Reclaiming the World Record: The 50,000lb Cherry Pie Plan

In July 2019, we wrote an article about how we’d cook the filling for the world’s largest cherry pie (spoiler: we’d Jet Cook™ it) as an homage to our hometown’s annual festival, The National Cherry Festival. We are again, thankfully, in the midst of The 96th National Cherry Festival here in Traverse City and excited to share the news of two brothers and a community of supporters who are on a quest to reclaim our title as home of the world’s largest cherry pie.

The Recent History of World Record-Breaking Cherry Pies

Brothers Dakota and Garret Porter have decided to unite our community around the quest to bring the title of the world’s largest cherry pie back to its rightful home, Traverse City, the cherry capital of the world. We last held the title in 1987 when Traverse City resident Bob Underwood worked together with Chef Pierre Bakeries (now Sara Lee) to bake a record-breaking 28,350-pound cherry pie. A short three years later, in Oliver, British Columbia, Canada – the record was broken when a 37,721-pound cherry pie was produced. And today, July 8, 2022 – that record remains unbroken.

Will 2022 Bring a 50,000lb Cherry Pie and The World Record Back to Traverse City?

We hope so! Dubbed ‘The Big Pie Project’, the herculean task of making a 50,000lb cherry pie is well underway and if all goes as planned, on Saturday, August 6, 2022, the record will return to Traverse City. The pie is slated to be cooked in a custom-built oven at the Open Space Park in Traverse City on August 6, 2022. Tickets for a slice of the pie will be sold for $5 to all who wish to attend, with proceeds being allocated across six Traverse City charities. The Big Pie Project team is hoping to see 40,000 attendees at the Open Space Park raising $200,000 for the community.

What’s Left to Do?

A mammoth project like this has seemingly endless parts and pieces that must align flawlessly to pull off the task. So far, The Big Pie Project reports that Water’s Edge Sweettooth Bakery has agreed to scale their cherry pie recipe, Jacklin Steel will be fabricating the pie pan, Trison Engineering will be creating the pie stand, Team Elmer’s will assist with heavy equipment and operators required to move the tin between the oven and the stand, King Orchards is supplying 35,000 pounds of fresh local cherries, Cherryland Electric is assisting with heavy equipment to transport ingredients and equipment, Northwestern Michigan College’s culinary program will be helping with the pie dough, Lamar is donating billboard space to spread the word about the pie project, and KRX design is creating logos for the event.

What’s left? Lots. Lots of fundraising is needed to pay for raw materials like $35,000 worth of steel and much, much more. 

The Big Pie Project has a dedicated GoFundMe set up to raise funds for the looming deadline. You can learn more about the project, follow its progress and contribute to the record-breaking effort at The Big Pie Project’s Facebook Page.

We can’t wait to see The Big Pie Project succeed this August.