By Kathleen Mest

Photos by Monique Kuhlman

Last year’s *LB908 March Madness: Sweet Tooth Edition brought a sweet victory to Simone’s Donuts. A favorite of ours for many years and obviously for many others in the community. How many of us have brought a box of donuts to work, grabbed a ham & cheese croissant or a midnight treat? Raise your hand!

But to find out what the most popular sweet treats are, I asked each of our LB908 March Madness “Sweet Sixteen” top finalists, “What’s your most popular sweet treat?” and here’s what they said...

Afters Ice Cream

5708 E. 7th St, 90803

Without hesitation, they answered, “Our most popular flavors are cookie butter, jasmine milk tea, and Cookie Monster.” Independently owned and operated, Afters is famous for handcrafted ice cream focused on emerging food trends. They have 24 rotating flavors,17 toppings, and serve floats, ice cream bars, milkshakes and sundaes. I had the jasmine milk tea which was deliciously floral, subtle, creamy, and mellow.

Bake n’ Broil

3697 Atlantic Ave, 90807

I visited with an “insider” friend, a former employee of 9 years. An employee favorite is Sour Cream Chocolate Chip Cake with an extra side of homemade whipped cream. But TBH, EVERYTHING is delicious. The bakery menu is different every day. I’ve ordered the German Apple Cake for birthdays (a few times!) German Chocolate and Carrot Cake are very popular. My friend loves the Lemon Cream pie with “the best crust in the city.”

Cinnaholic Long Beach

5305 2nd St, Suite 103, 90803

Their claim to fame is their made-to-order custom cinnamon rolls. Make your own or choose from six signature rolls including favorites, Cookie Monster and Very Berry. Step 1: Choose your frosting from 13 flavors. Step 2: Choose from 24 toppings. All freshly made and freshly garnished, they are decadent.

Colossus

4716 2nd St, 90803

Freshly made daily, no contest for most popular is their Kouign Amann pastry, described as “caramelized outside with a gooey middle.” It’s airy, lightly sweet with a vanilla interior. And don’t be a fool, grab a coffee and sourdough bread while you’re there.

Frosted Cupcakery

4817 2nd St, 90803

Known for their variety of freshly baked cupcakes, the tried-and-true Chocolate Chocolate Buttercream and the Strawberry Cream Cheese are favorites. But did you know that there are real strawberries baked in the cake and mixed into the cream cheese frosting? Now, that is special.

Gemmae Bake Shop

1356 W. Willow St, 90810

Bixby Knolls location - coming soon!

Gemmae is best known for their ube desserts, not surprisingly because they use real ube that is imported from the Philippines instead of powders or extracts. The owner created their best-selling Ube Banana Cream Pie after having a dream about it! The ube balances perfectly with the fresh bananas and made-from-scratch graham cracker crust.

Handel’s Ice Cream-Long Beach

4201 McGowen St, Suite 200, 90808

Independently owned and operated, Handel’s is known for delicious ice cream made fresh in-house every day. And you don’t have to choose just one flavor, when you can have the 4 Scoop Sampler. Four generous scoops of your choice of four different flavors. A perfect option to share… or not.

Knead Donuts & Tea

3490 E. 7th St, 90804

5105 Pacific Coast Hwy, 90804

2160 E. Willow St, Signal Hill, 90755

This donut shop has been growing in the last few years! I had their popular Strawberry Shortcake doughnut and Red Velvet Tiger Tail. The Strawberry Shortcake is dressed like its namesake ice cream bar filled with strawberry jelly. But it was the Red Velvet Tiger Tail that delighted me - simple, moist and lightly sweet.

Long Beach Creamery

4141 Long Beach Blvd, 90807

222 E. Broadway, 90802

We love this shop for its unique crafted flavors and seasonal offerings. But it’s Saltine Dream and slice of Buttercake for the win. Each spoonful of ice cream is a dream, with homemade caramel coated crackers in each bite. And the cake is moist, sweet, buttery goodness.

Moonbridge Doughnut Studio

6344 E. Spring St, 90815

These donuts look as amazing as they taste. Two bestsellers are Vietnamese Coffee Doughnut and Apple Fritter. The doughnut uses espresso shots for the icing from Stereoscope beans, balanced with sweetened condensed milk. The Apple Fritters have everything: apple chunks, spice, crunchy texture balanced with pillowy parts. They come dressed in different icings such as Maple, Salted Citrus, Blueberry Spice, and of course Glaze.

Rossmoor Pastries

2325 Redondo Ave, Signal Hill, 90755

Famous for their wedding cakes, Rossmoor Pastries also has a great grab-and-go (or sit-in) shop. One of their top sellers is the California Sunset cupcake - a vanilla cupcake with lemon raspberry filling, white chocolate topping and firm, moist white cake.

Saints and Sinners Bakeshop

595 Pine Ave, 90802

This bakery specializes in custom baked treats of all kinds. But their shop is also a full-service coffee shop that serves 6-8 different scones along with breakfast sandwiches and other treats. We grabbed the popular coffee cake scone (I got the last one), and since they came fresh out of the oven, the oatmeal creme pie cookie. The scone had a nice flaky exterior and soft center, and you can’t go wrong with fresh cookies.

Seaside Creamery

1785 Palo Verde Ave, Suite H, 90815

Their sweet treat is handcrafted frozen custard where each batch is made in small quantities to keep every scoop rich, creamy, and full of joy. One of the favorites is The Instigator, infused with CoffeeDrunk espresso and sweetened with maple syrup and brown sugar. It’s rich and smooth - like having The Instigator latte in dessert form.

Simone’s Donuts

6400 E. Stearns St, 90815

***Winner of LB908's March "Sweet Tooth" Madness 2025***

It’s cronuts and apple fritters 24/7 at Simone’s. And don’t forget, the blueberry cake donut, the reason I tried Simone’s for the first time. A staple in our community, we can always find freshly made traditional donut: old-fashion's, bars, twists, crullers, etc. And don’t forget about Melissa’s custom donuts. If you know, you know.

Sweet Jill’s

5001 E. 2nd St, 90803

440 per day. Over 800 per day during holidays. Guess what treat is pulling these numbers? Yes, it’s Sweet Jill’s cinnamon rolls - moist and gooey, with or without walnuts. And they actually do have a large variety of OTHER sweet items. For over 37 years, everything has been made in-store and all the recipes are from Jill, herself.

The Merchant

4121 Long Beach Blvd, 90807

Come early to get the best sellers, handmade apple or guava croissants, before they sell out! The shop offers made-from-scratch seasonal treats. And as one customer shared, “My favorite? I don’t know, they are all delicious!” Grab a vanilla honey oat latte to sip with your treat, and take a seat under their patio umbrellas for a lovely morning experience.

*LB908 March Madness

March Madness is a fun, friendly, bracket-style competition we host on our LB908 Instagram each year around the same time as the nationally-famous college basketball “March Madness” takes place! Each year we start with at least 64 local businesses in a given category and our followers vote on who should move forward each round! Past winners include George’s Greek Cafe and The Eldo (March “Restaurant” Madness), Joe Jost’s (March “Bar” Madness), and last year - Simone’s Donuts (March “Sweet Tooth” Madness)! See the rest of the top 16 Sweet Shops from last year’s competition in this article!

The March Madness 2026 theme is (drum roll)… PIZZA! Calling all pizza nominations! Let us know which LOCAL and SMALL BIZ restaurants make your favorite pizza. Send your nominations to office@lb908.com by February 14th! Top nominations will be included in our March Madness 2026: Pizza Edition.