Cake-mares

Cake-mares from baker ‘Annabel Lecter’

• Annabel de Vetten, 42, from Birmingham, is nicknamed Annabel Lecter
• She charges upwards of £400 for her decorated sponge creations
• The former sculptor only began baking three years ago

If you’re stuck for cake inspiration, there’s always a ghoulish alternative.

Annebel de Vetten, nicknamed Annabel Lecter, has created some truly memorable cakes in her time. A tower of birds’ skulls, for example, or a startlingly lifelike hairy hog’s head.

Annabel runs the Conjurer’s Kitchen in Birmingham and specialises in a different kind of kitchen nightmare.

Brain food: Annabel has become famous for her terrifyingly realistic cakes – a motley collection of dead baby heads, skinned birds, rodent skulls, blood soaked intestines and human brains, pictured here, made out of marshmallow

Baker Annabel said: ‘When people look at my cakes, they recoil in disgust, but it’s funny watching their expressions as they bite into a bit of intestine and realise it tastes like chocolate cake‘

Pig’s dinner: These remarkable pig’s heads are delicious cakes. ‘You should never be afraid to try things,’ says alternative baker Annabel De Vetten

Annabel – nicknamed Annabel Lecter by her friends – only began baking four years ago, and now spends around 30 hours on each of her terrifying but delicious masterpieces

The ghoulishly creative baker, 42, has become famous for her terrifyingly realistic cakes – a motley collection of dead baby heads, skinned birds, rodent skulls, blood-soaked intestines and human brains.

Annabel only began baking three years ago, but now spends around 30 hours making each one out of sponge cake, icing, marshmallows and chocolate, and sells each for upwards of £400.

She said: ‘When people look at my cakes, they recoil in disgust, but thankfully when they taste them, they love them.

‘But it’s funny watching their expressions as they bite into a bit of intestine and realise it tastes like chocolate cake.’

Turkey dinner cake, made by Anna De Vetten of Conjourer’s Kitchen in Kings Heath

She continued: ‘With stuff like the life-size baby’s heads, which are made from white chocolate and therefore look kind of dead, it obviously isn’t to everyone’s taste – but they’re certainly different and that’s not always a bad thing.

‘You should never be afraid to try things.’

Annabel began cracking eggs and creaming butter just three years ago as she baked her own wedding cake when she tied the knot to magician Thom, 48.

After the cake, featuring a little magician on top instead of a bride and groom, went down a storm with guests, she quit her job as a sculptor to set up her own bakery, Conjurer’s Kitchen.

She said: ‘I started off just making cakes that were magician-themed, but I started getting more gruesome requests – and things just escalated into making dead baby heads and human hearts.

‘My cakes resemble human organs, mummified heads and life-sized skulls – they’re for people with a sweet tooth but a strong stomach.’

Frightfully good: Annabel de Vetten, pictured here, from Kings Heath has made an edible tiger at her Conjurers Kitchen. Prices for her cakes start at £75

Coffin cake! Annabel has also made a serial killer cake and an unusual bondage-themed wedding cake

She added: ‘I just sort of fell into this business. I didn’t make my wedding cake with the mind to get into baking, we only had a small budget for our ceremony and I thought it would be a bit of fun and a penny-saver.

‘But the cake came out really well and I had a lot of fun doing it. It just went from there and now I love my job.

‘My family are so supportive of my gruesome cakes business – they would probably find it weirder if I made pretty and girly cakes because that just isn’t me.’

Not advised for a children’s birthday party: Annabel de Vetten’s cakes are sponge, decorated with icing sugar, chocolate and marshmallow, and sell for upwards of £400

Shudder: A skinned human face cake – one of the gruesome creations of Annabel de Vetten from Birmingham

Annabel has since created a serial killer cake and a bondage-themed wedding cake.

‘I based one cake on the bejewelled skeletons of saints displayed in churches throughout Europe.

‘Of course my jewels were entirely edible, as well as the rest.

‘I pretty much used every sweet edible material under the sun; cake, chocolate, buttercream, marzipan, sugar paste, hard candy and sugar balls.

‘It was devoured by over 100 visitors pretty quickly! It was a fantastic evening and a marvellous event to be a part of.’

Annabel said: ‘My family are so supportive of my gruesome cakes business – they would probably find it weirder if I made pretty and girly cakes because that just isn’t me’If you are looking for something weird and wonderful, why not ask one of our cake magicians to work their magic and create something disgustingly beautiful and tasty for your next party!Ask your local store for more information!