It depends how authentically Hawaiian you want, but my first thought was anything with pineapple: grilled pineapple, pineapple upside-down cake, etc. And you could serve it a la mode with coconut ice cream!

Mochi! I have a friend from Hawaii who always makes it for potlucks, and it is such a delicious treat!

We're at the end of mango season in the USA. Mango desserts are very common in Hawaii. You could go with mango sticky rice, mango cake, mango pudding, mango pie, fresh mango on coconut custard or cake, mango fruit salad, etc. etc. etc.

depends on if you want "authentic" Hawaii'an versus "themed".
for "themed" how about mini or individual molten lava chocolate cakes

I'm from Hawaii, and I agree that both Haupia and Mochi are great ideas! Butter mochi is always a hit -- here's a recipe. My personal favorite is the guava chiffon cake, which is easy to get in Hawaii at any Zippy's, but takes a bit of time to make at home.

Joy, those recipes sound great! Thanks for sharing them! :)

I always ask for chocolate haupia pie when I visit home. I don't have my mom's recipe with me, but here's a link to a recipe from the local Honolulu paper:

http://archives.starbulletin.com/2002/02/06/features/request.html

Sorry, I don't know how to embed the link. I actually created an account to comment on this thread. That's how much I love the pie!!

Candied spam.

Ok, this might not be very dessert-y, but I love Pani Popo (sweet buns in a coconut sauce). Yes, they're Samoan in origin, but the Hawaiians I know love it. King Arthur Flour has a good recipe. It's easy too.

Lilikoi pie

Betsy - You're welcome! I love love love sharing recipes from home. :)

i second joy's suggestion for butter mochi -- yum!

another easy option might be mango or banana bread.

there's also a recipe for banana-poi bread that i'm dying to try, but poi might be hard to come by depending on where you are.

Shaved ice is a big thing in Hawaii

http://www.ehow.com/way_5202797_hawaiian-shaved-ice-recipe.html

Dole Whip. Seriously, get some pineapple Dole Whip mix from Precision Foods (and get the bucket and whisk for free while you're at it) and either rent a soft serve Ice Cream machine or just use a home machine.

You'll thank me later.

Okinawan sweet potato pie with haupia. I just made one a couple of weeks ago, and it went over really well.

A google search will show you some recipes to work with, but this is what I ended up doing.

I used this recipe as a base for the filling:

http://joythebaker.com/2009/11/dads-perfect-sweet-potato-pie/

I used the purple Japanese sweet potatoes instead of regular, and I subbed a mix of cream and milk for the evaporated (because they were on hand), and I changed the spices to just a tiny bit of nutmeg and about a teaspoon of ground ginger. The crust is a basic graham cracker crust. I used a 9"x13" pan, and overall pretty easy and really tasty!

I happened to have had a package of haupia mix from a recent trip to Hawai'i, so I used that, but it's easy enough to make from scratch.

If you feel like deep frying something, make malasadas! They're my favorite kind of doughnut.

Mac nut ice cream! Make it yourself by crushing macadamia nuts and adding it to softened vanilla ice cream and then freezing again.

Go a step further and plop that mac nut ice cream on an oreo cookie crust for a great big delicious hula pie, a la Duke's. :) Just add whipped cream and chocolate syrup and go directly to heaven.