In Singapore, everybody’s childhood favourite White Rabbit chews are getting a grown-up makeover. At cocktail bar and restaurant Jekyll & Hyde, the Matcha Meadows cocktail is a pretty fancy twist on the classic sweet, with a sophisticated mix of vodka, cognac and dry vermouth paired with white chocolate and White Rabbit matcha candy.

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Alternatively, explore the dark side of the bunny with a limited edition Black Rabbit Stout, a collaboration between the distributor of the White Rabbit candies – Hao Food – and The 1925 Brewing Co. This dusky pour with a creamy head carries notes of roasted malt, dark chocolate and caramel, with its milky sweetness tempered with just a dash of bitterness to make this an adults-only indulgence.

2. Cheetos macaron

3. Odette’s Jaffa Cake

Odette’s, a cosy neighbourhood spot, has been a fixture of London’s Primrose Hill area since 1978, offering simple yet refined Welsh cuisine. Funnily enough, the restaurant’s classic dessert – Odette’s Jaffa Cake – started as an attempt to recreate another British favourite: the chocolate and coconut Bounty bar. When that went to pot, chef Bryn Williams took the leftover chocolate and paired it with orange instead. Months of experimentation later, the classic cake was reborn, featuring just the right chocolate, day-old squeezed orange juice and a two-day-old biscuit base that together approximates the texture of the original bittersweet delight.

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4. Haw flakes cake

French pastry chef Dominique Ansel’s Childhood Memories collection for his Hong Kong-founded Dang Wen Li bakery chain features all manner of nostalgic treats. There is the bergamot/Earl Grey box drink inspired by Vita’s iconic lemon tea; a variant on Koala’s March cookies filled with hazelnut mousse; and a giant take on the chocolate-covered Muscat grape Meiji gummy.

But we love the twist on haw flakes, the mysteriously delicious coin-shaped treats given to children and adults alike as a chaser to bitter herbal tonics from your TCM doctor. This much enlarged version has hawthorn and raspberry mousse, Japanese souffle cheesecake and a lychee gelee, and is available in small or large sizes.

5. Core-teser dessert (Maltesers)

When your childhood favourite Maltesers gets a three-Michelin-star makeover at Core by Clare Smyth in London’s Notting Hill, it becomes the Core-teser: a hazelnut mousse with a milk chocolate casing, embellished with shards of malt that give you that signature Maltesers crunch-and-melt effect. Words do little justice to this elegant dessert, the final dish on Smyth’s Core Seasons menu, one of the two tasting menus and the one that showcases her more experimental creations. For the truly ambitious, the recipe for the Core-teser is available in the Core cookbook, published by Phaidon.

6. Wagashi

At Sendagi Tokyo, Japanese sweet treats – wagashi – are dreamed up using seasonal ingredients and great care, and paired with flavoured sake to bring out a harmony of flavours. Here, the dorayaki are made with fresh ingredients sourced directly from farmers, including red bean paste made from Hokkaido dainagon adzuki beans, and a variety of fruit confitures – the crowd favourite is the lemon jam. Snacks are also available for takeaway in souvenir boxes, as the shop is small and seats are limited.

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7. Seafood funnel cake

The funnel cake is a North American carnival classic that’s made by squeezing batter into a deep fryer to form a scribbly pancake shape, usually topped with powdered sugar.

At The Bazaar by José Andres in Washington DC, the Spanish celebrity chef serves a savoury version he calls the California funnel cake: made with seaweed and topped with avocado, blue crab, tobiko, mayo and cucumber.

This seafood-driven starter arrives on its own pedestal and can be scarfed down in a couple of bites, a tasty preview of the chef’s knack of turning traditional tropes on their head – see also the bagel and lox, and the po’ boy.