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In recognition of May as Mental Health Month, local bakery Skull & Cakebones has transformed its space into a Depressed Cake Shop, a form of pop-up shop that raises awareness and funds for mental health causes.
The idea of a Depressed Cake Shop began in the United Kingdom in 2013 and quickly spread worldwide. Desserts featured in this pop-up are decorated in shades of gray but can include a hint of color — “to symbolize hope,” according to founder Emma Thomas. Resources are included for local mental health resources, and encouraging quotes are posted around the venue.
Throughout Central Texas this month, 19 businesses, in partnership with the National Alliance on Mental Illness, will host their own Depressed Cake Shop.
“The whole idea of Depressed Cake Shop is to keep the conversation going about mental health and normalize it,” said Sascha Biesi, Skull & Cakebones co-founder and owner. “It puts that kind of conversation in a space that you wouldn’t normally be talking about mental health. Everybody talks about their allergies like it’s no big deal; mental health should be just the same.”
For Skull & Cakebones, the event is much more than a theme or a fundraiser. From the moment the bakery first began participating in 2018, it was personal, Biesi said.
“Earlier that year, one of our employees — a dear, sweet child that grew up with my daughter and had been working here since she was 15 — took her own life,” said Biesi. “NAMI had reached out to us, and I remember emailing the executive director from the hospital that night and just saying, ‘I’m in, I want to help… I want to do something to make sense of this horrible tragedy.’”
Each May, Skull & Cakebones features a charcoal lemon scone in honor of those affected by mental illness and suicide, including its former employee, who created the recipe.
The struggle of mental health and illness is something Biesi also understands herself, having struggled with multiple diagnoses over the years.
“It’s been a whole journey with my own mental health,” she said. “For me, mental health has always been right at the forefront of my own life; my own struggles; my own lived experience. To be able to offer our bakery up for the Depressed Cake Shop … it just makes sense of that whole journey, personally as well.”
Biesi said she wants her bakery, this month and year-round, to be a healthy place for mental health awareness, conversation and education.
“I want our community to feel like this is a safe space to not just come in and grab lunch or a baked good or whatever, but they can also come in and feel supported in their mental health journey,” she said. “If they have a family member or friend that’s on a mental health journey, they can come in and understand how to support.”
