Here's a ghoulish treat for Halloween - a chocolate skull based on a real human head.

And to make things even more creepy, the macabre confection was made from taking a cast of a skull borrowed from a cannibal expert.

Canadian artist Marina Malvada creates the solid 2.5kg skulls from a blend of Cuban and Mexican dark chocolate.

She explains: "I borrowed the skull from William Jamieson, a tribal and ethnographic art collector who kindly allowed me to take a mould of a skull with great details."

Each skull takes four days to make and Marina either exhibits them or sells them to people with a taste for something different.

"Many people just keep them as beautiful works of art," she says. "On the other hand, some people do consume them, which, by the way, would take a very long time as they're solid. I ate one myself, over the course of about 9 months!

Anyone with a taste for a really dark chocolate can order online at $120 a head.

"Halloween, of course, is my busiest time of year. St Valentines' Day is a close second."

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Marina Malvada/Rex Features
Story: Dean Murray