For dessert obsessives, it’s been fascinating to watch the phenomenon that is Cake Picnic (opens in new tab), the event series that sells out in seconds, with only one requirement: “No cake, no entry.” 

Founder Elisa Sunga — who works as a UX program manager at Google — got the party started in 2024, when she threw a picnic in Potrero del Sol Park, hoping 15 bakers might show up. Instead, 183 bakers marched their cakes into the Mission that day, and Sunga’s inbox soon flooded with requests to host events all over the world. In the two years since, Cake Picnic has popped up in New York City, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, and Sydney. Tickets always sell out in less than a minute, and fans have been known to fly in for the occasion. They arrive by train, car, and ferry — leading to occasional mishaps with sliding layers and melted frosting. The events range in size from 200 to 2,000 people, with the largest last fall welcoming 2,068 cakes on Treasure Island.  

If you’ve never snagged a ticket, you can get a taste of the action when the cookbook “Cake Picnic” (opens in new tab) comes out May 19. Part entertaining guide and part cake gallery, it’s a vision of stacked layers, swooshed buttercream, and over-the-top florals. “I was really excited by the idea of inspiring people to gather and host around cake,” Sunga says. 

The lucky few who do get to attend one of Cake Picnic’s events are treated to an experience that starts like an art installation and ends with an epic feast. At Treasure Island, organizers set up 600 feet of tables along the waterfront, creating a glorious 15-minute cake walk. Michelin-starred pastry chefs and dedicated home bakers set out everything from marzipan-draped princess cakes to thinly layered honey cakes; favorite flavors included “anything pistachio,” mango, and black sesame, Sunga says. There’s an art to cutting hundreds of cakes quickly and an unspoken etiquette on taking only small slices. 

Sunga — who runs a blog (opens in new tab), bake club (opens in new tab), and monthly newsletter (opens in new tab) — knew she wanted to write a cookbook long before Cake Picnic became an international phenomenon. She started writing in 2024, so the manuscript evolved as the tour grew, and experiencing more than 10,000 cakes proved the ultimate inspiration. “I don’t think Cake Picnic can go to all of the spots people want it to go,” she says. “So if people are inspired, they can use the cookbook and host a mini one in their backyard or living room.” 

The first section of the book is a guide to hosting your own cake picnic. Advice includes how to brainstorm a theme (winter citrus or afternoon tea?), arrange the tablescape (pro tip: level up with vintage stands and stacked books), craft a playlist, and even prep icebreakers to get the conversation flowing. 

Though entertaining books were once condemned as fussy, they’re making a comeback. Post-pandemic, there’s been a resurgence of interest in the art of hosting, as evidenced by last year’s reissue of Martha Stewart’s “Entertaining,” which first hit shelves in 1982. 

Local photographer Andria Lo shot every cake in “Cake Picnic,” some styled on location on patterned picnic blankets with backdrops of the bay and Golden Gate Bridge.  

The second half of the book dives into 50 detailed recipes. Readers get a taste for Sunga’s personal style, which favors round cakes, a couple of layers, fillings and frostings, and fruit and flowers as decoration. Sunga was born in the Philippines, where dessert meant mango and sticky rice, and moved to Antioch, California, in middle school. 

“Imagine a 12-year-old eating a brownie for the first time,” she says. “It was, like, lightning and heart eye emojis everywhere.” At the events, she beelines to anything chocolate. In the book, she loves the recipe for dark chocolate cake with salty-sweet potato-chip toffee. Other flavor combos are equally unexpected, pairing passion fruit with honey-butter corn or blood orange with chai and bay leaf. There are advanced dome cakes, simple upside-down cakes, and — would you call trifle a cake? In any case, there are recipes for three. 

To celebrate the release of the cookbook, Cake Picnic will host a hometown event May 23 in San Francisco (opens in new tab). Sunga will be bringing a cake, although she’s still deciding exactly which recipe to use. She also asked several friends to bring cakes from the cookbook and has commissioned Mallory Valvano of Party Girl in Philadelphia to make a large-format sculptural cake.  

Given the popularity of the events, you might wonder if Sunga considered working with contributors and putting out more of a community cookbook. She could have shared recipes from notable participants, including pastry chef Christina Tosi of Milk Bar, cookbook author Zoe Francis, and several contestants from “The Great British Bake Off.” But for her first cookbook, Sunga wanted to share her original vision and recipes. She won’t rule out another book down the road. 

As Cake Picnic continues to grow, she’s been blown away by the variety of cakes brought forth at each event, from tres leches in Mexico to duck cakes in Australia.