Michigan Brothers Want To Make A Record Breaking 50,000 lb Cherry Pie

Traverse City, Michigan is known as the cherry capital of the world which makes sense seeing as how it's responsible for over 75 percent of the world’s tart cherries. It's also home to the national cherry festival.

And 35 years ago Traverse City held the Guinness World Record for baking the world's largest cherry pie until a town in British Columbia beat that record three years later. Now two Michigan brothers want to bring the world record back home to Traverse City.

The History Of Guinness World Record Baked Apple Pie

Back in 1976 Charlevoix was the first to win the world record according to IPR. It started when Dave Phillips, owner of Charlevoix’s Grey Gables Inn, wanted to do something to celebrate the bicentennial. An employee suggested a world record and Phillips liked the idea. He figured since George Washington loved cherries, why not bake an enormous cherry pie and they did just that

Phillips commissioned an oversized pie tin and the construction of a brick oven. Then he assembled the massive amount of ingredients for the pie. The record earned him a letter of congratulations from President Gerald Ford.

Traverse City Sets Cherry Pie World Record

Eleven years later, a Traverse City man named Bob Underwood became upset the record was not in Traverse City, the Cherry Capital of the World so he put together an attempt of his own and took away the title from Charlevoix in 1987. The world record cherry pie weighed 27,000 pounds.

Canada Sets Cherry Pie World Record

Three years later a small town in Canada — Oliver, British Columbia broke the record with a pie that weighed over 37,721 pounds, smashing the Traverse City record pie, which was just 27,000 pounds.

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Traverse City Brothers Want To Bake A World Record 50,000 Pound Cherry Pie

According to TraverseTicker brothers, Dakota and Garret Porter have created the Big Pie Project. They want to make a cherry pie measuring 25 feet in diameter and weighing approximately 50,000 pounds. They plan on hosting the event at the Open Space on August 6th.

What Will It Take To Set The New Recorded For A Baked Cherry Pie

The brothers told the TraverseTicker that according to their calculations, the project would cost between $350,000 and $400,000 if they were to pay standard retail or service prices for every component. When you break it down for the numbers it's.

• $50,000 worth of cherries
• $35,000 for the stainless steel materials necessary for the pie tin
• Bringing in a representative from Guinness World Records to certify the record costs $13,500, plus airfare and lodging.

Hopefully, things will go well and on August 6th Traverse City, Michigan will once again be the home to the world's largest cherry pie.

You can follow along with the Big Pie Project // TC on Facebook