Nearly 40 local bakers got a public stage Monday, Aug. 17, when the Michigan State University Horticulture Gardens hosted its inaugural Cake in the Garden event in East Lansing.

The cake tasting let attendees sample up to eight slices from participating bakers, WILX reported. The event doubled as a fundraiser for the gardens, which sit on 14 acres along Bogue Street on the MSU campus and draw roughly 300,000 visitors a year.

It was the gardens' first event of its kind.

Among the bakers was Jess Bouvier, owner of Not So Bland Cakes, a Lansing-area bakery that specializes in custom cakes and desserts. Bouvier said the tasting was about more than sweets.

"We're always looking for more ways to bring community together, and what a better way than to bring community together over cake and beautiful flowers here at the MSU Horticulture Gardens," Bouvier told WILX.

The gardens are part of MSU's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources Department of Horticulture and are open to the public daily at no charge. They rely on donations to fund beautification projects, new plantings, structure maintenance, student employment and outreach programming, according to the gardens' donation page.

Organizers told WILX they hope to make Cake in the Garden an annual event. No date has been announced for a 2027 edition, and the gardens have not released ticket prices or total funds raised from Monday's debut.

The Cake in the Garden format gave small-scale bakers a venue alongside established ones, in front of a crowd already visiting the gardens.

Residents interested in supporting the Horticulture Gardens or learning about future events can visit the gardens' website through MSU's College of Agriculture and Natural Resources.