Emma Thomas, AKA Miss Cakehead, does amazing work in her kitchen. We've already seen her life-size Dexter cake and nearly full-size train cake. She's entertained people. Now she's going to help heal them.
Miss Cakehead is participating in The Depressed Cake Shop project, a program of baking events at locations throughout the UK to raise money for mental health charities. Many of her contributions will be sweets that are grey on the outside and vibrantly colored inside. She writes:
One in four people will suffer from mental illness at some point in their lives – The Depressed Cake shop will provide a unique platform on which to raise awareness of and discuss mental health issues (with a focus on depression), whilst at the same time raising valuable funds for a mental health charity. It will open up discussion about mental illness, and engage people with the issues that stems from this disease, making sure people DO talk about the issues.
The symptoms of depression can be complex – and vary widely – and so will our cakes. But as a general rule, if you are depressed, you feel sad, hopeless and lose interest in things you used to enjoy. The professional and hobby bakers contributing work to this event will be creating cakes that visually represent this… For example barely decorated cakes or cookies will communicate how depression can affect your ability to work, the grey & dull consistent color scheme that all fun can disappear from life. This will be a cake shop like nothing else seen before, the grey sad looking but delicious tasting cakes powerfully demonstrating the effects of depression.
Many of our cakes will also be made by those with personal experiences of depression, using baking as a way of expressing their struggles with, and experiences of, the illness. Through seeking sponsorship we also aim to hold a series of baking therapy sessions around the UK, and set up a support network for those who use baking to help combat depression.
Link and News Story -via Amanda Brennan