Moustache Bakery in Healdsburg

You know how when you look up to somebody you instantly take everything they say to heart? Like if you have a football coach who played in the NFL everything they say sticks to you like glue. It's kind of like when you're a kid and you really look up to one of your parents, aunts, or grandparents and everything they say, every word of advice you remember and apply it to the rest of your life. Sounds dramatic but we all know it happens. That's how I felt about my Pastry and Baking teacher.

I was afraid for that class because I had heard nothing about my teacher. I had no idea what she looked like or how she taught whereas I had taken my other teachers classes twice before so I was comfortable. I don't know why but I expected this really strict and serious chef and I was scared for class to start. However, the second I met my teacher I instantly liked her. She reminded me of my Aunt Jodi, she was fun, loud, confident and intimidating at times. And she laughed like my Aunt Mickie, it instantly made you laugh even though you had no idea what was going on. You could tell how much my teacher loved what she did and how she all wanted us to love it too. She would always say she was worried about us getting bored in class, which was impossible. And whenever she made a remark about a book, a restaurant, a person, a food type, anything I was all ears. If she liked it, then it was amazing. So when she said Moustache Bakery had the best cupcakes I knew I had to go there.

First off, it took us forever to find the place. And by us I mean my boyfriend Joe and myself. After looking for 10 minutes and walking the wrong way and then being on the wrong side of the street we finally found it. It was freezing outside but once we stepped into the bakery we were hit with cozy warmth and an inviting atmosphere. I feel like most cupcake places try to be girly and fancy but this place was the opposite. I think rustic is a nice word for it. They kept it simple, which we like. They had cupcakes, macaroons, ice cream sandwiches, caramels and cookie sandwiches. And they also made hot drinks like hot chocolate, mochas and lattes. The hardest part was choosing what to get.

Joe thought we were going to share a cupcake and a macaroon. I knew the second we walked in I wasn't going to share, sorry Joe. I was deciding between their lemon cupcake, The Miller, which was a lemon olive oil cake with lemon curd filling and lemon frosting and their vanilla cupcake, The Misses. But I felt like the lemon was calling my name and I could just get the vanilla the next time. Joe thought the peanut butter cupcake, The Sheriff, which was a peanut butter cake, jam filling and peanut butter frosting sounded interesting but he ended up choosing The Outlaw. I'm kind of drooling thinking about it. I should be embarrassed but it was too dang delicious. The Outlaw is a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting and a caramel filling and sea salt topping. Still drooling. And then for macaroons they had four flavors: pistachio, chocolate caramel, ginger, and passionfruit. Our soda that we had at lunch had ginger so I axed that option immediately. I've never had passionfruit and wasn't feeling it so we ended up with a pistachio and chocolate caramel macaroon.

I am obsessed with The Outlaw cupcake. Wow. I love anything lemon but the second I took a bite of that cupcake I was hooked. The cake was so chocolatey and moist, almost like a flour less chocolate cake. It had that silky texture that could just melt in your mouth. And the filling was the perfect amount of dark, luscious caramel. The chocolate frosting was smooth and had curled chocolate and the perfect amount of sea salt on top. I was worried the salt was going to be too much but the second I bit into it I knew it was combined perfectly. Joe thought the salt on the chocolate balanced out all of the sweetness. I believe chocolate and caramel were a match made in culinary heaven.

Even though Joe chose the chocolate cupcake, he really liked The Misses. Really liked as in that was his favorite. Usually he chooses something better than I do too. I don't know if he believes that but I do. I would say eight out of ten times I like what he orders better unless its something I can't eat or refuse to eat. Anyways, Joe thought the lemon cupcake was more like a huge piece of cake. The cake part itself had the stability of a great piece of cake. You couldn't even taste the olive oil, maybe that was the oil they used instead of butter. I should've asked. Oh well. The lemon curd filling was fantastic too. It wasn't sour or oozing out it was perfect. I loved the lemon frosting as well. It was all perfectly balanced. Each bite we took we found more things to love about the cupcake. It just kept getting better and better the more we ate. I'm picky about cupcakes too. Far too often I come across cupcakes which are overpowered with frosting. its like 30% cake 70% frosting. It is ridiculous. But these cupcakes were outstanding. My teacher was absolutely right. This is a place I would definitely return to.



Onto the macaroons! You'd think that after eating lunch and sharing two cupcakes we would be too full for anything else but we had to try the macaroons. Joe really wanted the pistachio and I'm not the biggest pistachio dessert fan so I wanted the chocolate caramel macaroon. These macaroons were huge too! At least I thought so. The chocolate caramel one was a chocolate shell with I believe chocolate ganache and some of the same caramel that was in The Sheriff and the pistachio had chopped pistachios on top and a pistachio filling. I think we had both had too much chocolate so the chocolate caramel macaroon was a bit over kill. But the shell and the fillings all combined nicely. You could really taste each component of the cookie. There was the perfect amount of ganache and caramel and they cookies weren't overfilled or under filled. Same for the pistachio. The almond shell combined with the pistachio filling and the extra crunch from the chopped pistachio was amazing. That one was my favorite; once again Joe chooses the perfect item on the menu.

Now that I'm back home I just wish I had gotten a box of macaroons to drool over. Overall I thought this place and their products were fabulous. Sometimes when you're in a touristy area like Sonoma County, you find yourself overpaying for things. Kind of like if you were to buy a water from Disneyland or the 7-11 right outside 7-11, they're the exact same but ones more expensive because of your location. This wasn't a factor at Moustache Bakery. The macaroons were $2 each which makes sense if you've ever made them before; they're extremely difficult to make. The cupcakes $3.50 I think, Joe paid so I'm not sure. And I didn't look at any other items and their prices either. I really loved the environment in the store. There was a chalkboard showing where they get their ingredients across Northern California so you knew funky stuff from who knows where wasn't being shipped in. And you could taste how much time and effort was put into the products. By that I mean you could tell that the cakes weren't made in some huge batch and they weren't 2 days old. You could tell whoever made this store and whoever bakes everything demand and make quality food. Everything tasted fresh and everything was delicious. It is extremely difficult nowadays to find a bakery thats not apart of a Safeway or Costco that has quality products. I'm so happy that I listened to my teacher and that Joe and I took the drive out to Healdsburg to try these delicious treats.