By Megan Wehring
DRIPPING SPRINGS — There’s always a rainbow after the rain. But oftentimes, it’s hard to find that hope when you are in the midst of a storm.
Two bakeries in Dripping Springs are joining an international effort to start the conversation about mental health awareness. The ‘Depressed Cake Shop’ campaign is a community of bakers, makers and mental health activists who have discovered their shared interest in mental health and cake.
How Depressed Cake Shop was created
Emma Thomas, a creative director and public relations specialist in the United Kingdom, organized a pop-up event in England in the summer of 2013 to raise awareness for a mental health charity (she called it Depressed Cake Shop).
The cakes had to be gray, according to Thomas’ specifications, but they could also show a pop of color to symbolize hope.
Bakers and mental health advocates read about the idea and started building pop-up shops of their own internationally in places like San Francisco, Los Angeles, Glasgow, Houston, Seattle, Atlanta, Australia and more.
“Many of the cakes were designed and donated by bakers who had personal experience with depression, and they used their creations to express their struggles with and experiences of their illnesses,” according to the Depressed Cake Shop website. “Others were compelled to join because they had seen friends and family members suffering and wanted to be part of a solution. The committed co-conspirators who have kept the Depressed Cake Shop movement alive are continually looking for new opportunities to change the conversation around mental health, one gray cake at a time.”
Local bakeries participate
Skull & Cakebones and Abby Jane Bakeshop are two bakeries in Dripping Springs that are whisking away in their kitchens for Mental Health Awareness Month. Depressed Cake Shop bakeries must participate for at least May 1 through May 14, but some may decide to extend that for the entire month.
“Mental health has gray and dark moments when we are in the struggle,” said Kate Hix, Executive Director of National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) of Central Texas, “and then it has light and colorful moments when we are in recovery [or] in that hope of recovery. The original vision was a cake that was gray on the outside but when you cut into it, it had a rainbow or [rainbow sprinkles]. The whole idea is that it represents that yes, there are dark [and] challenging times and mental health challenges are very real but there is hope.”
Abby Jane Bakeshop will be featuring cloud cupcakes.
“I’m not a skilled cupcake maker,” said owner Abby Love. “But, the kids seem to like them so we are hoping to spread the message more in that way. We are going to have a little gray cloud on top of our cupcakes and some housemade sprinkles.”
Skull & Cakebones in Dripping Springs is using the entire month of May for its Depressed Cake Shop featuring cupcakes, cookies and its beloved charcoal lemon scone.
Owner Sascha Biesi will turn her bakery, Skull & Cakebones, into a Depressed Cake Shop for the entire month of May.
“We are collecting resources from therapists so there will be a table where people can collect business cards [and] we have NAMI talking cards/business cards,” Biesi said. “We also will have a hope jar. We did that two years ago and it was really successful.”
Along with cupcakes and cookies, Biesi will feature charcoal lemon scones — a pastry that has a deeper meaning.
“I had an employee who was also a dear friend, she grew up with my daughter,” Biesi explained. “She took her own life and when she was working for me, she developed charcoal lemon scones. It’s to honor Beatrice’s memory but also, it really represents that light and darkness because it’s the dark scone with the really vibrant yellow frosting on top.”
Caring for your mental health is important
One in five adults and one in six youth will experience a mental health issue, according to NAMI statistics.
“That’s over 50 million Americans,” Hix said. “It’s very pervasive and those numbers are only getting larger in the pandemic. They are now recommending, on a national level, that all children over the age of eight be screened for anxiety. … Mental health is another health issue that people have to deal with, like anything that you go to the doctor to get a checkup [for]. It’s a health issue that needs to be dealt with and needs to be discussed.”
From a young age, Love has dealt with chronic depression.
“I only really learned the best ways to treat and care for it in my adulthood,” Love explained. “I originally started volunteering for NAMI because I thought I wanted to do the in-school programs but I got too intimidated. I wonder if somebody had spoken to 14-year-old Abby about mental health, how different my journey would have been [and] I’m glad where I am now. But, there are some parts that I would have liked to have gone differently. I think the most important part is starting the conversation.”
Biesi encouraged more people to incorporate mental health into their daily conversations.
“Everybody here, especially in Austin, is going on and on about their allergies,” Biesi said, “how sick they are and how they don’t feel good. It’s a common thing we do but we don’t talk that way about our mental health. I always say I’m wrapped in this warm blanket made out of stigma, it just smothers me. It wasn’t until I was a grownup that I learned how to manage my own mental illness. I was first diagnosed with depression and anxiety, then it was upgraded to bipolar disorder and then it was upgraded again to schizoaffective bipolar disorder. It’s been kind of a lot to take in and continue to work full-time to really learn to take my medicine and do all of the things I have to do.”
Depressed Cake Shop sales benefit NAMI Central Texas. For more information about the international effort, please visit www.depressedcakeshop.org.
