Sydneysiders are in for a treat this March when viral social event Cake Picnic brings 500 cakes to the Royal Botanic Garden.
Long, white-clothed tables groan under the weight of hundreds of cakes. The display evolves from rainbow-sprinkled towers and delicate chiffons to dark, rich mud cakes and classic, cream-filled sponges.
This is Cake Picnic, a viral social event with one rule: no cake, no entry. Everyone who attends must bring a cake to share, and in return, they get to try a slice of everyone else’s.
This March, the event will arrive in Sydney, filling the Royal Botanic Garden’s Tarpeian Lawn with buttercream towers and fondant stacks.
Cake Picnic creator Elise Sunga has attended 12 Cake Picnics around the world, where she has encountered more than 7000 bakes. Even so, she is still amazed by the sight of them all laid out together. “It’s incredible. It’s almost unreal, like a mirage in the desert. Is this really happening?”
The idea for Cake Picnic was born in 2024 from Sunga’s intense sugar cravings. “I just wanted to eat a lot of cake, and I didn’t want to bake all of it myself,” she says. So she organised a cake swap in San Francisco’s Potrero del Sol Park and shared the details online.
“When I posted the event, I was hoping for at least 15 people to come, but it went viral. The first gathering had 183 cakes,” she says.
Interest grew quickly from there. Events began popping up across the United States, and when Cake Picnic finally landed in New York, it sold out in less than a minute. “It was harder to get than a Taylor Swift concert ticket,” she says.
Cake Picnic has since expanded to London, and this year it will travel even further, stopping in Mexico before making its southern hemisphere debut in Australia.
“I absolutely love seeing the different cakes that are available regionally,” Sunga says. “In London, there were a lot more lavender and tea-based cakes, whereas in the United States, it’s a lot of peanut butter and red velvet. I’m excited to see what the cakes in Australia are like.”
The first Australian Cake Picnic will be held on March 21 at Kings Domain in Melbourne as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, before heading to Sydney on March 28, where it will take over the Tarpeian Lawn at the Royal Botanic Garden.
For the Sydney event, Cake Picnic is partnering with KitchenAid, the home appliance brand best known for its colourful stand mixers – many of which will get a workout in the days leading up to the event.
The crowd at Cake Picnic is a diverse mix, according to Sunga, ranging from professional pastry chefs and avid home bakers to those who have never picked up a whisk. “Everyone is there for the love of cake and saying yes to a beautiful morning outdoors eating something sweet.”
Interest in the Sydney event is expected to be high, with attendance limited to 500 people.
Each participant is required to bring a single, uncut cake measuring at least 20cm wide and 7.5cm tall.
The entry must be, quite literally, a cake. Cupcakes, tarts, and pies are strictly off-limits, though Sunga occasionally grants amnesty to grand celebratory desserts like a croquembouche or a towering stack of madeleines. “I love that there are always a few people pushing the boundaries of what cake actually is,” she says.
Among the layers of frosting and fondant, there are always a few savoury creations. “In the past, we’ve seen a tomato focaccia cake, a shrimp Swedish cake and a lox bagel cake,” Sunga says. “When you’re surrounded by that much sugar, you often want something salty.”
For those who don’t bake, cakes can also be bought from a bakery or cake shop. Beyond these guidelines, Sunga encourages people to get creative and bring something that inspires them. “In New York, one woman sculpted a cake to look like a fish. It was so fun and unexpectedly delightful.”
Cake Picnic will be held on Saturday, March 28 from 9am – 11am, at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney. Tickets are on sale now for $49 each from cakepicnictour.com/sydney.
Erina Starkey – Erina is the Good Food App Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Previously, Erina held a number of editing roles at delicious.com.au and writing roles at Broadsheet and Concrete Playground.