Mala ice cream, retro bakes, pudding and pies in Clementi

If you are on a diet, don't read on.

But if words like caramel, buttercream, choux and couverture make your sweet tooth tingle, you will love these calorific ice cream cafes, old-school bakeries and hotel-standard cake shops.

These are mostly concentrated in a tranquil (and also underrated) Clementi enclave poetically named Sunset Way where there is a bakery or a cafe or a bakery or a cafe at every turn and corner!

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The Daily Scoop: One of the Sunset Way OGs

Address: 41 Sunset Way, #01-04

Before ice cream became the adult-hipster-thing-to-eat, The Daily Scoop was already dishing it out at its first cafe in Sunset Way… in 2004. It now has three other outlets islandwide.

You'll be spoilt for choice as The Daily Scoop has everything from Simple Vanilla and Sunny Strawberry to Thai Chai and Pandan Ondeh.

Want something even more out of the box? Try Chilli Choc or the even more burning Ma Hot So-Bae (it's mala-flavoured, btw).

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Classic Cakes: Mille Crêpe, Black Velvet and Banana Gula Melaka

Address: 41 Sunset Way #01-06, Clementi Arcade

Most of us know Lady M for its famous mille crêpe cakes but foodies in the West head to a homegrown bakery, Classic Cakes for theirs. Choose from five flavours including Original, Apple and Matcha.

Other "classic" cakes include Brandy Fruit Cake, Black Forest cake and Strawberry Sponge but if you are feeling adventurous, try the intriguing Black Velvet (think chocolate cake but with mascarpone cheese), Lemon Caramel Cake or the dramatically named Best Ever Chocolate Cake which pairs dark chocolate with blackberry jam.

For those of us who prefer savoury Asian cakes, Classic Cakes also does yam, radish and pumpkin cakes.

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Balmoral Bakery: Making custard puffs, rumballs and buttercream cakes since 1965

Address: 105 Clementi Street 12, #01-06

In Singapore, pastry and cake fans will know these following old-school names: Love Confectionery at Bukit Merah, Hock Ann Confectionery at Tanglin Halt, Dona Manis Cake Shop at Katong Shopping Centre, Chin Mee Chin at East Coast Road… and of course, Balmoral Bakery in Clementi.

The last started business in 1965, making it as old as Singapore itself. Like its peers, Balmoral Bakery - which also has a rustic red-brick external façade - still churns out retro treats like custard puffs, buttercream cakes, cream horns and whole birthday cakes with lao hong wafer roses.

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Swisslink Bakery & Cafe: Pies, pies and more pies!

Address: 109 Clementi Street 11, #01-07

This nondescript but spacious shop does a lot of meat pies like the popular chicken pie and beef cottage pie but Swisslink Bakery & Cafe is also the go-to in Clementi for its apple pie (ahh, we smell the cinnamon already!).

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Fredo's Baker: Atas bakes and treats like Choux Pastry, Meringue and Bread Pudding

Address: 109 Clementi Street 11, #01-05

You know that Fredo's Baker is not your usual neighbourhood bakery when you see how it does hardcore cheem stuff like Choux Pastry with Raspberry Kirsch Cream, Baked Meringue and Bread Pudding with Rum Vanilla Sauce.

And, wow, it even has a membership scheme that allows you to chalk up rewards points, okay.

Run by a former hotel pastry chef, Fredo's Baker is most popular for its very pwetty, made-for-Instagram fruit tarts like Passionfruit Lemon, Zesty Lemon & Lime, and Mixed Berries.

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Burnt Cones: Small batch gelato

Address: 105 Clementi Street 12, #01-02

There's an ice-cream-insider joke about how the Easties have Birds of Paradise (and if you Googled "Jurong Bird Park", you are obviously not an ice cream fan boi or girl), the Westies have Burnt Cones.

We may be overthinking things but there seems to be two distinct colour palettes of ice cream flavours here: The muted, minimalist shades of Coconut Lychee and Fior de Latte, and the technicoloured shades of Ube (a very bright purple #becauseyam) and Strawberry Basil.

Yes, ice cream these days are very wallpaper.

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Hundred Acre Creamery: More artisanal gelato and waffles

Address: 109 Clementi Street 11, #01-37

And around the corner from Burnt Cones, there's more artisanal hipster ice cream for adults.

Freshly made waffles and handcrafted gelato go hand in hand as well as Winnie the Pooh and Piglet do (as its name suggests, Hundred Acre Creamery has a Pooh Bear theme and they even sell merch with a honey bear mascot).

Gelato flavours include more orthodox-by-now ones like Roasted Pistachio, Yuzu and Rocher. But you can also do a blind taste test with flavours whose names don't say anything much about what you can expect on your tastebuds: Ocean Blue and Ca Phe.

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Olla Specialty Coffee: From mobile coffee kiosk to Clementi must-try

Address: 109 Clementi Street 11, #01-03

If you prefer having your waffles with a serious cup of coffee or tea, Olla down the "street" serves them with a SG twist.

Case in point: The Nanyang Kopi with crushed butter crackers and kaya sauce or the Milo Tak Q with condensed milk.

Then wash it all down with Olla's fragrant Matcha Latte, Masala Chai or Cold Brew Black. No need to go all the way to Orchard Road or Tanjong Pagar liao.

ALSO READ: 9 new heartland cafes for your next cafe-hopping trip

This article was first published in Wonderwall.sg.