Maria ShortMaria Short

Baking and it’s many wonderful, varied aspects has always been a lifelong love for me. I discovered the magic of mixing flour, butter, sugar and eggs to create something delicious at an early age and never looked back.  Have you ever smelled baking dirt before? Take it from me, it’s not pleasant but mud pies were the first things I ever baked (when I was five years old)!

Luckily, my mom still let me in the kitchen after that and I started baking cookies out of a “Cookie of the Month” recipe book geared towards kids. Sugar cookies that were so hard that they didn’t break when they were thrown at the wall were just some of the memories made.  

And through it all I just kept begging my parents for more butter, nuts, yeast and chocolate chips.  I specifically asked for the “Joy of Cooking” for my 13th Christmas and made croissants from scratch for the first time.  I mis-read the recipe and used one POUND of butter instead of one cup and when I opened up the oven, although it smelled heavenly, my croissants were floating in a puddle of butter.

But I never stopped, I read and practiced and practiced.

When I told my parents that I might want to pursue a career in pastry they were horrified and firmly steered me into the medical profession. 

Life happened and I ended up getting married, having a family and not finishing my degree. Through it all I kept baking, through good times and bad, through children, household moves and volcanic eruptions (that’s another story for another time).

Life is short, really damn short and I decided that I NEEDED to stop wasting time and make some hard decisions.  The first was to divorce my then husband and the second was to move back home and go to culinary school.  

I started by attending a summer session of Baltimore International Culinary College and then attending and graduating from L’Academie de Cuisine’s Pastry Arts program with honors. 

Since then I’ve worked as a pastry chef in restaurants, catering companies and patisseries. One of my favorite jobs was working as a pastry chef instructor, teaching Merchant Marines how to bake. 

It was while I was teaching that I met my husband, Dien, a Merchant Marine who worked as a chief steward. Dien was raised in Hawaii and left after high school to travel and see the world.  He traveled extensively in Asia, Polynesia, South and Central America, Europe and even Africa, but always considered Hawaii his home.

In 2004, we opened Short N Sweet Bakery & Cafe in Hawi.  Then in 2010 Short N Sweet moved to a much larger facility in Hilo.  With the extra space they were able to expand their menu and offerings, adding artisan breads, croissants and bagels.  

In 2019 Dien and I founded Kipuka Mills, an agricultural processing company that mills among other things a zero waste macadamia nut flour.

In 2022 Short N Sweet moved to the Hilo Shopping Center to start the next chapter of their sweet and successful journey.  This move enables Kipuka Mills to designate their products as gluten free, as well as provide the start up room to grow.

They feel very blessed to have the opportunity to create and live in paradise!