Frankenstein brought to life by award-winning Newcastle cake artist

His creations have even attracted celebrity fans.

In February, master cake artist Graeme Venus swooped up the Best Sculpted Sugar Art of the Year 2025 at the annual D'licious Magazine Awards, for his sweet, life-sized recreation of Frankenstein's monster.

The internationally recognised cake, cookie, and sugar art magazine praised and congratulated the "very deserving" Throckley artist for his high level of baking artistry. Their spokesperson said his piece "blew our minds!"

It's deserved praise for Graeme, whose extraordinary work has kept him at the top of the UK's cake art world in recent years. The winning piece was created for Cake International, one of the world's leading sugarcraft, cake decorating and baking shows, which took him around three weeks to make.

Graeme's work has brought him international recognition (Image: Supplied)

"He’s still standing in the middle of my studio, scaring me every morning when I turn up at five o'clock," said Graeme.

Although the monster is beginning to get past its sell-by date, the artist admits that you can still "peel his skin off and have a chew".

Sticky Sponge is the brainchild of Graeme, a bespoke cake, topper and treat baking business that has received national and international acclaim for its quirky, unique and impressive cake art.

Originating from a background in model animation, Graeme's love for baking has grown from cake decorating with his wife and creating sweet treats for family friends to establishing his own business and shipping cakes all over the UK.

It was redundancy from a studio manager role for a projection company during the Covid-19 pandemic that pushed him into baking full-time.

The artist has created various pop-culture replicas (Image: Supplied)

His work is commissioned for all types of occasions, but his bread and butter lies in weddings, birthdays, corporate events, christenings, seasonal, and celebration cakes.

"I do everything from your bog‑standard wedding cakes to hand‑painted cakes with food colouring, sculpted and modelled cakes, lots of cars and Harry Potter themed pieces - that kind of stuff," he said.

"In terms of flavours, I do whatever people want. I’ve never had any complaints; lemon and passion fruit are really popular flavours.

"It’s pointless having a good‑looking cake if it tastes awful. At the end of the day, the main function of a cake is to be eaten."

The baker, whose studio is based in Bywell, near Stocksfield, has taken on various pop-culture pieces, including Wallace and Gromit, The Polar Express, and The Titanic, as well as locally relevant pieces like the Queen's Hall, Hexham's Tannery pub, and Prudhoe's Adam and Eve. He has even done a few pieces for celebrities.

Graeme has reimagined local venues like St James' Park, (top left), the Tannery (top right), the Queen's Hall (bottom left) and the Adam and Eve, in cake form (Image: Supplied)

"You get the moments. I did a birthday cake for Newcastle United's Dan Burn a few years ago and one for Brian Wilson from the Beach Boys - but it would be nice to have a lot more," he added.

Graeme estimates that he makes around 200 cakes a year, charging from £150 for a little, sculpted cake to £2000 for a large showstopper. He added that he still gets "a lot of stigma" surrounding his pricing.

He said: "I might say, 'yes, I can make an apple and a car for you, that’ll be £300,' and people say, 'it's just a cake'; but it might take three days to make, and that's still way below minimum wage when you work it out."

"A lot of cake makers at the moment, even some of the big names, are disappearing because people don't want to pay."

Although money can be tighter in the off-season, particularly after Christmas, Graeme says he loves the variety of his job, making replicas and creating "something special", like the six-foot monster lurching in his studio.

"And when people come back and say 'I loved it', the appreciation makes it all worth it."