Frog, vintage, or abstract – whatever cake design you gravitate towards, LinLin Cake delivers it all. The creations of Charmaine Wong Szu Lin, or as most of us know her, LinLin from LinLin Cake, have now dominated TikTok and Instagram feeds as well as celebration tables. Her intricate detailing blurs the line between food and art, while her maximalist aesthetic and joyful personality have captured widespread attention. Yet the story of LinLin Cake traces back to 2020, when COVID-19 imposed limits on our everyday lives. “Everyone started to bake during COVID,” said LinLin. Her statement is a fair reflection of that time period – when a virus spread was at its peak, there was little else to do but to turn inward and get creative.
The spark that ignites the fire
Ever since she was little, LinLin has always had a passion for art. Painting and arts and crafts were never apart from her – it was rather imprinted in her soul. When she was in high school, she started baking cookies and cupcakes while making origami on the side, all so she could give them to her friends. Her first job after high school was as an arts and crafts teacher for kindergarten kids. Even then, the baking never stopped, even if it was occasional. Baking and creating were done purely out of her passion and love for art.
“Never was the baking interest thought to become a business,” LinLin said when we asked about her journey. “I actually had more interest in doing fashion,” she confessed. The only thing on her mind was to decorate a charming cake amidst the global pandemic and months of quarantine. However, her consistent posting and the growing reach of her videos soon sparked the idea of turning her cakes into a business. Besides seeing the amount of orders pouring in, she also noticed the consistent income that came along with it – that’s when she decided to put her foot on the business gas.
The journey to success
When talking about family, LinLin confessed her gratitude for having an open-minded support system, even back when she first decided to pursue fashion. “My parents are not too traditional. They didn’t ask me to be a doctor or whatever,” she joked. Whichever path she decides to pursue, the only rule for her is to pursue it properly. She tried selling clothes, but ironically, that’s when she noticed that baking shines even more. The business potential, the low capital cost, the ability to do it from home, and the existing baking equipment – all these factors made it easier for her to start. As if that wasn’t impressive enough, LinLin also never went to a pastry school – not even a cake decorating workshop. All that attention to detail comes solely from her passion for art.
But just like any other journey, LinLin’s wasn’t linear either. During her early business days, she was drowning between preparing orders, logistics, and customer service. Her work demand was piling up over her one-woman business. That was when the family hopped in to help with buying ingredients, packing, and washing dishes. “Technically, at the start, it was kind of like a family business,” LinLin described.
How does she juggle between making orders and content creation, then? “I don’t know where my energy comes from, honestly,” LinLin laughed. She admitted that sometimes, she even surprises herself. Even at 4am, she finds herself editing content to post for the next day. “I think I’m just excited about creating – both cake and content.”
Today, she remains the only baker in her home-based company, but she does have an assistant for the logistics. In her daily routine, she shares that the moment she wakes up, she dives straight into work. “Teeth brushed or not, showered or not,” she joked. From confirming new orders and planning her workflow to sketching custom designs, to meeting potential clients and sourcing ingredients, her schedule is relentless. When time allows it, she even squeezes in a workout before ending the day by making dinner. It might make you wonder how she manages it all in the same 24 hours as everyone else.
However, she has reached various milestones that make her hard work pay off. She then listed a few achievements that make her proud, like the time when she was growing on TikTok and was nominated for TikTok Awards, or when the media and international figures started to notice her. “I’m proud of my achievements, but every growth I take is challenging,” she said, putting things in perspective.
Weaving work and personal style
No matter the size of the cake, completing an order overall takes around two to three days. The cake needs to set fully before moving on to coating and decorating. Her simple cakes take two to three hours to frost, while the most complex ones have demanded an impressive 12 hours. But amidst it all, LinLin appreciates the flexibility in doing her own business.
It requires a certain talent as a designer for the crowd to recognise your work without embedding your name. This applies to LinLin Cake – due to the detailed designs, one glance at her cake is enough to tell that it is her endeavour. Her personal fashion style heavily inspires her work, like the bold and colourful essence of Harajuku mixed with the layered, girly, and ruffled features of Lolita.
Her style is then met with cute characters. She first started with the frog motif, considering how big the frog cake trend was during the COVID-19 pandemic. Although, she confessed, sculpting characters that require fondant or gum paste is a hassle. Afterwards, she delves into doing landscape and abstract designs, aligning with her passion for painting. “If I could do it on canvas, why can’t I do it on cake?” she said, and the answer is, there’s no reason. She does it and excels.
When making orders, LinLin prefers to do new designs that she has not tried before. Hence, the farm-themed cake she created for Cake Piknik, a cake potluck event, remains her favourite to date. “I also enjoy it most when my client understands my aesthetic and puts their trust in me.”
A step forward
When she shared with us about her future, she was already in some ways living it. LinLin always knew she wanted to sell her cakes on a commercial scale without opening her own shop, “because that’s a different and larger commitment”. She also finds it difficult to have a team that can help her with managing and decorating orders, which is not her fault, really, considering not everyone can frost cakes as intricately and passionately as she does. The bridge she has found to fulfil this dream is to work with cafes. Her cakes are now available at a cafe named Yame Sushi, which shares similar aesthetics.
When we asked about what advice she would give to others, the answer was a cakewalk (sorry, we just had to do it). “Just keep going, don’t worry if it will fail. I understand that we overthink a lot as humans – I do that too. But at the beginning of the journey, as long as you start it, something will happen,” she shared. Her next words left an instant imprint on our souls: “Even if it fails, it’s still growing. If you don’t act on it, it will remain just a dream.”
That same motivation and determination are what bring LinLin to where she is today. She started her social media page, and she kept going, even now. Eventually, something – and in fact, many amazing things – does happen.
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