By Noma Faingold

(April 6, 2025)

They baked. They came and placed their cakes on white tablecloths. They devoured.

The official count was 1,387 cakes (and at least that many participants) at the CAKE PICNIC™ on the morning of March 29, on the front lawn of the Legion of Honor Museum.

Most of the colorful, elaborately decorated creations came from the kitchens of attendees or were made by fledgling professional bakers, while a few were purchased from bakeries. The variety of styles and flavors were staggering. Cakes made with fresh fruit, tiered wedding cakes with exotic flowers, shiny cakes coated with the darkest of chocolate, bundt cakes with cream cheese icing. Surveying a spectrum of precision decorating and smooth pastel fondant domes to the clumsily frosted and sheet cakes baked in disposable rectangular tins you might see at a children’s backyard birthday party.

Nearly every inch of the super-long tables was covered in cakes. Like a neighborhood with a mash-up of architecture, the arrangements didn’t make sense. But they didn’t have to. A slightly messy three-tiered ube strawberry shortcake (in purple, red and white) was next to a lemon cake flawlessly covered in marshmallow buttercream.

A tower cake titled, “Spring Madness,” was constructed out of madeleines in chocolate, vanilla, citrus and ube flavors by Christina the Baker. It loomed over all. Not sure how it was transported to the venue.

Of course, there were vegan and gluten-free sections for maximum inclusivity. And each cake had a tag listing ingredients, to help alert those with nut allergies, for example.

Bringing a cake was a requirement of participants, who also paid $15 for tickets to the event celebrating the Legion’s exhibition, “Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art,” which opened on March 22 and runs through August 17. Sacramento-based Thiebaud (1920-2021), was perhaps one California’s most famous artists, known for his paintings of cakes, pies and everyday Americana objects.

The previous CAKE PICNIC at the museum was held on November 9, 2024, which kicked off a weekend of special programming for the Legion of Honor 100 (a year-long centennial celebration). The cake event was a major success, attracting more than 600 participants. This time, CAKE PICNIC sold out in minutes and more than doubled in tickets sold.

“Oh my God, the atmosphere,” Maria Egoavil, public programs manager for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) said. “The community connections are incredible. You get people from so many different backgrounds and levels of expertise, from beginner bakers to professional bakers, all in the love of just sharing with one another.”

Egoavil, who organized last November’s and latest event with CAKE PICNIC founder Elisa Sunga, is not surprised at the larger turnout. “People get excited seeing how creative other people can be,” she said. “It’s really about wanting to spend more time with one another over delicious food. You experience the event and then get a sugar rush.”

One talented, self-taught baker, Juan Felipe Hammack, a former dentist from Columbia, was commissioned by FAMSF to recreate 13 cakes from the 1963 Thiebaud painting titled, “Cakes.” Hammack, 30, who just started his own baking business called, “Spattles,” made art come to life.

His ambitious, almost surreal creations were on display in a separate courtyard near the registration area. Thiebaud, an art professor at UC Davis for decades, probably would have loved them.

 

Soma resident Hammack, whose twin passions were art and baking growing up, studied Thiebaud’s work to get the cakes to closely resemble the two-dimensional subjects. “I had to find as many close-ups as I could to learn his brush strokes and techniques for the swirling,” he said.

He spent more than a week baking the cakes, making the fillings and decorating the collection. The way Hammack made colors bleed into others seamlessly with frosting exemplify his artistry.

He did not neglect flavor, however. The chili chocolate orange cake is complex and spicy. Another cake is more than a nod to India, infused with saffron and cardamom. “I want feedback on how they taste,” Hammack said. “But when they cut into them, it’s going to hurt.”

Upon checking in at the reasonably organized event, participants were given a colored wristband, which would determine which group they would be part of in getting their six-minute allotted time to get their cake slices, which they would put into their bakery boxes, also provided by the CAKE PICNIC.

After checking in, attendees carefully placed their cakes on tables as if they were precious jewels. No reports of anyone dropping their masterpieces.

Volunteers and staff periodically yelled out, “Here’s a spot for two cakes” and “Please, walk away from the table after you placed your cake.”

The Legion grounds had a village-like vibe because of the faint sounds of an accordion being played by a woman sitting next to the grand columns of the Legion. Her panoramic view was of all the cake tables. VictoriAccordia (stage name) donned a hat with a life-size, realistic cake decoration on top, which she made. “I’m so glad to be here,” she said. “There’s a three-tiered wedding cake on the vegan table I have a crush on.”

VictoriAccordia, who has played at the annual Flower Piano event at the Golden Gate Park Botanical Gardens, looked through her sheet music on her stand and found, “Bella Ciao,” a song she really wanted to play. “It’s not cake related, but it’s a historic protest song (originating in Italy in the late 1800s). It became an anti-fascist, anti-Nazi protest song during World War II. Most people won’t recognize it. But I’m sneaking it in.”

Sisters Terilyn and Brea Steverson brought cakes that reflected their individualism. Terilyn, who lives in Alamo Square, baked a lemon cake with lemon buttercream frosting, applied liberally. The bright yellow, homespun, round cake was decorated on top with a face made out of metallic edible beads. It seemed influenced by Marti Gras. “I didn’t want to do traditional floral decorations,” Terilyn said. “I like eyes, lashes and lips.”

Brea took an Uber to the event from her home in Hayward to keep her smooth and elegantly frosted chocolate layer cake in mint condition. The top was tastefully sprinkled with edible pearls. “It’s chocolate on chocolate on chocolate. I’ve made it many times. It’s so delicious,” Brea said. “The pearls give it glitz and glam, which is a part of my personality.”

Kat Harner was still decorating her cake with berries shortly before the games were to begin. “It’s a Pavlova,” she said. “This is the first cake I’ve ever baked. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be. I baked it last night.”

Another first-time baker, Kevin Chen, made a tall, dense-looking square, covered in roughly applied concrete-colored frosting. “It’s a cement block cake,” Chen said, about his unconventional black sesame cake. “I wanted to make something that was non-cakelike. I thought it would be really funny to have a block of cement. I found a flavor that kind of matched up to that aesthetic. I’ve been into Brutalist architecture. I guess there was some unconscious influence.”

Jean Xin baked a lemon blueberry cake to utilize what she called the “prolific Meyer lemon tree” in the backyard of her Sunset District home. She attended with her husband and their baby. The second cake she brought was the legendary Coffee Crunch Cake, which she bought at the only place in San Francisco that makes it, Yashukochi’s Sweet Shop in Japantown. It sells out quickly every day.

The coveted cake, generously covered in crushed golden coffee candy, originated in the 1940s at Blum’s Union Square eatery and candy store. “If you know, you know,” Xin said. “Nobody will mind that I didn’t bake this myself.”

Professional baker and avid Tiktoker Allison Chen, 22, of New York, made a cake which she froze and brought on the plane. When she got to San Francisco a day before Cake Picnic, she collaborated with local bakery, Buoy, on a cluster of log cakes resembling a Thiebaud watercolor called, “Candy Sticks.” The Korean-style rolled sponge cakes were made with rice flour and filled with whipped cream. “We matched the colors of the painting,” Chen said. “I think people understand the vision.”

People gathered their cake slices in a surprising orderly fashion, although a staff member on mic assured the crowd at one point, “Do not panic, there is literally so much cake.”

Many sat down to eat on the blankets they brought. Some sat on a nearby curb. A few chose comfort by bringing folding tables and chairs. Sunset District resident Lawrence Helman, who came by himself, took his box over to the balcony overlooking the Legion’s grounds and the Bay. He found getting the cake slices a little stressful. “I felt people hovering,” he said.

Overall, Helman was glad we went. “I marvel at the creativity,” he said. “It’s such a joyous event. We all need that right now.”

Read Noma Faingold’s extensive review of  “Wayne Thiebaud: Art Comes from Art” at San Francisco’s Legion of Honor.

Learn more about the Cake Picnic national tour.

More photos from the New York Times

San Francisco photographer and filmmaker Klyde Java offers EatDrinkFilms readers his CAKE PICNIC photo essay here.Noma Faingold is a writer and photographer who lives in Noe Valley. A native San Franciscan who grew up in the Sunset District, Faingold is a frequent contributor to the Richmond Review and Sunset Beacon newspapers, among others. She is obsessed with pop culture and the arts, especially film, theater and fashion. Noma has written about Tamara de Łempicka and singer/songwriters Janis Joplin, Diane Warren and Linda Smith for EatDrinkFilms.

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