Regional towns and retro bakeries go hand in hand. How else are you going to spill icing sugar and pastry flakes all down your front on a road trip, anyway? Pull into the Cessnock shopfront and the counters are stocked with Aussie classics, from apple turnovers filled to bursting, to towering vanilla slices filled with custard and white-as-snow cream and capped with perfectly piped cream and caramel.

The pies are not to be missed either, especially the steak diane and the chilli mango chicken, if it’s on. “Pies to pastry and everything tasty” reads the sign underneath the cartoon mascot. And while your mother might have said never to trust the words of a cartoon pie eating a smaller pie, in this case, it’s absolutely right.