The Winner: Oh My Waffle, Burleigh Heads
When you first walk into Oh My Waffle, you’re hit with a mesmerising aroma – it’s an enchanting combination of hot chocolate, icing sugar, marshmallows and ice-cream, balanced out with the smell of simmering butter. This sugar-laced sweets hang specialises in golden, fluffy waffles, lovingly loaded with ice-cream and decadent toppings, and it also slings eye-popping milkshakes, wookie (waffle cookie) sandwiches, breakfast-style cereal shakes and loaded hot chocolates. All of that just metres from Burleigh beach!

The Runner-up: Cowch Dessert Cocktail Bar, Broadbeach
Cowch is like a real-life version of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate Factory where culinary hedonism reigns supreme. Sweet treats and booze collide in the most delicious fashion, with made-to-order eats like pancake stacks, ice-cream sliders, saucy sundaes, dessert pizzas, DIY ice-cream pops, crepes, four-person super shakes, as well as a raft of sweet cocktails. Nutella espresso martini, anyone?

The Runner-up: Gelato Messina, Coolangatta
With various locations across the country, these gelato gastronomers and artisan-sweets masters have a cult-like following. Day in, day out, the gelato is lovingly hand crafted and churned on site, giving locals the choice of more than 40 unique gelato flavours, bespoke gelato cakes and indulgent daily specials. Grab a double scoop (you’ll never decide on just one) and enjoy it overlooking the Coolangatta beachfront.

Bam Bam Bakehouse, Mermaid Beach
If you’re looking for a spot for coffee and cake, or need sweet treats on fly, Bam Bam is your go-to. The cabinet is brimming with housemade pastries, from creme brulee tarts and Nutella cruffins to strawberry tarts, lemon tarts and the pièce de résistance – Bam Bam’s famed croissants. Up the ante and opt for an almond croissant, thank us later.

Heven-yah, Mermaid Beach
Owned and operated by sisters and gelato queens Amy and Holly Prosser, Heven-yah is a sleek, boutique gelateria scooping flavours based around the best seasonal produce. While the options vary on the daily, expect delights like burnt vanilla, dried mandarin and puffed rice, housemade ricotta with wood chip-infused orange and lemon oil, and vanilla creme fraiche gelato with buttery caramel apples. It’s gelato, but not as you know it.

5B2F Bakehouse, Chirn Park
Owned and operated by renowned patissier Moonsun Yoo, this sweets haven is a popular coffee-and-cake spot for northern locals. There’s a cabinet filled with intricate French-style cakes and sweet pastries, which are all handmade on site. You can balance it out with savouries like pies, sausage rolls and fresh house-baked sourdough.

The Paddock Bakery, Miami
More often than not, there’s a line-up out the door at Paddock as locals clamour to get their fix. The sweets cabinet is a true delight, overflowing with oven-fresh cookies, indulgent brownies, fluffy doughnuts, cronuts, tarts, Nutella bots and more. You can always count on seeing new and exciting creations on rotation, too – much to the dismay of your summer bod.

Baked at Ancora, Tweed Heads
This Parisian-style bakehouse is located the heart of Tweed Heads and enjoys pristine water views. Grab a seat inside or roll out a rug outside for the ultimate sugar-infused picnic. The pastry cabinet is filled multiple times a day with croissants, doughnuts, tarts, choux bombs, giant oozing cookies and decadent creations like crookies – a chocolate croissant inside a giant cookie.

The Pastry Emporium, Mermaid Waters
The Pastry Emporium Mermaid Beach is the second notch in the belt of owner and pastry chef Adrian Grazioli, who opened the patisserie’s first venue in Bundall back in 2014. Speaking of notches in belts – you’ll want to free up a couple before stepping into this sweet space, because it’s jam-packed full of everything from custard-filled doughnuts, colourful macarons and cookies, to hand-rolled croissants, danishes and endless rows of petite and whole cakes.

D Point Ten, Southport
This dedicated doughnut bar slings fresh, handmade rounds of goodness to sugar-addicted locals. You can keep it simple with a fresh cinnamon or vanilla-glazed doughnut, or you can up the ante with the loaded Gaytime or Ferrero Rocher variety. If you like a little bit of a surprise from inside, then opt for a doughnut injected (to the brim) with either housemade custard, Oreo cream, Nutella, salted-caramel sauce or strawberry jam. To keep up with demand, the D Point Ten owners opened a second shop in mid-2019 further south in Broadbeach.

Whoa, that’s a lot of sugar. Now we need a lie down. Oh, and be sure to explore our Stumble Guide for event more sweet spots.