Cake Picnic at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad. | Cotton Incorporated The sweetest Cake Picnic blooms at the Flower Fields in Carlsbad near San Diego Over the weekend, some people went to a music festival in the desert and, if lucky, inhaled more food than they did dust. Othe rs headed to a field of ranunculus flowers to dig into something less dry — cake. Lots of it, too. More than a combined 310 attendees made the trek to the Flower Fields at Carlsbad on Saturday, April 12 and on Sunday, April 13 with cake — store-bought or homemade — in tow, for the first-ever Cake Picnic in San Diego (Cakechella, if you will). “Cakes and flowers. It’s such an organic, natural thing,” says Elisa Sunga, the founder of Cake Picnic. “When I imagined and just visualized hundreds of cakes with thousands of ranunculus flowers, I couldn’t say no.” Sunga, a Bay Area Google UX program manager by day and baker by night, launched the event in San Francisco last year as a potluck-style cake meet-up that went viral. Since then, the event has gone on “tour,” making stops in cities like New York and San Francisco. London is next. “It’s so amazing to meet bakers from San Diego,” said Sunga. “I love San Diego and Carlsbad.” The rules for participating are short and sweet: No cake, no entry. Tickets ($65 each and a portion of the proceeds benefiting the Los Angeles fire relief organizations) gave locals and travelers access to the sold-out event, where attendees were tasked with getting as many slices of cake as possible. Although things got a little messy (crumbs sprinkled on the floor, surfaces drenched in frosting, and sticky chocolate ganache dripped all over), visitors — from far and near — still gathered together for the love of cake. Sunday’s Cake Picnic event ran in partnership with Cotton Incorporated (yes, “the fabric of our lives” folks). Guests previewed an upcoming Cotton collaboration with Abbode, launching this month, that features cake and flower-inspired embroidered accessories. Below is a recap of the day’s bakes, faces, and more. Cotton Incorporated Cakes on display. The Vibe The early bird gets the cake. By 9 a.m. attendees had lined up outside, where they received a name tag for socializing — no, cake networking. The skies were gray but the sense of community still felt palpable : Strangers exchanged friendly feedback about their cakes, others played Cotton trivia to win embroidered merch. Visitors posed amongst a backdrop of pink, yellow, and orange ranunculi. Cotton Incorporated set up a designated photo area with Bohemian chairs, couches, and blankets for attendees, where visitors orchestrated Instagram posts holding up faux cakes. Others remained busy setting up their cakes on tables covered with (100 percent) cotton tablecloths, adding labels with quirky cake names like “Cakechella” and “Tasting San Diego” and ingredients. Who Caked Local pastry chefs on the roster included Arely Chavez from Michi Michi, who contributed with a green-and-yellow airbrushed strawberry jam citrus olive oil cake with sorrel buttercream. Chavez says people appreciate cake because it’s not a dessert exclusive to birthdays — it’s something that can be a celebration of friendship, personal life victories, relationship milestones, and more. “I feel like a cake just brings joy,” says Chavez. Out-of-towners included Heather LeBlanc, who flew from Connecticut with two cakes to attend her second Cake Picnic event (her first was in New York) alongside her daughter. Her favorite part, she says, is meeting “like-minded people that enjoy cake and hanging out and just talking.” San Diego native Christina Acosta, who brought a buttercream pound cake permeated with flavors like vanilla, hibiscus, and mezcal, returned to Cake Picnic for the second time with a friend she met at the Los Angeles tour stop last year. She says the Flower Fields and cake combination brought out her feminine energy. “It is so therapeutic, it smells nice, and it brings out a warm vibe,” said Acosta. What We Ate With almost 200 cakes and only five minutes on the clock for each group, visitors flocked to as many bakes as they could, including a Severance-themed almond cream cake dubbed “Devour Gateau,” a carrot cake with orange jelly beans spilling from its center, and a tri-level peanut butter and jelly cake. There was a slight competitive edge to the event, as guests had limited time to choose from hundreds of one-of-a-kind options — a mango sticky rice cake, a black cocoa cake with matcha buttercream, an Earl Grey bundt cake, and a Liliko’i crunch yellow cake with pineapple preserves and passion fruit, to name a few. After attendees collected their slices in Cake Picnic logo-stamped pizza boxes, they sat to picnic on the lawn while live music played nearby. What We Took Home After round one, groups of attendees were given the option to go for seconds. Expert picnic-ers grabbed their Tupperware and got to work; others made sure to grab a free Abbode cap. In the future, Cake Picnic followers will be able to take more than leftovers home, as Sunga has partnered with Chronicle Books to publish a Cake Picnic cookbook, which will include recipes and pointers for hosting cake picnics at or close to home when it releases next spring. For more Cake Picnic locations and dates, visit the Cake Picnic Tour website. Cotton Incorporated The spread at Cake Picnic. Roxana Becerril The crowd at Cake Picnic. ...read more read less