CHICAGO - When the Original Pawleys Island® Rope Hammock held a party to commemorate 125 years in business at this year’s International Casual Furniture & Accessories (ICFA) Market in Chicago, the Lowcountry South Carolina brand made sure its birthday cake, from the Windy City’s award-winning Alliance Bakery, was more than up to the occasion.

Shaped and colored like the iconic Pawleys Island Hammock product tag, the chocolate cake with white-chocolate-mousse filling and butter-cream icing, stood close to 8 inches tall, and spanned 3 feet across. “Everyone was very surprised by the size of it!” Jay Branch noted with a chuckle. Branch is president of the HammockSource, the Greenville, NC-based parent company for Pawleys Island Hammocks.

The cake was so plentiful, and so good, in fact, that several Merchandise Mart cleaning staff stopped by for a piece before the party was over. “They helped us to put on a great show,” said Reid Roney, HammockSource vice president of sales. “We were happy to have them.”

The birthday event was also the first opportunity for many visitors to the Pawleys Island booth to see, and try out, some of the brand’s Durawood HDPE Porch Furniture, new for 2015.

www.pawleysislandhammocks.com