Alicia Williams found a new love in her life after losing everything last year.

After Tropical Storm Imelda flooded her home in Beaumont, Texas, Williams moved to Lafayette with her husband and soon fell in love with the Acadiana area.

In a new area and living a new lifestyle, Williams said she started baking after driving trucks for 10 years before. It was something she’d done for much of her life.

“I started baking and it kinda just took off,” Williams said. “I have been baking for years before I became a truck driver.”

From 18 until she was 25, Williams would make all sorts of sweets, from cookies to pies and cakes — her favorite — but wanted a break from baking, so she started driving a truck. But something was always pulling her back into the kitchen.

“Baking was always a passion of mine,” Williams said. “I would always bake for family events or bake for family friends.”

That passion for providing for others continues Williams, who decided to fire up her mixer again, this time for people in the Lafayette and New Iberia area.

“I decided to see where this can really take me,” Williams said. “My particular first things to bake are my cakes. I love decorating cakes.”

When piping icing flowers on a cake, Williams gets a sense of joy because she knows it’s going to be a highlight of someone’s party or wedding.

“I really love the cakes,” Williams said. “

One of Williams’ signature cakes is her homemade pecan cake, a popular dish she created and one that is in high demand.

Williams’ pecan cake, which comes in either chocolate or butter pecan, is topped with a sugary, sweet pecan candy topping. The process, Williams said, is time-consuming when it comes to making the candy, as it takes a delicate touch to get the right texture with the candy.

“The basic ingredients are sugar, milk, butter vanilla extract,” Williams said. “But I add a little something special to it.”

And though it takes her time to make it, the end result is one that is in high demand.

“Everyone’s been asking for it,” Williams said.

Her cake has even garnered the attention of local restaurants like the Poor Boy’s Riverside Inn in Broussard.

Williams has plans to sell the cake and you can find more information on it by visiting her business page on Facebook: Bless it Sweets & Eats; or reach her at 409-554-5747.

Her special recipe, as she calls it, for her one-of-a-kind pecan cake has been a recipe of hers for years and sold well when she lived in Texas, but after moving to Lafayette, Williams said the cake really took off.

“Everyone was asking me for a cake with my pecans on it,” Williams said. “I thought there was one way possible they wanted a cake with those pecans on it, it is a sugar overload.”

And after she caved it for her customer’s cake craving, it sold well, like hotcakes, from Sulfur to Opelousas, Williams’ dream of baking has come full circle and she is forever grateful for the love she was shown by the community she now calls home.

Ever since moving here, Williams has loved the love she was shown throughout the area and beyond.

“The people here are wonderful,” Williams said. “They are opening, very friendly. It’s pretty awesome to come from Texas and get that type of welcome.”