Melbourne played host to Australia’s inaugural Cake Picnic last Saturday, with 1,600 cakes artfully presented and devoured at Kings Domain as part of the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. The global phenomenon, created in San Francisco in 2024 by amateur baker Elisa Sunga, has now toured nine cities, with Sydney next on 28 March.
The concept is simple: bring a cake to share, and you can sample others. The only rule is no cake, no entry. Baker Alice Bennett, known as Miss Trixie Drinks Tea, served as assistant judge. “I’m aiming for 1,000, but I’ll be sad if I don’t get to taste at least 50,” she said.
Polly Stokes travelled from Canberra with her daughter Milly. “We’re here for the fun of it,” she said. “This is such a beautiful, relaxed environment.” Sunga, who started the event to eat more cake without baking it all herself, said: “Imagine all of the love and energy that’s been poured into the cakes we are sharing here today.”
A best in show cake, decorated like a tin of anchovies, was announced, along with two runners-up. Attendees then dug in with family-sized pizza boxes, with no slice limits. Sunga declared the event “absolutely spectacular on all levels and degrees”.
