One Cake, Six Countries: A Valentine’s Day Creation
Gil Asakawa • February 1, 2026

With a name like The Enchanted Oven, you know this bakery must bake fairy-tale love into its creations. For Valentine’s Day, you can expect heart-shaped cookies and cakes from owner and baker Maki Stephens. 


At her Broomfield bakery near Flatirons Mall—where she proudly honors her Japanese culture—she is also planning a special cake for the lovers’ celebration. She hopes it will inspire love around the world – dare we say “world peace?”


Her Valentine’s Day cake, which needs to be preordered, will be a showcase of cakes that represent six different countries.


“I’ve made many cakes, not just Japanese cakes,” she says, noting that she gets the wildest requests and is “too stupid to say no.”


Some of those cakes were completely new to her, requiring research, comparing recipes, and experimenting before she went with her gut. Along the way, she discovered cakes from around the world, which inspired her Valentine’s Day vision. 


She’ll bake six cakes and cut them into six slices, then reassemble them into one global cake. The slices include Sans Rival (“without rival” in French), a cake from the Philippines that was one of the first unusual requests she baked, which is made with five layers of cashew meringue, each separated by rich French buttercream. 


Other slices include Esterházy Torta from Hungary, Opera Cake from France, Dubai-style Chocolate from the UAE, Black Forest from Germany, and representing Stephens’ Japanese roots—a Jiggly Cheesecake with apricot glaze.

Stephens started making pastries and cakes because her daughter Elissa fell in love with cream pan, custard-filled pastries popular in Japan. It took trial and error before she succeeded, but once she got it down for “Eh-chan,” Elissa’s nickname, Stephens found herself baking for family and friends, and friends of friends. With her husband Rod’s support, she left her jobs translating English to Japanese and working as a gymnastics dance choreographer to open the bakery—named after her daughter (“Eh-chan’s bakery,” get it?). In fact, The Enchanted Oven opened on Valentine’s Day in 2019.


She makes familiar baked goods including cakes, cookies, pastries and buns, but also serves up Japanese specialties, including Shokupan, or fluffy sweet Japanese milk bread that’s so essential to the magic in Japanese sandos, or sandwiches. And yes, she makes the popular egg salad sandwiches, tamago sandos, that 7-Eleven just started selling in Colorado (hers are better).


The Enchanted Oven also sells the Cream Pans that inspired Stephens’ baking, Hawaiian Butter Mochi cake, and Nikkuman, or hot pork buns. Beyond baked goods, their weekly emails promote a Bento Box special dish that customers can preorder and pick up. After Thanksgiving, Stephens took orders for Osechi Ryori, a boxed set of traditional Japanese dishes for Oshougatsu, or New Year’s, with symbolic foods for good luck, good health, prosperity and long life. 


The Enchanted Oven reflects a commitment to Japanese culture, quality of food, and thoughtful service—values that are deeply ingrained in Maki Stephens’ heart. It’s a treasure of a shop, and her long-term goals for the bakery involve adding a separate area where she can teach small cooking classes. Sign us up!

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