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Gory severed-heads wedding cake a cut above the rest

A tasty yet disturbing tribute to the vow of "till death do us part." Crave's Bonnie Burton talks with bride and cake designer Natalie Sideserf about her beheaded confection.

Bonnie Burton
Journalist Bonnie Burton writes about movies, TV shows, comics, science and robots. She is the author of the books Live or Die: Survival Hacks, Wizarding World: Movie Magic Amazing Artifacts, The Star Wars Craft Book, Girls Against Girls, Draw Star Wars, Planets in Peril and more! E-mail Bonnie.
Bonnie Burton
2 min read

Some brides lose their heads during wedding planning, but bride and chef Natalie Sideserf use it as inspiration as with this 'Till Death Do Us Part" cake.
Some brides lose their heads during wedding planning, but bride and chef Natalie Sideserf use it as inspiration as with this 'Till Death Do Us Part" cake. Sideserf Cake Studio

When you first see the severed-heads wedding cake Natalie Sideserf created for her wedding, it's difficult to know whether to scream or clap. The bride and groom wedding cake shows their heads in such gory, vivid detail it looks more like a scene from a horror film than the happiest day of their lives.

The wedding cake, created by Sideserf's baking company Sideserf Cake Studio, is made from confetti cake with cream cheese icing, with an outside layer of white modeling chocolate that Sideserf used to sculpt all the incredible details including the pair's facial features, hair, beard, and blood splatter.

Sideserf's baking skills enjoyed the spotlight this month when a cake she created made it into the promo for the "American Idol" Season XIII premiere. But scrolling through her creations, it was the sweet severed heads that caught our attention.

"My husband is a huge fan of horror movies," said Sideserf, who was married in Austin, Texas, last fall. "He grew up watching them and has always had a nostalgic tie to a lot of the more gory-yet-comedic films of the '80s. We also celebrated our wedding ceremony in a very nontraditional environment, which was the Alamo Drafthouse Ritz movie theater. When my husband and I first moved to Austin together, we went there so often that it sort of became our home away from home."

While the cake was made to celebrate a loving union between Sideserf and her husband-to-be, one has to wonder what it's like to eat a re-creation of your own decapitated head.

"The cake was met with overwhelming positivity not only for the unique design, but taste too," Sideserf told Crave. "I made it at home, so my husband was aware of the idea and was able to see the creation process firsthand -- which he found both exciting and a little unnerving."

"I look at my cakes as temporary art, and the fact that you can eat my sculptures makes them that much more interesting," Sideserf continued. "Everyone at the wedding was excited to see the cake underneath, including us. Up close the cake smelled strongly of sugar and icing, so the first thing on our minds was to hurry and cut it so we could have a slice."

This isn't the first hyper-realistic cake Sideserf has created. In fact, last year her Willie Nelson cake went viral thanks to fans on Reddit. For the Moontower Comedy Festival, she made a Mount Rushmore-style cake depicting the heads of comedians Jim Gaffigan, Chelsea Peretti, Dana Carvey, and Bill Hader.

Check out more heady cake creations on the Sideserf Cakes Web site and Facebook page.

 
A closer view of the decapitated cake, created by Natalie Sideserf for her wedding, shows that this confection is a cut above the rest.
A closer view of the decapitated cake, created by Natalie Sideserf for her wedding, shows that this confection is a cut above the rest. Sideserf Cake Studio