Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporter Zhang Dongmei) news: After stirring the egg mixture, pouring the flour, and squeezing the cream, exquisite cakes have gradually taken shape in front of the customers. A while later, Adila Kurban has made classic hand-torn bread, mousse cakes, and ice cream cakes.

In the Mailikai dessert shop located in the Shiqihu Community of Saimachang Street in Urumqi City, a whiff of sweet milk waftes by, and the shop's simple and elegant decorations invite customers to relax and enjoy delicious desserts.

Adila and her husband, Akim Tursun, jointly operate this small 50-square-meter shop. With unique and delicious flavors and great ingredients, the small shop has attracted many customers since its opening more than two years ago.

"Sweet pastries not only helped us realize our dream to start our own business, but also made our lives better," Akim said.

In 2020, after the children started their school lives, Adila had more free time. With her interest in baking, she signed up for a training class of six months and learned baking techniques.

She started baking at home and later often gave her pastries and bread to the neighbors to taste. All of them praised the cakes and pastries she made. "Your skills are so good, you could open a shop," a neighbor commented. It sparked Adila's idea to open a shop, and Akim was very supportive.

In order to quickly find a suitable storefront, they asked the community for help. When the community leaders learned about their entrepreneurial intentions, they quickly helped the couple find a storefront at the entrance of their community. And with the help of the community, they applied for a petty loan of 80,000 yuan (about 11159.16 U.S. dollars) from the bank.

When everything was ready, Akim renovated the dessert shop himself, putting up wallpapers and decorations and buying equipment. In May 2021, the dessert shop opened, and they gave it a nice name: Mailikai Dessert Shop. "The name of the shop came from the names of our two daughters, meaning princess," Akim said.

Business in the dessert shop has been good since its opening. Seeing how busy Adila was, Akim left his job as a taxi driver and started to help his wife run the shop.

With the help of his wife, Akim quickly learned to bake. Later, he signed up through the community and attended free annual skills training classes organized by the human resources and social security department. Nowadays, he can make over 200 types of pastries, with over 100 being the main focus.

Every morning, Akim arrives at the shop early. After cleaning up the shop, the couple starts making a variety of pastries. The freshly baked bread neatly arranged on the tray is quickly picked up by customers within a few hours.

In his personal life, Akim is also a dedicated person. Whenever he has free time, he browses cake-related websites, enriches his knowledge, and improves his skills. When he sees a new trendy cake, he carefully studies and learns about it. In cake making, Akim and his wife are now learning to make the "internet-famous styles" while also focusing on customized cake series, which have been loved by many young customers.

Today, around the dessert shop, there are also sewing shops, vegetable stores, fruit shops, barbecue restaurants, and fast food restaurants, and foot traffic is increasing. In order to boost business for the merchants, the community has opened a parking lot nearby to make it convenient for customers to park.

On January 8, 2024, Wang Ao, deputy secretary of the Shiqihu Community working committee of Saimachang Street, and several community leaders visited the dessert shop. They planned to help the dessert shop expand its influence through Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok. "You should add new types of pastries, expand the store, and promote pastries to supermarkets..." Seeing the community leaders helping them in this way, Akim also expressed his own ideas.

"Although we have encountered many problems in the process of running the shop, with the support of the community and the support of our neighbors, we are confident that we can do better," Akim said. He now spends every day baking delicious pastries with care, making life sweeter.