The Cake Picnic Phenomenon With Founder Elisa Sunga

Lots of folks in the baking world are buzzing about Cake Picnic, the gathering created by amateur baker and Google UX expert Elisa Sunga. She was hoping 15 folks would attend the very first Cake Picnic; more than 300 folks RSVP’d. For her most recent Cake Picnic in San Francisco, more than 1,000 attendees showed up, cake in tow. After all, the first rule of Cake Picnic is simple: “No cake, no entry.” 

Today, people are DM’ing and emailing her from around the world, asking for Elisa to bring Cake Picnic to their town. She already has a 6,000-person waitlist for the gathering scheduled for New York. 

Elisa joins host Kerry Diamond to unpack the popularity of Cake Picnic and the unexpected momentum behind it. They explore how her background in UX design at Google informs her approach to community-building, her online persona, and the story behind the Bucket List Bake Club. Plus, she shares how Cake Picnic has become a reflection of a broader cultural hunger for joy, connection, and creative expression.

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More on Elisa: Instagram, Cake Picnic, Salted Rye
More on Kerry: Instagram