If you’re a sweet tooth in Surfers Paradise you really are spoilt for choice. Between Max Brenner, Pancakes in Paradise and Movenpick alone there are some incredible options for your post-dinner satisfaction but for ice-cream, it’s hard to go past Negative 210. While they all sound ridiculously amazing, for us, it’s a toss up between the 7 Months Pregnant; peanut butter, pretzels, chocolate chips and chocolate fudge, and the I Don’t Like Mondays; chocolate, slithered almonds and caramel. If you’ve never been to Negative 210, you’re in for quite the experience, the ingredients are thrown into a bowl and then blasted with liquid nitrogen to create ice-cream that is so smooth and creamy it makes regular ice-cream cry at its inadequacy. If doughnuts are your delicious kryptonite, look no further than Donut Boyz. With over 200 flavours on rotation, Donut Boyz is like the Willy Wonka of doughnuts. Nearby, Oliver Brown cooks up stack of waffles so magnificent you’ll be convinced you’ve found your waffle nirvana. Made fresh to order, the crispy sweet waffle base is drizzled with milk chocolate, dark chocolate, caramel sauce or maple syrup and adorned with your choice of sliced bananas, ice-cream, crushed nuts, popping candy or crushed Oreos. Speaking of Oreos, American-inspired eatery Brooklyn Depot does not disappoint when it comes to its sweet morsels of happiness with decadent Oreo-filled doughnut balls and caramel pecan brownie that are even more incredible in real life than in your imagination.

If you are singlehandedly contributing to Nutella’s shortage, Salt Meats Cheese makes palm-sized bundles of joy they refer to as a baked Nutella bombs. The mouthwateringly tasty treat is pretty much as it sounds, a parcel of dough wrapped around a generous dollop of gooey Nutella and baked until golden. Nearby Gemelli Italian in Broadbeach has also won over more than a few hazelnut fiends with its Nutella bombolini and Skull and Bones Espresso Boutique also throw together some seriously amazing Nutella and banana waffles. The Paddock Bakery churns out Nutella doughpots on a constant rotation and still manages to sell-out multiple times in a day whilst Elston in Surfers Paradise offers Nutella pancakes with marshmallow fluff and candy nuts.

If you’re down Coolangatta way, a trip to Gelato Messina is basically mandatory for sweet tooths. With 40 glorious flavours on offer, the decision making process is difficult to say the least. Recognising Messina’s mastery among mere mortals, Burleigh’s insanely popular burger institution Ze Pickle offers the Zessina; Messina peanut butter gelato with salted caramel and white chocolate fudge sandwiched between a cinnamon-dusted cronut set in a milky bar half dip and rolled in crushed Oreos. Honestly you haven’t lived until you’ve held one of these bad boys in your hot little hands. If you’re still mentally stuck back at the Nutella part, Ze Pickle also offer the Oreogazm; deep fried Oreos in doughnut batter with Messina white chocolate hazelnut gelato topped with liquid Nutella.

For a dessert that’s almost too pretty to eat (almost, nothing is too pretty to eat), stop by Hank Dining & Bar for the salted caramel Pana Cotta. You’ll almost feel bad plunging your spoon into its deliciously creamy centre and scooping up ribbons of milk chocolate, salty pistachios, caramel popcorn and vanilla cream but don’t worry, those feelings will subside when you realise how amazing it tastes. Sparrow Eating House in Nobbys also ups the ante on the presentation with its gorgeous chocolate pate and peanut butter mille fille. While perhaps less pretty than its comrade, the old faithful banoffee jaffle with salted caramel sauce is also definitely worth a look in. If you’re a fan of the cronut (a devilish croissant doughnut hybrid) make haste towards Larder in Burleigh Waters and Griffith Street in Coolangatta, or Blackboard Coffee in Varsity Lakes. If you’re feeling adventurous, Lester & Earl  in Palm Beach also dishes up bacon-flavoured ice-cream.

Before you go feeling guilty about your excess sugar consumption, we have one thing to say, life’s short, eat the dessert. If that wasn’t enough to convince you, not all desserts have to be naughty, The Cardamom Pod and Blendlove create some delicious treats that are vegan, gluten-free and cane sugar-free and only use whole ingredients such as nuts, raw cacao powder, fruits and coconut products so they’re basically guilt-free. If you’re crazy for coconuts, head to BSKT and tuck into a bowl of CocoWhip, it’s the world’s first vegan and bio-fermented coconut soft-serve, it also happens to taste pretty darn delicious.