Find Your “Cake Buddy” With New Cake Lovers Group

If there’s one thing Beijing isn’t short of, it’s delicious cake. Whether it’s individuals making traditional recipes at home, or the wave of new Chinese bakeries and shops turning out reinterpretations of western classics, getting hold of these sweet treats is a piece of… well, you get the idea.

But there’s a problem. What if you don’t want a whole cake? Shops will sell you a single slice, but they come at a premium price. And for small producers, it’s just not worthwhile baking smaller batches.

Now a Beijing expat has come up with an ingenious solution. Anne Babilon-Teubenbacher has started a WeChat group called Cake Lovers – Sharing is Caring. Babilon-Teubacher is originally from Germany, she told us, and on her second stay in Beijing, having been here before from 2012-2014.

Babilon-Teubenbacher with one of her cheesecakes

“In real life, I am a change management consultant at CPC,” she told us, “so the cake business is basically my hobby, as I love to bake, and especially love cheesecake! My mom got the recipe from the blind mother of a former colleague 30 years ago, and it is still the best German-style cheesecake I know. She did not have an accurate recipe and only gave some rough instructions. But my mom managed to define this great taste.

“The idea of the cake sharing group came to my mind when I asked a friend if he’d like to try my new plum cake, and he said it was too big for him, so I asked another friend if she would like to take the other half. I thought, why not create a group where people can find their buddy to share the cake?”

And so Cake Lovers was born. It already has over 50 members, who can pick a cake and suggest when they want it for and how much of it they want. The group then allows other people to buddy up with them and claim a portion of the cake, dividing the cost proportionately between them.

Members of the group appreciate the personal touch. As one told us, “I know that the cakes are made with love, as Anne is a person who does things with a lot of care. And this you can feel when you eat them.”

To join Cake Lovers, scan the QR code below, or contact WeChat ID A016096079065.

Photos: Michael Babilon-Teubenbacher