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Baker's life-sized deer cake becomes a sweet viral sensation

It's a sweet viral sensation.
/ Source: TODAY

A Pennsylvania couple recently celebrated their wedding with a cake that really bucks tradition. Instead of serving a traditional tiered confection, they enlisted the help of a cake designer to create a life-sized replica of a giant deer.

The cake, which was designed by Pam McNeal at the Shady Maple Farm Market in East Earl, Pennsylvania, has quickly become a viral sensation since it was posted on Facebook earlier this month.

John Gehr, a marketing and sales manager for Shady Maple told TODAY that the bride and groom (who wish not to be named) came in with a pair of plastic antlers and simply asked the baking team for a cake to match.

To craft the giant deer, McNeal used Styrofoam to make the deer’s neck and head, but the rest of the body was entirely edible.

The dessert, which was made from scratch, was a marble cake made with vanilla and chocolate batter, swirled together to create a truly unique interior design. The incredible creation took 10 hours to make and was large enough to feed 250 guests at the wedding.

The cake has also gained widespread attention on social media, garnering hundreds of comments and thousands of shares on Facebook alone.

“Wow what an awesome cake. You really did a great job. I wouldn’t even cut it,” one person wrote.

“Break out your doe I heard it's only a buck a slice,” another person joked.

“WOW, I would want to freeze it and never eat it. That is truly a work of art!!!” someone else wrote.

Gehr told TODAY that since the store posted the cake online, they’ve seen a big increase in orders and are excited to create more custom designs in the future.

“We have had people reach out to us about that cake specifically and other cakes. The response has been tremendous," he said. "We certainly know what it means to have something go viral now."

While McNeal's dear deer cake is certainly a work of art, it isn’t the first animal-inspired dessert the bakers at Shady Maple have created. In past, bakers at the market have crafted cakes that look like a dog’s head, a dinosaur head, a tiger and a pig.