Fatima Hodzic never planned to open a bakery, but it had been a quiet dream for decades.
Fatima grew up in Bosnia, the child of a father who died in the war. She and her mom were close, and spent time together baking to feed the family. They made breads and sweets, but what they baked the most was burek, a savory pastry of rolled phyllo dough filled with cheese, spinach, or meat.
“When you bake bread, you need other things. But when you bake burek, you have a meal,” Fatima says.
Even on breaks from high school, two hours away from her home, she came home and baked with her mother.
“I had dreams in Bosnia. I always said to my husband, ‘I wish I could open a bakery one day.’”
That dream didn’t seem practical. She was on a track in academia, getting a degree in Islamic studies at a university in the United Kingdom. After she returned to Bosnia as a professor of Islamic Theology, there were no jobs.
“In Bosnia, it’s still not a perfect situation. Even if you have college, it doesn’t mean you’ll get a really good job. My husband applied for a job [in the states], and he got it,” Fatima says. “We left everything. I was pregnant. We left everybody.”
Fatima’s family arrived in Kansas City after living in Jacksonville for two years for her husband’s job. He’s a imam at the Bosnian Islamic Center, and an opportunity to leave the oppressive Floridian heat and humidity was welcome.
Fatima’s husband, Senaid, opened European Corner Store, a shop specializing in imported European goods, just months before the pandemic hit. The store was struggling, and Fatima wanted to find a second stream of income that allowed her to be at home with her family.
“I could find a job, but I couldn’t leave my kids,” says Fatima. “I would work to pay for daycare for what? Then I wouldn’t know my kids. I wanted to be home. I want my kids to be happy.”
Returning to the dreams of her youth, she opened an in-home bakery in 2020. She specialized in Bosnian sweets, but was voraciously learning new things.
“YouTube helped me a lot,” says Fatima. “When I just started to decorate cakes, I didn’t know how. I watched so many videos. My goal was to never say, ‘I cannot do this, I cannot make this’. I never say, ‘I don’t know.’ I search, I try, I fail, I do again, but I make it. Sometimes I need hours. That’s what people don’t see behind the scenes.”
When the owner of the land European Corner Store occupied in Avondale told Fatima and Senaid he was ready to sell the space, Senaid encouraged her to open her bakery. His store would move into the larger of the two buildings on the property, with her bakery in the other.
“I had so many customers [from the home bakery] who said ‘Okay, now open something’, but I was scared,” Fatima confesses.
Burek and Cake’s doors opened November of 2022, following months of preparation. Fatima and Senaid did all of the work themselves to transform the space into a bakery. They painted the store blue and yellow, the colors of the Bosnian flag, to make it feel more like home.
On the first day, Fatima’s existing customers rushed to support her new venture. It’s been busy ever since. In the nearly two years since Burek and Cake opened their doors, she’s hired more bakers to train, and they too have become family.
Fatima utilizes the European imports from her husband’s store to ensure the treats are as authentic.
“If it’s a traditional Bosnian cake, I want the ingredients to be right,” says Fatima. “I will make it traditionally.”
Burek and Cake is full of those traditional Bosnian baked goods, like baklava and hurmašica, a shortbread with walnuts soaked in a flavorful syrup. Paired with Bosnian coffee, a strong brew prepared with traditional pots and cups Fatima brought from home, these pastries sing. The sweet, sticky treats provide a needed balance to the earthy coffee. They practically beg to be lingered over at the small table inside or in the outdoor courtyard, with friends and conversation.
Fatima has come up with plenty of her own creations, too. After customers told her they couldn’t try her tiramisu due to their dislike of coffee or sensitivity to caffeine, she created a strawberry version. The ladyfingers are soaked in strawberry juice and layered with homemade strawberry jam and the same rich cream she makes for her traditional tiramisu. It’s become one item the bakery always has available.
Burek and Cake’s cases are filled with enticing cakes and pastries of all shapes and sizes. While Fatima always has baklava, tiramisu, burek, and cream puffs, she likes to rotate her offerings based on what she is inspired by.
Through the bakery, Fatima has created a community and found a home. She stops to make conversation with regular customers and guides new ones through her pastries. The energy is palpable the moment you walk in the door. She makes everyone feel like family.
“Every beginning is hard, but we survived,” Fatima says. “And now I see we’ve come a long way. I’m happy that people recognize what we’re doing, that they like our cakes. People come and they tell me ‘When we see you we feel better.’ They come to share their lives and ask for advice. It’s special.”
"My goal was to never say, ‘I cannot do this.'"