This Des Moines baker is competing on spooky Halloween competition on Food Network

Brian Taylor Carlson
The Des Moines Register

Halloween is just around the corner, Des Moines. And there's a local baker who can help you kick off the season with frightfully decorated delights.

Season 4 of the Halloween Baking Championship premiered Monday, Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. on Food Network. Andrew Fuller, a home baker from Des Moines, was among eight contestants battling it out to create Halloween's spookiest and most irresistible treats.

From creepy-crawly desserts to towering confections of terror, bakers must prove their skills to host John Henson and judges Carla Hall, Lorraine Pascale and Zac Young in order to land the $25,000 prize and the title of Halloween Baking Champion.

Fuller made it past the first episode and will now move on to the second, which airs on Monday, Oct. 1 at 9 p.m.

Contestant Andrew Fuller poses for a photo, as seen on Food Network's Halloween Baking Championship Season 4.

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"It's something new that I've fallen into the in the last two years," Fuller said. "I always tell people that I am an artist first and a baker second."

Fuller, 38, was born in San Antonio, but has called Des Moines home most of his life. He said he has had an interest in spooky and scary stuff since he was a child.

"'Psycho' was my favorite movie when I was 8 years old," Fuller said, adding that he's also a huge fan of Tim Burton movies.

"Anybody who knows me calls me the 'King of Halloween,'" Fuller said. "I've always had a love for all things 'Halloween' and all things spooky. And I collect oddities and old medical specimens and devices."

This could explain why Fuller is known for his realistic human-like decorations like hand-painted hand pies in the shape of bats, whole pies with human faces baked into them and plenty of bloodshot eyeballs. 

In 2014, Fuller's house was featured in the Des Moines Register as the "Macabre Mansion."

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Fuller said he would like to open his own brick an mortar location either in East Village or Valley Junction in the future.

The Bloodcurdling Rundown

Here's a rundown of all of the 2018 Halloween Baking Championship episodes on Food Network:

  • "Hidden Halloween Horrors" — Monday, Sept. 24 at 9 p.m. Eight Halloween bakers weave spider web desserts with creatures trapped inside.
  • "Fall Forward Desserts" — Monday, Oct. 1 at 9 p.m. In the Silence of the Yams pre-heat challenge, bakers make yam desserts that evoke classic scary movie clichés from chain saws and hockey masks to bloody knives and creepy dolls. In the main heat, the bakers turn a pumpkin patch into a "bundtkin patch" by creating a pumpkin patch out of mini bundt cakes.
  • "Monster Mania" — Monday, Oct. 8 at 9 p.m. The bakers work together in the pre-heat challenge to create a 3-D suspect sketch out of Pate a Choux to help track him down. The sketch helps puts the monster behind bars but now he's hungry for the main heat challenge that involves monster-sized Halloween desserts like giant cupcakes, pies, cream puffs and more.
  • "Hallowedding" — Monday, Oct. 15 at 9 p.m. It's bridal season for Halloween lovers and since bridal showers often have petit fours, the bakers are creating "petit horrors" in the pre-heat challenge. In the main heat, it's time for a Halloween wedding. Each happy couple — vampire and troll, werewolf and mummy, skeleton and robot, witch and goblin, zombie and ghost — gets a unique Halloween wedding cake.
  • "Circus of Dread" — Monday, Oct. 22 at 9 p.m. A group of talented bakers enter the fortune-telling tent at the Circus of Dread in the pre-heat challenge. The competitors are tasked with creating tarot card desserts featuring blood orange, fig or passion fruit. The bakers then enter the Creepy Clown Hall of Fame in the main heat where they create impressive desserts that will land one of them in the finale.
  • "Cranium Epicurean, Season Finale" — Monday, Oct. 29 at 9 p.m.  Inspired by a mysterious "skull man," the bakers enter the graveyard to bring skull desserts to life in the pre-heat. For the main heat, the bakers must create a championship-worthy nightmare cake based on common nightmare themes like falling, being chased or being visited by the dead. The baker that can face their fears and come out on top will be named Halloween Baking Champion.

Plus, a special "Best of Halloween Baking Championship" will premiere on Monday, Oct. 1 at 8 p.m.

Comedian John Henson will take a look back at some of the most outrageous moments and disgustingly delicious desserts of previous Halloween Baking Championships, including creepy-crawly critters, bloodiest baking, spine-tingling ingredients, a comedy of horrors and top 10 judges' costumes.

Contestant Andrew Fuller rolls fondant on to his dish for the pre-heat challenge, as seen on Food Network's Halloween Baking Championship Season 4.

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"The group of people they came up with specifically for the season that I'm on, we all come from such different walks of life," Fuller said. "So it's really fun to see different people's skill sets and years of expertise. You're on a time crunch and you have twists thrown into the challenge. You never know what's going to happen."

Check out Fuller's work on Instagram and Facebook at @guymeetscake. Fuller said he is all booked up for Halloween orders, working in tandem with Echo's Cookie Shop in Waukee. But after Halloween, he is available for custom cake orders, including classic wedding cakes.  

You can also weigh in on the competition and share your own sweet creations on social media using #HalloweenBakingChampionship.

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