Recipe for Success at Wildflour Bakery

This chef duo is working with all the right ingredients

In just one year, owners Tom and Heather Goodman have earned the 2024-2025 Trailblazer Award for business leadership from the Cadillac Area Visitor’s Bureau, plus a place on MyNorth.com’s 2025 Red Hot Best Bakery for their region. Their business, Wildflour Bakery, is billed as a “modern, fusion style cafe” with great teas—from the traditional cuppa (served with cute hourglass timers for the perfect steep) to authentic boba milk teas and bubble teas—and Viennese coffees, alongside Heather’s eye-popping array of pastries and sweets.

That seems to be the way the Goodmans roll, and it’s just part of their recipe for success: Think warmth, enthusiasm, curiosity, vision, integrity, and lots of love. “We do happy,” says Heather, and we’re happy just thinking about this place.

Learning from the Best to Make the Best

Heather is a self-taught home baker, and she began her journey with the world’s most difficult cookie recipe: the French macaron, requiring precision at every level: measuring, temperature, humidity, and even the special method for folding the mixture together, macronage.

She followed with “full immersion” into the baking world, with six months of pastry training at California’s International Culinary Center, and then four months in Las Vegas working with world-renowned pastry chef and chocolatier Chef Amaury Guichon.

Tom Goodman, after retiring from AT&T, also attended the International Culinary Center, specializing in authentic Italian cooking, followed by a year of study in Italy with Michelin Chef Paolo Teverini in Bagno di Romagna, southeast of Bologna. There, he perfected his skills in handmade pasta, sauces, and the art of combining rustic Italian flavors with elevated technique. (Now you know why Wildflour Bakery is garnering awards and accolades.)

Everything is house made, and the Goodmans source their ingredients from near and far, just as long as they are the best. Local fruits and vegetables are a given, whenever possible, as are products from top-tier vendors. Some of the components come right from the source: French butter with 85 percent butterfat, and flours and olive oil from Italy. Add a state-certified reverse osmosis (RO) water system for the kitchen and the front of the house, and you can be sure that nothing interferes with creating the best flavors possible.

Wildflour has a sit-down-and-stay-a-while ambiance, as cozy and assured as a European café, with hand-chosen décor and comfy upholstered seating. (It’s the alternative to industrial chic.)

Walls are covered with Heather’s free form Sharpie murals, and Tom designed the engaging wall clock featuring cups and saucers marking the hours. He also turned Heather’s rolling pin collection into a unique hanging feature and built the immense calendar rack on one wall inviting patrons to pen aspirational notes to themselves, a friend, or loved one, which the Wildflour folks will mail on the desired date.

“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart,” Heather says, quoting Wordsworth.

Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

When you arrive, expect cookies, muffins, pies, and every iteration of American and international favorite, but Heather Goodman likes to “play with flavors,” so while you can choose a traditional scone with Devonshire cream, you might also try one with a flavor combo, like strawberry/rhubarb, strawberry/orange, or raspberry with lemon drizzle.

In that same vein, enjoy a traditional brownie, or choose Heather’s Milky Way or Trail Mix versions. French croissants come plain or flavored, with strawberry, chocolate, peach, almonds, and more. Bread Pudding gets a fancy update with chocolate, doughnuts, and croissant. There’s also the lemon and glazed doughnut version, or—this sounds incredible—a sweet potato/croissant blend.

Guests often opt for the filled-to-order cannoli, and Wildflour’s ½ and ½ version comes with pistachios on one end and chocolate chips on the other, so you don’t have to choose.

Heather’s favorite creations in the bakery are “multi-level, multi-layered, high-end desserts.” So, get a load of these ingredients: Start with a traditional Italian Olive Oil Cake, a light, moist confection with olive oil and lemon, topped with super creamy olive oil ice cream. But wait, there’s more, and this is where we enter the sublime: Add candied black olives—olives are a fruit, after all—which yield a chewy texture with a sweet and salty flavor. Goodman tops this with her own white chocolate powder and finishes the flavor profile with a pipette (aka flavor injector) of sweet balsamic reduction to drizzle on top.

Tom Goodman’s delicious breakfast, lunch, and dinner items fill out the rest of the space. Fresh salads, sandwiches, and wraps are available every day.

Perfectly formed individual quiches are encased in a deep crust, and Tom’s rich and creamy Chicken Pot Pie delivers a bite of tender crust with every bite. Patrons love the meaty Italian Muffaletta, with cheese and savory olive blend and the Roast Beef and Turkey on a croissant with Horsey Sauce.

Soups range from Tomato Bisque to Mushroom and Sausage and everything in between. (Add a Mac and Cheese puck if you choose.) Fresh pasta bowls and pasta salads get their inspiration directly from Tom’s Italian experience.

The Future Looks Sweet

Head to Facebook (facebook.com/wildflourbakerymichigan) to keep track of upcoming events, including pasta making classes, high tea, tasting dinners, entertainment, and fundraisers like their Cookies for a Cause partnership with local charities and boards. A beer and wine license is planned for the future.

And look out: Wildflour Bakery has leased the space next door! The space is still in the planning stages, but Goodman says that it will be “food related.” And don’t forget Willdflour’s gorgeous cakes and catering for your weddings, special events, and private parties.

Find Wildflour Bakery at 105 S. Mitchell St., Cadillac. (231) 444-6400; wildflourcadillac.com

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