When she isn't making doe eyes at the camera, Debbie Goard admits she's "usually clad in an icing-encrusted apron."

That's because the Oakland, Calif., resident runs Debbie Does Cakes, a one-woman cake-design shop which specializes in highly realistic cake sculptures that you have to see to believe (like the amazing ham cake at left).

"I had a background in fine arts and was leaning toward fashion design when I first stated making cakes," Goard told Asylum.

"I was the proverbial 'starving artist,' so I took a job as a counter person in a bakery. The decorator there was retiring and knowing my creative background they asked if I'd like to try her job. I watched her work for a week and then I took over the position."

These days, Goard can turn just about anything you can imagine into a giant, lifelike, edible cake. Read on to see what we mean by just about anything.


"I love to make any cake that replicates other food," Debbie told us. So yeah, that steak is made from flour, butter and sugar.

"I made a giant uterus cake for a group of graduating gynecologists," Goard replied, when we asked her about her strangest client request.

"I owe a debt of gratitude to the dog cakes. My first press was for the dog cakes."

You can have your iPhone and eat it too.

The shoe Charlie Chaplin had to chow down on in the silent movie classic "Gold Rush" was apparently made out of licorice. This sparkly pump looks much tastier.

More food replicating other food.

What's this? Why the E. coli virus, of course. She made it for a scientist. It fed 100.

All photos courtesy of Debbie Goard. Check out more of her amazing cakes here.