Paalaa Kai is one of those bakeries with one superstar product. Don’t let the other goods in the case distract you — just order the snow puffy, a puff pastry almost as light as cotton candy, layered with cold custard and topped with a squiggle of chocolate ganache and a dusting of powdered sugar. Eat it cold for the best textural contrast.

The one thing you must not miss at this Filipino bakery, an import from California, is the ube cheese pandesal. Crunchy breadcrumbs just on the verge of burnt coat the outside of the fluffy vibrant-purple bun, which gives way to a cream cheese center. Other bakeries offer their own versions, but none comes close to Valerio’s.

Some of O‘ahu’s best cakes come from inside a bowling alley. The hits at the Alley Restaurant include lemon crunch cake and two styles of chocolate cake: the light Mama Miya’s version with chocolate chiffon and chocolate mousse, and the decadent Chocolate Insanity, six layers of rich cake and frosting. Chef Shane Masutani used to work at Diamond Head Market & Grill, so you’ll find some similar sweets, but Alley provides enough unique offerings to make it worth a separate trip.

Five years ago, Liliha Bakery introduced poi mochi donuts, fluffy yet chewy rings that now (almost) rival the shop’s decades-long best-seller, coco puffs — cream puffs filled with chocolate pudding and topped with chantilly frosting. Liliha also offers a cross section of Hawai‘i’s favorite traditional bakery items, including ensaimadas, doughnuts, and filled malassadas.

Artizen, a bakery and cafe from the wife-and-husband team Michelle Karr Ueoka and Wade Ueoka of MW Restaurant, recently moved to new digs in a luxury car showroom. Whether you’re in the market for a new flashy car or not, definitely make a stop at Artizen’s pastry case, where a frequently changing array of cakes includes Michelle’s riffs on local favorite sweets, such as a strawberry Jell-O chiffon cake and nostalgic tricolor rainbow cake. Don’t miss the chocolate buttermilk cake.

Here you’ll find Japanese cakes, airy, delicate, and less sweet than their Western counterparts. Best-sellers include the quintessential Japanese strawberry shortcake — layers of sponge cake, whipped cream, fresh strawberries — and Mont Blanc, a chestnut-whipped-cream dome over a center of chestnut paste atop an almond sponge cake. But one cannot live on cake alone. The croissant sandwiches and jelly drinks are also terrific.

At this Japanese dessert shop, you’ll find the best strawberry roll in town — a sponge cake rolled around a whipped-cream cloud and fresh strawberries. It’s so light that one slice is barely enough — best to just get the whole roll. While La Palme D’Or may be superior for some classic sweets, Kulu Kulu offers more novel desserts. The playful “loco moco,” for example, looks just like a mini version of the iconic Hawai‘i dish, with a cream puff as the hamburger patty, caramel sauce for the gravy, and mango jelly and whipped cream shaped into a sunny-side-up egg.

This cafe in Waikiki’s International Marketplace is also an outpost of B. Patisserie, the San Francisco bakery that helped make kouign amann famous in the U.S. Find the layered, caramelized sugar pastry in flavors including black sesame, as well as a liliko‘i bostock and a decadent chocolate-banana-almond croissant.

Diamond Head Market is one of Honolulu’s most beloved bakeries. Locals come here for the blueberry cream cheese scones (more like muffin tops) and lemon crunch cake, another dessert Hawai‘i has popularized and made its own. To create the latter, soft cake is layered with lemon curd and topped with crushed toffee bits, making for contrast in textures and sweet-tart flavors.

Owner Chris Sy, who was singled out in the Alinea cookbook for his dedication and perfectionism when he worked with Grant Achatz at Trio, applies that same focus to breads and pastries at Breadshop. In addition to a classic lineup of country breads and croissants, he also subtly folds Hawai‘i flavors into some of his burnished carbs, in items like furikake focaccia or a croissant with spinach and taegu (candied codfish). Pastries are available in boxed assortments, but during the pandemic, all orders must be placed in advance online.

Hawai‘i’s local fruits are an unfortunate rarity in Honolulu bakeries. Harley Tunac wants to change that. She and her fiance, Jason Chow, a butcher and Eater Young Gun, met at the now-shuttered Aina in San Francisco and returned home to Honolulu at the end of 2019 to start a butcher shop and bakery. The pandemic altered those plans, and now the two sell meat and pastries out of Kaimuki Superette on Sundays. Chow’s products find their way into Tunac’s savory treats, such as in a Kualoa Ranch ham and cheddar pastry and a house-made pork floss and scallion Danish. Check Instagram for the weekly menu, which might include Manoa Chocolate croissants, kumquat doughnut twists, or pirie mango buns.

At this neighborhood gem in Kailua, the green-flecked spinach shokupan (square, soft Japanese sandwich bread) is the first to sell out by early morning. The other get-it-if-you-can item at this family-run bakery is the mochi an pan, a baked bun filled with sweetened azuki paste and chewy mochi. If you prefer savory treats, try the salmon and spinach roll topped with cheese.