Buttercream brains and maggoty cupcakes are among this bakery's terrifying treats

Human organs and severed limbs are common counter finds at Punk Rock Pastries in Burnaby, B.C.

Image | PUNK ROCK PASTRIES

Caption: The brain pie, a layered pie covered in buttercream icing and edible glaze, is Punk Rock Pastries' best seller. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Biting into a brain sounds disturbing — but when it's made out of buttercream, it can also be delicious.
Human organs and severed limbs are common counter finds at Punk Rock Pastries in Burnaby, B.C., where owner and pastry chef Hollie Fraser creates spooky treats that play with customers' senses, including their sense of fear.
"I want to do something that reflects the crazy and weird that people have never seen before," said Fraser in an interview on CBC's The Early Edition(external link).
"Honestly, if you taste these, you are not going to think it's disgusting."
Among Fraser's weird creations is the bakery's biggest seller, affectionately known as a pie brain. Two layers of pie are smothered in buttercream icing and detailed to resemble a human brain.

Image | PUNK ROCK PASTRIES

Caption: Customers who bought a Thanksgiving turcaken could also get all the fixings, from potatoes to Brussels sprouts — made out of cake, of course. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Other creepy classics include cupcakes with severed fingers and a seasonal pumpkin cupcake made to look like it is festering with maggots. Less scary and more punk rock are treats like cookies that look like cassette tapes and the dime bag dessert — cheeky little satchels of puffed rice that look like cannabis buds.
Another menu staple is the hot dog eclair. The classic pastry is designed to look like like the ball park staple, complete with mustard and ketchup-flavoured buttercream.

Image | PUNK ROCK PASTRIES

Caption: The hot dog eclair is covered in buttercream that tastes like mustard and ketchup. Also pictured is a cupcake adorned with a fondant finger. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Fraser also does holiday specials, including a cake that looks just like a roast turkey for Thanksgiving — coined the turcaken — which sold out this season.
"There are no limits to being able to create something in pastry form," said Fraser, who offers classes at the shop to anyone who wants to learn how to make their own ghoulish goods.
There is one thing Fraser won't make, though: the popular unicorn-head cake that's splashed across social media these days.
"The person who designed that cake originally isn't getting credit for it," said Fraser. "As a painter, would you copy the Mona Lisa? I'm not going to copy someone else's cake."

Image | PUNK ROCK PASTRIES

Caption: Puffed rice and sugar cookies with a little green colour makes for a delicous dime bag. (Ben Nelms/CBC)

Baking is in Fraser's blood. Her father was a pastry chef and she grew up watching him at work before going on to culinary school herself.
But the blood-covered creations are all her doing.
Fraser said she has already hooked her customers on her buttercream, which took her six months to perfect.
Now she hopes it will help her bring home the gold on Food Network's holiday baking competition, The Big Bake: Halloween, which airs Monday, Oct. 28, at 7 p.m. PT.

Image | Hollie Fraser

Caption: Hollie Fraser in the CBC Vancouver studios. Fraser is appearing on Oct. 28 on The Food Network's baking competition show The Big Bake: Halloween at 7 p.m. PT. (Instagram: punkrockpastries)

To hear the complete interview with Hollie Fraser on The Early Edition, click the audio link below: