6 Secrets to Making Outrageously Creepy Desserts
Christine McConnell is a self-taught baker—and author of the upcoming book, Deceptive Desserts—who's mastered the art of macabre cakes. Check out some of her most insane projects—and get her advice for nailing the look.
Christine McConnell is a self-taught baker—and author of the upcoming book, Deceptive Desserts—who's mastered the art of macabre cakes. Check out some of her most insane projects—and get her advice for nailing the look.
Modeling Chocolate + Piping Gel = More Realistic Cakes.
What really makes Gizmo look so real he could scamper off the cake stand at any moment (or at least quiver animatronically) is his eyes. McConnell made them using modeling chocolate, then coated them with clear piping gel to give them the slightly glossy look real eyeballs have.
Consider the Cake's Flavors.
If you're investing the time to sculpt a character cake, the filling and flavors are just as important as the shape of the cake itself. McConnell made Stripe, the evil leader of the Gremlins, out of carrot cake tinted green with wheat grass. It's an unexpected—and semi-controversial—flavor combination that's just as attention-getting as the cake itself.
As for getting the cake to stand up like that? Each piece was chilled, so it'd be less likely to crumble, and held together with dowels.
Take It Slow.
This demonic take on Ohio's state dessert is a bit of a time commitment—"I spent, like, three hours carving the antlers for the entire batch of buckeyes," McConnell admits—but the trick to cutting pretzels without them crumbling into dust is using a thin, serrated knife, and sawing very slowly.
Force Your Frosting to Chill Out.
Reddit users went crazy for McConnell's horror-movie take on the site's alien logo, which she says she made as a "jabby joke," but wound up being one of her most-liked projects to date. Two wooden dowels through the center of the cake helped keep it from collapsing under the weight of the alien's massive head, and as with all of her cakes, McConnell chilled the buttercream so it'd be easier to sculpt with. That's what helps her get those crisp furrows between the alien's eyes and his smoother-than-an-android's-bottom complexion. (His fur is carefully placed shredded coconut, which made this cake taste like an Almond Joy bar.)
Work With What You've Got.
When McConnell's brother asked her to make a cake based on death-metal band Danzig, she initially planned on just replicating the logo, but pairing it with regular birthday candles seemed out of place. She stick toothpicks on the bottom of each candle to make them even longer, then bought paraffin wax, melted it, and dipped the candles in the wax, layer by layer, until she created a curved shape that mirrored the horns in Danzig's logo.
As a finishing touch, she rolled them in cinnamon and nutmeg to make them look grimy.
Let Your Ideas Run Wild
These "screamberries" started out as McConnell's attempt at making waffle cones from scratch. Then, she decided to add strawberries and crushed Oreo dirt. "I thought, 'What if I gave them little monstery faces?'" she says. And then, of course, if you're going to have strawberry monsters, you might as well add fondant-and-frosting tentacles to tie everything together.
Most of McConnell's projects evolve that way, where halfway through, she has an idea—or simply asks herself, "What can I do to make this a little different?"—and tries to incorporate it, which leads to treats unlike anything you've seen before.
You can check out even more of her work on Instagram.
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