If you've ever professed to loving your pet so much you could just eat it up, that sentiment could just come true thanks to a US cake maker.

Karen Portaleo and her catering team at the Highland Bakery in Atlanta, Georgia (who count Demi Moore and Sir Elton John amongst their celebrity clients) specialise in cake sculptures - and appear to do a particularly good line in animal-inspired creations.

Take, for example, the cake they created for Sir Elton's birthday party, which depicted a dog complete with wacky, Elton-esque sunglasses. Or the pooch poking its head out of an oversized Gucci holdall. Or the incredibly complex octopus cake, intricately finished down to the suckers on its tentacles.

Amazingly, lead decorator Karen has no formal training in baking, and worked as a prop and set designer for the advertising industry before turning her sculpting skills to baked goods. She now records her creative cakes on her blog, Special Sugar - complete with step by step tips in case you ever want to make your own.

If you can't yourself whipping up a cake pug anytime soon, get a slice of the action yourself by ogling some of Karen's most amazing animal cake creations above and below...

Animal cakes