By Noma Faingold

They baked. They 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.

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 Aug. 17. Sacramento-based Thiebaud (1920-2021), who was perhaps California’s most famous artist, was best known for his paintings of cakes, pies and everyday Americana objects.

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 on display were made with fresh fruit, tiered wedding cakes with exotic flowers, shiny cakes coated with the darkest of chocolate, bundt cakes with cream cheese icing. The audience surveyed a spectrum of cakes from 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.

Rows of very long tables were covered in cakes. Like a neighborhood with a mash-up of architecture, the arrangements did not make sense. But they did not 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.

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.

A previous Cake Picnic at the museum was held on Nov. 9, 2024, a weekend of special programming for the Legion of Honor’s 100th anniversary (which kicked off 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 the number of tickets sold.

“Oh my God, the atmosphere,” said Maria Egoavil, public programs manager for the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF). “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 the recent event with Cake Picnic founder Elisa Sunga, is not surprised at the large 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.

The creations honored Thiebaud, an art professor at UC Davis for decades.

South of Market Street (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.

Hammack spent more than a week baking the cakes, making the fillings and decorating the collection. The way he 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. There were 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.”

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.”

Professional baker and avid TikTok creator 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 surprisingly orderly fashion, although a staff member on a microphone assured the crowd: “Do not panic, there is literally so much cake.”

Many sat down on the blankets they brought to eat. 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 said he was glad he went.

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