Hell Might Not Be So Bad After All… A Look at Janine Lister’s HELLRAISER Cupcakes

Looking for something to really set your Halloween party offerings apart from the pack? Janine Lister has such sights to show you...

Combining her love of horror movies and cake decorating, Janine has created a set of Hellraiser cupcakes that are worth risking a visit from the Cenobites to obtain.

"I set up my sinister selection to provide cakes for those of us out there who want a change from the mainstream cakes and want macabre, bloody and, as people have said, “sick” cakes.

I decided to make Hellraiser cupcakes because when I was younger it was one of the films which scared me and introduced me to horror. The imagery in Hellraiser perfectly adapts itself to cupcake design and is easily identifiable. I have previously made cupcakes for many other films, which were simple images from the films on discs of icing atop a delicious layer of buttercream, but I wanted to make something even more unique."

Janine was kind enough to share one of her recipes, so you can make your own Pinhead cupcakes at home. As she said, making a Pinhead cupcake "is a little simpler than you would think, but is extremely effective."

1. Taking your favourite cupcakes (handmade or bought) and some buttercream, spread a thin layer of buttercream over the top of the cupcake.

2. For extra flavour, you can also fill the cupcake with more buttercream. 

3. Roll a thin layer of fondant and cut a disc the same size as your cupcake. 

4. Place the disc (or as my son says, “dicks”) on the top of the cupcake and smooth to the edges to create a nice domed cupcake with no cake showing.

5. Emboss the icing with squares to make a grid.

6. For the nails, roll fondant icing (ideally colored grey) into thin sticks. Make some small discs to glue onto the end of the sticks and leave them to dry and harden. 

7. After a few hours, the nails will be hard enough to push into the cupcakes at the corner of all the squares. I painted my nails with edible silver paint to give a better finish.

Thankfully, this isn't the last we've seen of Janine's "sick" creations and she isn't just focusing on Cenobites:

"Earlier this year I had the honour of meeting and presenting a Leatherface bust cake to Gunnar Hansen himself. This cake was signed by Hansen, Tom Savini, Bill Moseley, Caroline Munro, Ken Foree, Martine Beswick, and Dani Thompson. Hopefully, this interest will grow and there will be more cakes and cupcakes to appeal to the horror fanatics in all of us."

To learn more about Janine's creations, including her "sick" cakes, visit:

• http://janinemakescakes.weebly.com/
• http://janinemakessinistercakes.weebly.com/
• https://www.facebook.com/JanineMakesCakes
• https://twitter.com/jmakescakes