Wenatchee's Huge Apple Pie Takes Cake As World's Biggest -- 17- Ton Dessert To Be Listed In Record Book

The massive apple pie concocted last summer by Wenatchee residents has officially been designated the world's largest.

The town's North Central Washington Museum, which organized the event, received word of the milestone this week from the Guinness Book of World Records.

"We're very pleased and excited, because it's been a long wait," museum spokeswoman Mary Thomsen said. "The whole community pitched in that day."

Volunteers gathered before dawn on Aug. 16 at Walla Walla Point Park to slice and core more than 37,000 pounds of apples, which were unloaded into a crusted pan spanning 1,056 square feet.

The mixture baked for about five hours in a custom-built, propane-powered convection oven.

For the record, the finished product weighed in at 34,438 pounds - about two tons heavier than the previous record-holder cooked up in Chelsfield, England, in 1982.

To fund the endeavor, the museum secured donations from 140 local businesses, ranging from produce growers to heavy-equipment operators, and invited community members to do the peeling. More than 600 volunteers from across the state showed up to take part.

The official word came too late to include the pie in the 1998 Guinness book, but the museum has a certificate saying that as of Nov. 10, Wenatchee holds the record.

"If someone goes out tomorrow and makes a bigger one, we would only have the record for a few days," Thomsen said.

"But as long as no one usurps our record before the '99 book, we'll be in there."

Jake Batsell's phone message number is 206-464-2595. His e-mail address is: jaba-new@seatimes.com