Deliciously Creepy Cakes Will Haunt Your Dreams

If you like a little scary mixed in with your sweet, you’ll be all over these creepy baked goods by Christine McConnell. The L.A.-based artist and photographer’s Instagram is full of deliciously disturbing photos of cakes, cookies, and pies, modeled after spiders, monsters, and other things that go bump in the night. The self-taught baker began making scary treats only a couple of years ago, when she made a swarm of lifelike tarantula cookies for Halloween, but in that time she’s gained a massive online following, with over 146 thousand people subscribed to her Instagram account.

I think what I love most about McConnell’s creations is that many of them pair scary characters — like the Predator or a sharp-toothed reddit monster — with frilly lace doilies, icing flowers, and delicate, swirly piping. The juxtaposition of frightening imagery with old-fashioned sweetness makes for photos that are creepy, funny, and delicious-looking at the same time. It helps, of course, that she photographs her confections against a background of an idealized vintage home, often casting herself in the role of a perfectly polished, 1950s-style housewife — the matriarch of an enjoyably off-kilter imagined world. Looking at her photos, it should come as no surprise that, as she told BuzzFeed last year, McConnell takes inspiration from Tim Burton, Alfred Hitchcock, Vincent Price, and Paula Deen.

McConnell also posts fascinating progress shots to show how she makes her creepy creations. In these pics, for example, we can see how Stripe and Gizmo from Gremlins come alive:

To see more of McConnell's work, check her out on Instagram.

Images courtesy of Christine McConnell (13).