $15), or ice cream pie flavors in cup form.
Cutie pie flavors include Rocky Road cookie dough (with a chocolate cookie crust and dark chocolate cornflake topping), caramel banana butterfinger (with a graham cracker crust and salted peanut crumble), Snuggy Bear (coffee almond fudge ice cream, Oreo crust and salted milk crumble), and kūlolo crunch (whipped cream, kūlolo ice cream and mac nut shortbread crust).
“Our newest flavor is the kūlolo crunch, which is usually the first flavor to sell out,” Lukela says.
The biz also features cakey cups ($4) — strawberry cake with vanilla bean ice cream, whipped cream and sprinkles — and boozy scoops ($7). The latter is a treat designed for individuals ages 21 years and older; the first pop-up featured Hibiki Suntory Japanese harmony whiskey and Meyers dark rum raisin.
Dorayaki ice cream sandwiches come in flavors like strawberry yuzu, matcha white chocolate, hojicha, and Sakura. They're inspired by the Japanese confection, which usually features castella-style pancakes with a red bean paste in the middle.
“Our dorayaki ice cream sandwiches are very popular; they’re made with Japanese dorayaki pancakes,” Lukela says.
Lukela says she will have a few fresh pies on the menu; flavors will rotate at every pop-up.
“Our last event offered the strawberry cheesecake, with a cream cheese mousse on pretzel crust with glazed strawberries,” she says. “The second flavor was chocolate peanut butter pie. This one has chocolate mousse on peanut butter cookie crust with peanut butter whipped cream.
“I just served lilikoʻi meringue pie at the last Prime Rib Club dinner (at Hamada General Store), and it came out nice,” she adds.
Slice by HB Baking operated its first Moanalua Valley pop-up in early September. Lukela says working in the Valley was “exciting” since she lives down the street.
“It takes me no time to get to my venue; I don’t have to worry about forgetting anything,” she says. “I’m able to sell more (desserts) because my inventory is close by.”
Slice by HB Baking’s next pop-up will be on Sunday, Oct. 18 from 11 a.m. until sold out. This will be during a lunchtime event, along with the Prime Rib Club held at Hamada General Store.
Her next Moanalua Valley pop-up will be from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Halloween (1418 Ala Aolani St.).
“The coolest thing about this (neighborhood pop-up) is that I get to meet so many families that live here,” she says. “(Representative) Garner Shimizu came! They (the community members) were all so nice and happy that there was an ice cream truck. Now, when I’m out walking Penny (my dog), neighbors say ‘hi’ and talk story about the items they bought. It makes me grateful for this community.”
CONTACT
Slice by HB Baking
Instagram: @slicebyhbbaking
For orders and inquiries, email hbbaking@gmail.com
Kelli Shiroma Braiotta can be reached at kelli@alohastatedaily.com.
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