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Last week (4/17/07) about 150 people convened at Marissa Mayer‘s beautiful Four Seasons penthouse to support the launch of her new partnership with I Dream of Cake.

“I went to Le Cordon Bleu in Sidney, and I majored just in patisserie, because I wasn’t really interested in chicken guts,” said Shinmin Li (left, shown here with Marissa Mayer.)

An executive at Google, Marissa met Shinmin Li, the founder of I Dream of Cake, three years ago through a Craigslist ad. She was looking for someone to make a cake for a friend’s birthday, and she was impressed by Shinmin’s creativity. She’s been a happy customer ever since.

“Over the years Shinmin has tolerated questions from me like ‘Can you make a metallic silver icing? And if so, does it still taste good?’ — and she hasn’t balked at any of them, which I think is a true testimony to the talent of Shinmin and her staff,” says Marissa (shown above with Shinmin and her business partner Bill Freeman.)

The event was sensory overload.

What to look at first? The stunning view from the condo, overlooking all of San Francisco, or to the dining table with it’s Technicolor intricacies painstakingly crafted by the IDOC team?

Or perhaps one could zero in on the little cakes placed all around the room (indeed, that was my first choice. I adored the cake of vanilla and almond. Fantastically light!)

The approach is a unique one — the cake makers have backgrounds in the visual arts, and consider their creations to be works of art.

Art to look at, and to eat.

Guests at the party seem thrilled by the idea of cake as art. And as the hosts brought out more and more platters of cakes for us to sample from, I think we were all pretty thrilled by the idea of cake as food too. (Shocking, I know.)

Damion Matthews; Amber Harrison, Hooman Khalili, Bill Freeman

• Ordering Information: I Dream of Cake [1351 Grant Avenue]
• Photos: Heather Wiley for Drew Altizer [drewaltizer.com]
• Photos: Social Studies [7x7.com]