More than 225 dessert enthusiasts descended upon the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden on Oct. 3, each carrying a cake and a pizza box. They arrived in droves for the garden’s inaugural Cake-a-Palooza fundraiser.
The fundraiser idea blossomed when a garden staff member showed Executive Director Janine Stillman a video of thousands of people bringing cake to a picnic in another city. The team then decided to bring the trend to SLO.
Have your cake
Missed the inaugural fall gathering? Janine Stillman, Executive Director of the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden, plans to return with the next signature Cake-a-Palooza in spring 2027. Keep an eye out for spring ticket drops and baker registration at slobg.org/cakeapalooza. The garden is located inside El Chorro Regional Park. All proceeds support the garden’s conservation and educational programs.
“Thousands of people and cake—it’s taken off,” Stillman said about the viral cake picnics. “We said, ‘Let’s give it a whirl, what the heck?’”
Operating on 150 acres within El Chorro Regional Park, the nonprofit botanical garden relies entirely on private and community funding, according to its website.
“We’re tucked away here, and people don’t know we exist,” Stillman said. “We’re trying to think of great ways to bring people together, have fun times, and raise funds for the garden.”
The fundraiser required every attendee to buy a $25 ticket and bring a cake at least 8 inches in diameter and 3 inches high, either homemade or bakery-bought. If attendees didn’t bring a cake, they didn’t receive a pizza box or access to the tasting tables. Meanwhile, professional bakers who entered could compete for attendee votes to claim the honor of “Fan Favorite Cake.”
The amount of cake exceeded expectations, Stillman said, because volunteers and their significant others also brought baked entries.
“We were asking ourselves, ‘What are we going to do with all this cake?’” Stillman said.
The team pulled together a committee of friends and volunteers to organize the inaugural event, which drew a full house alongside a crew of volunteers.
Holding empty pizza boxes handed out at check-in, guests entered in staggered waves by color-coded wristband. Each group had six minutes to gather as many cake slices as they could fit into their boxes before a bell signaled the end of their turn. To ensure latecomers weren’t left with crumbs, organizers reserved three untouched tables for the last three groups.
The cake runway showcased a variety of decorated delicacies, from family recipes to dietary-friendly options and bakery specialties, from fruity and floral cakes to candy-covered and sugar-free options.
According to volunteer Frida De La Palma, her volunteer duties gained her both a ticket to the cake tasting and a chance to explore the garden for the first time. She also contributed a savory sandwich cake, a one-of-a-kind entry.
“I wanted [something for] someone to take a break [from] the sweets,” De La Palma said.
Volunteers who brought a cake received dual wristbands, letting them join the slice-gathering experience.
For attendees Heather Ramos and Cassidy Kirk, an Instagram ad from the garden brought the event to their attention. Ramos baked a lemon cake using fresh citrus harvested from her garden, paired with a raspberry cream cheese filling and lemon glaze. Kirk took a different route and bought a cake from Gina’s Piece of Cake, a bake shop with locations in Arroyo Grande, Orcutt, and Santa Maria.
“My kitchen is in the middle of being remodeled right now,” Kirk said. “Buying a cake was the best route.”
Alongside hundreds of attendees and volunteers, local food illustrator Dyna Beach set up her easel amid the checkerboard tablecloths to paint the scene. After creating food art for the magazine Edible San Luis Obispo, Beach used Cake-a-Palooza as what she called a “soft launch” into live event painting.
“I love drawing food, cake, and flowers,” Beach said. “This could not be a more perfect audience.”
Beach said she has admired San Francisco’s Cake Picnic from afar, which returns to the city on Oct. 31 with a new event the following day—a cookie picnic. When she saw the garden launching its own version on Instagram, she reached out immediately.
“I was so excited,” Beach said. “I reached out and was like, ‘You guys need to let me paint.’”
Beach said she hopes to expand her live-painting services to local weddings, restaurant soft openings, and winery events across SLO County. In the days following the event, Beach shared a picture of the work-in-progress on Instagram, teasing a final drawing reveal in the coming days.
The fall debut brought in 193 cakes and raised more than $7,100 for the nonprofit, according to Dana Sundblad, the garden’s Development Director. The team plans to make Cake-a-Palooza a seasonal tradition, with the next Cake-a-Palooza tentatively scheduled for spring 2027, according to Sundblad and Stillman.
“We’ve gotten great feedback from attendees and have so enjoyed seeing all the social media posts,” Sundblad said. ∆
Flavor writer Sam Fickett enjoys a good carrot cake. You can reach her at sfickett@newtimesslo.com.
This article appears in Oct 15-22, 2026.
