CAKE PICNIC IS THE SWEET EVENT YOU’VE ALWAYS DREAMT OF AS A KID
The first rule of Cake Picnic is that each person must bring a cake.
The second rule of — well, there is no second rule but the first one, though simple, is what makes Cake Picnic so fun. Happening on Saturday, April 27 at 2 p.m. in San Francisco’s Potrero del Sol park, Cake Picnic is spearheaded by Elisa Sunga, a Bay Area baker and community organizer, who dreamt up the event to build community through cake. She teamed up with Alexandra Piper, an event planner and designer with Earth & Events, who will give the picnic an Alice in Wonderland-inspired design. “I’m just really excited about the idea of a one-to-one ratio between humans and cake,” Sunga says.
The premise is fairly simple: Attendees can bake a cake or support a local bakery by purchasing one, bringing it to Potrero del Sol, and then trying slices of other cakes at the event. It’s guaranteed to be a spectacle of frosted, sugary goodness, with some community building on the side. Cake Picnic was inspired by a cookie exchange Sunga held at the Embarcadero in December, during which strangers shared cookies and met other local bakers. Attendees were thrilled with the event, and it got Sunga thinking about other ways to gather people together with the promise of sweets. “A lot of times when people think of San Francisco it’s just about tech,” Sunga says. “So this is bringing about a new community where it’s not the tech community, but maybe it’s a sweeter community — which is fun.”
Alongside a plethora of cakes, Piper will set the scene. It’ll be a mixture of Alice in Wonderland, with florals by Peter Bonavita of Zaddy Blooms, and what she’s calling “electric grandmother” with plaid table drapes and cake stands. “I think it’s just perfect because everyone’s coming from all over with their own take on what a cake looks like, or what a cake without boundaries will look like,” Piper says.
Sunga has long been in cake-planning mode and expects to bring “at least” five of her own creations, including banana black sesame, coconut black sesame, a banana-peanut butter-dark chocolate option, banana and yeast caramel cake, and a strawberry guava cake. The hope is that everyone will get creative, which should make sampling fun. Attendees will be asked to only take what they can eat at the picnic, but in the end, the plan is to allow cake-bringers to swap slices to bring home.
Already, there are plans to grow Cake Picnic. The event will go on a two-city tour — which Sunga and Piper joking call Cakechella — with an event in Los Angeles in June and another in New York this August. They’re hoping to make Cake Picnic a regular event, where Sunga and Piper can build up resources, visual art, and activities — and to of course, meet other like-minded, cake-loving folks. “Every time I throw a community event I meet so many different creative bakers or artists,” Piper says. “I think it’ll be really great for all those people who have been sheltered in the last few summers to experience the outdoors with lots of flavors and inspiration. There’s more to cakes than chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, I want to see a guava cake and lemon cake and all those things — and to just be inspired and to share that space.”
Cake Picnic at Potrero Del Sol (2827 Cesar Chavez Street, San Francisco) is happening on Saturday, April 27, starting at 2 p.m. For the latest information on the event, follow Elisa Sunga on Instagram @saltedrye.
