We're fans of cake. All kinds of cake. The literary ones, the gothic ones, the ones celebrating divorce. They're all wonderful cakes and we love them.

But these cakes, dear reader, must be seen to be believed.

Katherine Dey is a nurse and an artist, and her particular cake fetish combines those two elements of her life. That is to say that Dey creates perfectly rendered, incredibly realistic and generally pretty damned gruesome cakes in the shape of body parts, internal organs and other not-particularly-traditional fondant fancies.

Some of Dey's handiwork includes an anatomically correct heart for Valentine's Day, a brain complete with stem, various roadkill and a tick feeding on skin (complete with bloated belly leaking blood when cut into). And most, for instance the photo-realistic busts, look even worse cut up to reveal their ickily red sponge cake.

Dey told Buzzfeed that she loves the conflicting reaction her creations provoke, namely the glorious joy of imminent cake clashing with slight repulsion.

“I love that strange feeling I get when something looks real but it isn’t. Or when a cake doesn’t look particularly appetizing but it is a cake and it tastes delicious. I like to make people feel two conflicting things at once.”

See more of our favourites (if that's the right word) below and visit Dey's Facebook page. Oh, there are some Elmos and Ninja Turtles too. You just have to get past the placentas and the squirrels leaking intestines first...

Images: facebook.com/katherine-dey-art