Ani's Bakery Sweet Bread 16oz

Ani's Bakery Sweet Bread is the most popular item, with people visiting the bakery just to try the sweet bread! This homemade style sweet bread from Hawaii is the perfect sweet treat.

How it started

Ani’s Bake Shop started in the family.  Thirty years ago, Ani would spend all night making 20 loaves of sweet bread during the holidays for her friends.  Family dinners would include Portuguese bean soup and Portuguese sweet bread.  More and more friends would ask her to bake sweet bread during the holidays, and even though she was a full-time teacher at Nimitz elementary, she would create delectable treats for her friends and family. What slowly started as recreational fun for family and friends turned into a full-on commercial enterprise. In 1983, working as a full-time teacher, Ani and Abe Tanaka decided to open a bakery in the back of Halawa industrial park. Talk about the American Dream!

Recipe history

We have had the exact same recipe since our inception. The only thing that’s changed is the amount of mixes. From grandmas to aunts, everyone in the family has had an influence in our recipes. Juanita Montalvo (Ani’s mom) made the sweet breads and jellies and would pick barrels of guavas and wash and cook them for the juice. She would then put the pulp in the sugar bags and hang them from the basement ceiling. They would drip for a couple days and then she would boil the pulp to make the jellies and then keep the jellies stored in the closet. To make the sweet bread, they had a long kitchen table with big ceramic bowls. They would hand knead the bread, put a blanket over the bread to keep it warm, and then use a stone oven to bake the bread. Jessie Amaral (Ani’s aunty) was a surrogate mother for Ani when her mother passed. She was the one who kept the baking going and helped Ani develop her skills.

Grandma's kitchen

Why do people love Ani’s? Ani’s Bake Shop is grandma’s kitchen transformed into a business. Our food started from home, and it’s kept the same feel. All our food is handmade, and the only machines we use are the mixers to make the dough. People can taste how the bread and pastries are made fresh and not through automated manufacturing.