Frosting, sprinkles and layers of fun: Giant cake picnic hits Sydney

Welcome to Cake Picnic, Sydney edition.

It's the viral event that's already sold out dates in San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles. Tickets in Dubai, London and Mexico City were harder to come by than a double-yolk egg.

And now it's landed on Australian shores, with a Melbourne event earlier this month boasting 1,600 cakes in one sitting.

"I had no idea that I could ever go on tour for cake," laughs Cake Picnic founder Elisa Sunga, part-time hobby baker and full-time Google employee specialising in AI.

"People go on tour for music and whatnot, but for cake," Sunga says.

"It just seems so whimsical and delightful to be able to do that."

Two years ago, Sunga - who moved to San Francisco aged 12 from her hometown of Baguio City in the Philippines - posted an online invite for a small gathering with one request: everyone must bring a cake.

The 35-year-old figured maybe a dozen or so people might turn up and brought seven cakes to make sure everyone would get a taste.

To her amazement, close to 200 people came with more than 180 cakes devoured.

Her simple, sugar-laden summons has since caused ripples of the buttercream variety across the foodie world.

"It feels unreal," Sunga tells the BBC. "I had no idea that thousands of people all over the world would be as excited as I am."

There's plenty of excitement among the 500-plus crowd gathering at Saturday's event in Sydney's Botanic Gardens.

As they line up to have their cakes inspected – which must be 20cm (8 inches) wide and 7.5cm (3 inches) high – there are a few bloodshot eyes in the queue. Many participants baked well into the night.

"Me and my daughter, we made ours last night," says Hilary Lindgren, 54, wearing an eye-catching head-to-toe outfit, with a carrot cake in hand. "It was crazy - a big mess, flour and sugar everywhere, but lots of fun.

"There's just so many negative things happening in the world at the moment that it's nice to do something like this."

From home bakers to professionals, influencers to non-bakers, everyone places their cakes on the tables stretching across the grassy knoll, with Sydney's famed Harbour Bridge as the backdrop.

But the only architectural feats eliciting "oohs" and "aahs" this autumn morning are of the sponge variety, as enthusiasts peruse the gravity-defying gateaux from the city's gourmands.

From a metre-high (3ft) life-sized swan creation to a bouquet of flowers made entirely of cupcakes, the colourful display rivals any cake shop window.

Coffee pecan torte, spiced pear sponge with miso caramel. A Persian baklava dressed with golden shards of filo pastry.

Cake fillings of almond crunch and toasted pecan praline and candied lemon, while jackfruit and palm sugar bring distinct South-East Asian flavours.

There's even a focaccia cake with roasted tomato, pesto and feta icing – a savoury offering Sunga is delighted to see.

"When you're surrounded by thousands of sweet cakes, all you really want is salt," she says.

'I didn't really know what cake was'

Growing up in the Philippines, Sunga confesses her household was a "very savoury one" with desserts limited to sticky rice and fruit.

"I didn't really know what a cake or a doughnut or a brownie was until I started having after-school parties in California," she says. "A lot of the maximalism of cake picnic is potentially rooted in my desire to catch up."

With her working week deep in the world of AI, she says it's refreshing to use her hands to make something tangible.

"It's almost meditative doing something creative with my hands."

And going to a picnic is about social connection and doing something in real life.

"AI every day can do an increasingly terrifying amount of things, but to this day it can't bake a cake - yet. Cake Picnic forces people to not only come outside, but spend a day on the grass."

Once the cakes have been laid out, pictures snapped, recipes shared and compliments sprinkled, small groups take turns decimating the decadence before them, with five minutes to cut, carve and cram as many morsels of cake into a large pizza box.

One dives straight into a popular matcha-strawberry creation in row three, another tells her friend she's making a beeline for the tres leche.

Eunice Lim, a Sydney-based influencer originally from Singapore, is grabbing a selfie with Sunga while balancing her haul of desserts, piled high in a pizza box.

"It's so vibrant and inclusive," Eunice enthuses. "There's no judgment here – just people and cakes of all shapes and sizes."

Under a nearby fig tree, Marcus Ehrlich, 42, is one of the few men in the crowd, enjoying cake with his wife and keen baker Kelly Ehrlich, 48, who brought a blueberry and blood orange creation to share.

"In a big city, this is the type of thing we should be doing," Marcus says, enjoying samples of pandan and ube cakes.

Tanya Mouchawrab, 37, and her two daughters, Lily, 13, and Ivy, 11, stayed up late the night before making a trio of cakes – lemon, red velvet and rainbow.

"We just love cake," Ivy says, adding it's fun to bake with her mum and sister.

One of the youngest sweet tooths is Matilda, six, who helped her mum Jasmin Gelsana, 36, decorate a store-bought cake, and who happily admits: "I'm a good eater, not a baker".

From light and airy chiffon cakes to rich and buttery creations, Australian-themed cakes are also du jour with a towering koala creation by Reg Leones, 40, mixing Filipino flavours of ube and leche flan that took three days to finish.

"I was up until midnight," says the lawyer, who turns to baking as a release from his day job.

Further along the table, a three-tiered honey cake sits near a wholemeal plum cake with spiced icing, while a Swedish princess cake draws gasps of admiration with its dome of sponge, jam, custard and marzipan.

Associate Professor Lindsay Kelley studies food and technology and says the allure of a cake picnic is in its design.

"Unlike muffins, cupcakes, or biscuits, cakes are designed to be sliced and shared," she says. "When we see a whole cake at parties and events, we understand that everyone around the table gets a slice and we share that experience."

And that shared experience is what drives Sunga as she continues to whip up a frenzy with Cake Picnic.

"When you go to a concert, it's pretty much the same age group," she says, but when you're at cake picnic, it's so varied.

Sunga says her event brings together families, older women that bake together, Gen Z girlfriends that have got out of the group chat, people in college or young women that are exploring creative activities.

"It's just fun to see everyone coming together," she says.

As for juggling a full-time job and her baking, it's her selfish way of wanting to have it all.

"I am very curious about tech and AI, but at the same time, I love being creative and expressing myself and eating cake," Sunga says.

"I want to have my cake and eat it, too."