Miami Cake Baker Named One of the South's Best

A South Florida cake maker who has been doing what she loves for 50 years has been named one of the best in the South. Sweet Art by Lucila is the only bakery in Florida to make the cut in this month's Southern Living magazine.

When it comes to baking cakes, Cuban-born Lucila Jimenez takes the cake.

Her bakery, at 5734 Bird Road in Miami, made Southern Living's list of the "South's Best Cakes" in its January issue.

"Not only surprised but very proud of it. Actually I don't know if you noticed it but I'm the only one in Miami," Jimenez said.

Her team produces 1,000 cakes a week out of a Miami warehouse. She runs two shops in Miami and two others in Doral and Pembroke Pines.

Additional winners include Alpine Bakery & Trattoria in Alpharetta, Georgia, Honey Bee Bakery in Oxford, Mississippi, Maxie B’s in Greensboro, North Carolina and Sugar Bakeshop in Charleston, South Carolina.

Jimenez's lifelong love of baking turned into a business 25 years ago, when she sold cakes out of her home.

Customer Diana Del Valle has been buying cakes from Jimenez for years and says the quality has not changed.

"Very moist, it's always excellent, and they're artists," she added.

Southern Living editors say it would be pretty darn hard to pass these sweets off as your own.

"We do everything by hand, and it shows in the cake," Jimenez said.

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