It seems like there's a pastry and music related event every week in Winnipeg. There's … well, no. There isn't. There's just the Cake 'n Shake, June 7 at the Purple Room at Frame (318 Ross Ave).

In its ninth year, the marathon event (starting at 4pm and ending after midnight) had humble beginnings in Purple Room owner Paul Little's dad's living room as a belated birthday celebration for his friend Joanna McCammon.

"Her birthday is in late April," Little, who also preps the 100 milkshakes for the event, says of his cake-making co-founder. "She was in university at the time, nine years ago, and was very frustrated that she could never celebrate her birthday because she was in exams every year. May came along that one year and she's like 'I wish I could've celebrated my birthday' and I said 'Let's celebrate it in May, who cares.'"

Starting out as just a fun day for friends to drop in and belatedly indulge in McCammon's birthday cakes and Little's shakes, it became a tradition that turned into a public event by volume five.

"Joanna was getting married and, despite being a born and bred Manitoban, didn't have a wedding social," Little says. "We put (Cake 'n Shake) on (as a wedding social) at the now defunct Dylan O'Conner's on Portage and invited some musicians and kinda made it the first big public event."

When Little found a home for his Purple Room venue at Frame last March, a permanent home for Cake 'n Shake was found as well. The intimate and artistic venue is one of the best sounding in the city, and Cake 'n Shake IX will put the sound system to the test with sets from such brilliant local acts as folk heroes TWIN, funked up singer/songwriter Alan Wong, noisy boys The New Wild and members of Winnipeg's most handsome pop rock group, Latka.

"Paul told TWIN about Cake 'n Shake after playing an open jam that he had put on at the Purple Room During the JUNOs," TWIN leader Dave Fort says. "As soon as he started talking I started getting this Archies at Pop Tate's kind of feeling and said - probably interrupting him - 'We want that gig.'"

Volunteering to jump on this tasty bill is a recurring theme, as Little points out that after meeting Wong at a social, he received a Facebook message asking to play last year's event.

"The Cake 'n Shake community is growing," Wong says. "The acts are getting more polished and the talent is growing. I can say that as a returning act, my set will be markedly different than the last, and I look forward to sampling some of the delicious deserts Paul and his crew are going to lovingly feed me!"

The show itself is a bargain and a half (a good thing for bargain-hungry Winnipeg) in that $15 gets you all the cake you can eat, one milkshake and eight hours of entertainment, including comedians J.D. Renaud and Big Daddy Tazz. The hosts help split the day into two parts - the first being more family friendly, the second a little more heavy and blue for the big kids. All ages will enjoy this, though - Tazz will be giving the first public reading of his new children's book, Bartholemew The Barkless Beagle.

"It's another step in his long career and we're excited to have that at the Purple Room," Little says. He also notes that it's not only a family-friendly event, but that the Purple Room is an all-ages venue.

"One of the benefits of the Purple Room being non-licensed is that by default we're kind of an all-ages venue," he says.

Fitting, since Cake 'n Shake is definitely a pretty great way to kick back and feel like a kid again.

"Cake 'n Shake is an institution," Wong says. "A glorious celebration of caky, creamy goodness that harkens back to the days of proper music recitals, where after a concert, the audience was treated to a reception, featuring different cakes, squares, cookies, tea and coffee, lovingly homemade by the community it brought together."