Lubbock baker looks to serve community after overcoming adversity

LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) - On any given day, Makaly Peña can be found in her home, baking and decorating sweet treats for her business - Kaly’s Cakes and Sweets.

Years ago, she worked at Amigos decorating cakes and found she had a true talent.

“It is a lot of work,” Peña said. “You know in the introduction for Full House and then it’s got the different characters? There’s a TikTok where you meet the baker, the decorator, the owner, the manager, the cleanup lady. That’s all of me.”

Life took her elsewhere, though, and she and her husband moved to Colorado.

Three years later in 2020, the couple found out they were having their first child, and decided to move back to Lubbock to be closer to family and start her business back up.

In January 2021, however, during a regular ultrasound, Peña learned she had a miscarriage at 14 weeks.

“Pretty much the baby was gone, but my body wasn’t accepting it and it didn’t know,” she said. “That was a weird dissociation feeling because my body couldn’t catch up with what was really happening or my mental state couldn’t catch up with what was really happening. She wasn’t there when I felt like she was still there.”

After a heavy grieving period, she was able to get back on her feet.

A customer reached out to her to make a cake and it gave her purpose to start again.

In July 2022, Peña found out she was pregnant with twin girls, Florence and Farrah. Florence was monitored early on due to a problem with her cord, but one day, it was discovered that Florence was still here, but Farrah was not.

In January 2023, Florence was born, but due to complications, she spent the next two months in the hospital. Yet another obstacle in keeping the business afloat, and the family together.

“We said, ‘what could we do,’ and in the end after praying, our answer just felt like there was no answer except for persevering with the business,” she said. “It just felt like it was the right thing. We felt like, ‘why would we uproot everything just for our end goal to be to come back to this?’”

She credits the community for helping her through these times. In June, she was told she had to leave her home, forcing her to work 36-hours straight on Father’s Day weekend.

Orders came in and the Peña family was able to move into a better, more accommodating home.

As for her future goals, she says she has none because she wants to live life in the moment.

“Essentially after losing my daughters,” she said, “when you feel like you can plan for something that’s supposed to be, it’s just supposed to be, you’re supposed to have it, and then you don’t. You learn just to live daily and appreciate the things you do daily. So, I have no goals for the future, and I have no expectations for the future. I just know that today, God blessed me with life, so I made a cake.”