Saturday, September 19, 2015
10:00am 3:00pm
Society for Contemporary Craft
2100 Smallman St
Pittsburgh, PA, 15222 United States
Join us for the Pittsburgh Premiere of the Depressed Cake Shop, an international pop-up bake sale raising mental health awareness one grey, sweet treat at a time! Confirmed bakers include:
- 2 Local Girls – Pittsburgh, PA
- Colangelo’s Bakery – Pittsburgh, PA
- Eliza’s Oven – Pittsburgh, PA
- Gluuteny Bakery – Pittsburgh, PA
- Kara’s Couture Cakes – Buffalo, NY
- Prantl’s Bakery – Pittsburgh, PA
- Vanilla Pastry Studio – Pittsburgh, PA
The Depressed Cake Shop was born in 2013 when Emma Thomas, a creative director and public relations specialist in the United Kingdom, decided to create a unique (and delicious) platform to raise awareness and shine a light on the fact that one in four people will be face with a mental health issue at some point in their life.
Emma’s brief was very specific — the cakes had to be grey, but could have a pop of color to symbolize hope. Her astute intuition was that this would ensure that the concept stood out from the countless charity fundraisers that take place each year.
It was very successful and garnered attention throughout the United Kingdom. It also created an active community of bakers and organizers who joined a Facebook group and were inspired to create pop-ups of their own.
Then, something magical happened. The concept did not end with that first pop-up, the bakers and organizers kept going. Shops popped up in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Glasgow, Houston, Seattle, Kuala Lumpur, Atlanta, Australia and India.
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. Others were compelled to join because they had seen friends and family members suffering and wanted to be part of a solution.
A worldwide movement had been created, simply through the act of baking and selling grey cakes. Since then, the Depressed Cake Shop has popped up all over the world.
The committed co-conspirators who have kept the Depressed Cake Shop movement alive are continually searching for opportunities to pop up a shop and tell their story. In the process, they have raised over $70,000 for local charities that share this common goal. They have received international media attention from the likes of “CNN,” “Time Magazine,” “Oprah Magazine,” and the “Huffington Post.”