Someone call Andrew Zimmern, we've found the party favors for his next shindig.
For the rest of us squeamish folk, a creative cake decorator in the U.K. may have stumbled on an unconventional cure for arachnophobia -- an edible tarantula dessert.
The Daily Mail writes that Cecilia Chalmers was enlisted by Tyrone and Claire Jacques to create the sugary arachnid for a horror-themed party. The twist: Tyrone is deathly afraid of spiders. "I thought getting one of hers could help me get over it and could be a bit of fun too," he told the publication.
Chalmers' creation is life-size -- 7 inches wide -- and is made with molded pieces of sugar paste attached with glue and shaded with food coloring to give the final product a lifelike appearance. An added airbrushing gives the illusion of hundreds of tiny hairs. The version produced for the Jacques cost the couple $96.50 (£60) and took nearly a month to complete.
From the sound of it, Chalmers herself may have a touch of phobia as well:
"Spiders are the only creatures that bother me largely because of the speed, unpredictability and squishy look of their bodies ... It does make me feel ill while I am making them especially as the warm sugar paste feels like the actual body of the spider."
Chalmers' web site is filled with other creepy creations, like severed fingers and cockroaches made of either chocolate or sugar paste.
Click through the below gallery for an up-close-and-personal look at Chalmers' sugary tarantula. Warning, the following images are not for the faint of heart.
