BROOMFIELD • Maki Fairbanks finally got to sit down at her bakery, but now she rises to address a discrepancy in a cake order. Something about the icing. Not a big deal, the customer insists. But Fairbanks is ashamed, a cursed perfectionist.

Her daughter stops her. “I got it,” assures Elissa, 23.

Fairbanks smiles and looks on, ever the proud mother here at the Enchanted Oven.

The name comes from a nickname Elissa had back in Japan. “E-chan” is the pronunciation, Fairbanks explains, roughly translating to “dear one,” as baby Elissa was to her mother and grandmother in their native country.

As Fairbanks contemplated what to call the business that opened in 2019 in this Denver suburb, “enchanted” sounded similar to the nickname.

“And to me, this is Elissa’s oven,” Fairbanks says.

Elissa was the inspiration for the goodies that fly out of the store today. You’d be wise to arrive before noon.

The particular cakes and pastries have become favorites for a particular customer base. It is an Asian base thrilled to find the delights of their faraway home here in Colorado — the likes of strawberry vanilla cake, jiggly cheesecake and milk bread — and a growing base of Americans discovering tastes not as decadent as they’ve come to expect in their desserts.

It seems expectations have led to some negative reviews. Those are the ones that stay with Fairbanks, not the many, many more positive ones.

She aims to please — sometimes to a fault, Elissa says. It’s sometimes tough, “just watching some of the misery,” she says. “She loves making people happy, and that’s what keeps her going.”

She keeps coming in the middle of the night to start baking. The process is a science of time, low temperatures and certain measurements, and there are only so many hours for Fairbanks alone to produce. This explains the inventory that might lack late in the afternoon, combined with her refusal to freeze anything and rely on other bakers.

Fairbanks admits she struggles with training. “I have a hard time being direct,” she says.

She has a hard time putting out products that aren’t quite right. The custard bun, for example. It represents the subtle flavor and softness that are hallmarks to Japanese baking, “like a fluffy cloud,” Fairbanks says.

The custard bun also represents her initial foray into baking. As she worked as a translator traveling between Japan and Colorado, taking her little girl along, Elissa came to love those custard buns. She couldn’t find them back in America, so her mom went to work.

“We didn’t have a (mixing) machine, so when she would make the dough, she would have to slam it on the table over and over and over again,” Elissa says. “She was doing that so much her hand went numb.”

Fairbanks persisted, like her mom before her. She calls her “a super mom,” a consummate caregiver proficient in the kitchen. Fairbanks inherited the cooking talent behind Enchanted Oven’s lunch specialties, the irresistible curry and pork buns.

The family was poor for a time. “Still, my mom was such a good cook, I don’t feel like I suffered that much,” Fairbanks says.

Similarly, baking was a comfort.

What started as a way to spoil her daughter became a passion to spoil others; friends and friends of friends started ordering ornate cakes they saw pictured on Facebook. And in the middle of a divorce, “it was very therapeutic,” Fairbanks says. “It gave me time to be away from the chaos that was going on.”

She funneled herself, too, into her daughter’s competitive ice skating, coaching her with that perfectionist eye.

“When I quit skating, for like two or three years there, we had a really, really rough relationship,” Elissa says, sitting with her mom now at the bakery. “I think you were really afraid of our relationship disappearing because we built so much of our foundation on skating.”

Then the Enchanted Oven came along. They were back in the kitchen again, back to making those custard buns.

There were long, hard days and nights. But they laugh thinking about it now.

“I feel like baking brought us really close together,” Elissa says.

Enchanted Oven’s a la carte cakes ($7 per slice) vary day to day and can be quick to sell out.

Owner and baker Maki Fairbanks aims to keep classics from her native Japan: strawberry vanilla and jiggly cheesecake. Other recent choices were coconut mango and chestnut cream. American familiarities at last check: chocolate and raspberry mousse, tiramisu and New York-style cheesecake.

Fluffy, flaky croissants ($3-$5) occupy another portion of the menu. The almond variety is a favorite, with plain and chocolate also available until sold out. The puff pastries are rounds of dough and custard topped with fruits. Mochi doughnuts have proven popular, as have the macarons.

Don’t overlook the savory offerings. The curry buns boast a medley of spices packed between a soft bread that’s coated with panko and fried. The pork buns are packed with seasoned meat, dried shiitake mushrooms, green onions and ginger. Another bun is stuffed with pork belly that stews overnight.