When I first started visiting the beautiful seaside town of Forster on the New South Wales Barrington Coast in the 1990s, there was a bakery in the middle of the village. There was a permanent queue to buy their baked goods. And it was all good too. Breads, sweets and pies, all delicious. Sadly, it closed, probably due to the competition that the shops on the main street faced from the nearby Stockland Mall when it expanded. Everyone shopped at Stockland since it had a Woolworths, Coles and Aldi as well as anything else you might need when you’re on holiday.

The good news is that a new bakery has opened near to where the original bakery was in the village centre. It’s called Palms Artisan Bakery. It’s has more up-to-date baked items there, like sourdough bread and pastries that you never would have seen at the old bakery.

And wouldn’t you know it, they have donuts.

The choice they had when I went in was either Pistachio Cream or Peanut Butter Cream. I went with the Pistachio Cream.

It was unbelievably good.

It was lovely and fresh with soft and chewy dough. It had a heavy coating of sugar – perhaps more than necessary. But what made it special was the cream filling. Simply amazing.

It was mildly pistachio flavoured and was light and delicious. I don’t even particularly like cream, but this was good. And there was loads of it. Have a look at the photo I took when I tore it open. Mountains of filling.

The service was excellent too. Although having said that, I went back the following day and there was a completely different team of people working there. They took an absolute age to make my coffee (about 15 minutes for a flat white and they certainly weren’t in a rush going about it), and when I got it, it wasn’t hot enough. Damn. A good place one day, ordinary the next.

But if you’re in the area and want a great doughnut, remember this place.

Palms Artisan Bakery