The giant whitetail-themed wedding cake shown here was made by Cake Decorating Supervisor Pam McNeal from Shady Maple Farm Market in East Earl, Pennsylvania. McNeal remembers when an engaged couple visited Shady Maple about a year ago for a cake consultation. She says they presented her with a set of plastic antlers and asked if she could build a cake with a deer theme.

McNeal has made a name for herself in southeastern Pennsylvania because of her talents in creating one-of-a-kind specialty cakes. In the past, she’s created cakes in the likeness of a dog, alligator, lion, chimpanzee, fawn and other animals.

Because this cake would be her biggest challenge to date because of its size and level of detail, she planned a trip to Cabela’s for research. The mounted whitetails on display provided inspiration for her own creation. 

McNeal carefully planned the cake/deer design in the months leading up to the wedding, then began building it a few days prior to the event. She began by sculpting the deer’s head and neck from Styrofoam, using layers of a fondant icing to finetune the buck’s features.

The day before the wedding, McNeal used five sheet pans of cake to create the buck’s body, and also shaped the buck’s legs with cake. After 10 hours of work, she was finally finished.

On the big day, McNeal and her team transported the massive masterpiece in a van and delivered it to the wedding venue. Four people carried the cake into the reception hall, where it was later cut and served to 250 guests.