Red velvet brain cake is the stuff delicious nightmares are made of

One of the best parts of Halloween is the food: sticky, sweet caramel apples, pillowcases full of candy and, of course, the gross-out food. We’re not talking peeled grapes and bowls of noodles here, though. We’re talking brain cake.

Specifically, we’re talking the red velvet-y, raspberry jam-y, fondant-y creation of Yolanda Gampp. This brain cake is a moist, (literally) gutsy work of art that is totally perfect for your office Halloween party, Walking Dead viewing party or just on any night you feel like you might want to take a big scoop of gooey brains and shove it in your mouth, much to the horror and/or delight of whoever happens to be in the room with you at the time.

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Gampp is the brain (pun totally intended) and talent behind the hugely popular How To Cake It YouTube channel, where she makes all kinds of real-life object cakes that will make you drool and wonder “how the heck does she do that?” at the same time. She was also a hit on Food Network TV’s SugarStars and, oh yeah, she’s completely self-taught.

So what do you need to make a hyper-realistic, completely delicious, deep red velvet brain cake?

You start with a red velvet cake that’s been carved into the hippocampus and whatnot and coated in simple syrup, because of course no one likes dry, crumbly brains.

Of course, a brain cake isn’t a brain cake without some wrinkly matter that makes up the knowledge base, right? Gampp used ropes of fondant and “twizzled” them onto her brain cake, and yes, “twizzle” is an actual, totally real word used by people who make awesome brain cakes.

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Of course, you can’t even call what you’ve made a “brain cake” if it doesn’t give you that delightfully squelchy feeling when you bite into a big, gooey hunk of it — or if it doesn’t look sufficiently freshly harvested. That’s why you need to make sure it’s positively inundated with seedless raspberry jam. Make sure you pay particular attention to all the folds and squiggles of your brainy creation.

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After that, you’re ready to serve up this wickedly delicious creation at whatever celebration you deem necessary: a Halloween bash, the dawn of the impending Zombpocalypse or a First Communion. Or just because you’re really in the mood for brains one night.

There are new videos up on How To Cake It every Tuesday, so make sure you drop by to learn how to make even more insanely creative cakes and to give Yolanda some love.

Also, and finally — braaains!