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They walked a wooden plank Sunday to pour fudge into a gigantic wooden tray.While Lansing Community College students Samantha Sevrey and Emma Reed kept pouring, there were others melting butter in vats, adding sweetened, condensed milk and incorporating chocolate in the kitchen.
Led by LCC culinary professor William Nicklosovich, aka Chef Nick, and Jim Crosby, aka Peppermint Jim, the sleep-deprived cadre cooked on LCC's West Campus in hopes of nabbing the Guinness World Records title.
Some planned to stay overnight and were willing to go another 24 hours without sleep if it meant Chef Nick and Peppermint Jim could present a 6,000-pound slab of fudge to guests toda
y."We're at our halfway point right now ... the point of no return" said Crosby, who unsuccessfully tried to break the world's fudge-making record in 2003 and 2007.
According to Guinness World Records, the Northwest Fudge Factory in Ontario made the largest slab of fudge - at 5,050 pounds - on May 24, 2007. Nicklosovich first encountered the Crosby family almost a decade ago and he and Jim Crosby officially met last spring, when he convinced Nicklosovich to aid him in another fudge-making quest.
"He's my recession hero," Nicklosovich said of Crosby, whose Crosby Mint Farm in St. Johns has been fending off foreclosure since last year. "He has ideas."
Crosby wanted to break the world's fudge-making adventure for a good cause so the duo agreed to sell the chocolate and mint chocolate fudge to raise money for need-based LCC scholarships.
They also hope to give a financial boost to Gateway Community Services in East Lansing, which has a transitional living program for youngsters, and to help bring children's mini-sports camps to Lansing.If 6,000 pounds of fudge sell for $10 a pound, that's $60,000 that will benefit others.
"People just need to stick together," philosophized Nicklosovich, who said he likes to emphasize the importance of networking, teamwork and communication to his students.
He and Crosby relied on a network of 200 sponsors, culinary and hospitality students and faculty members to reach the intensity of work that happened this past weekend.
The two had to drive to Chicago on Friday afternoon to pick up the chocolate. By Saturday morning, they had arrived at LCC's West Campus.
They worked throughout the night and so did several of the students who volunteered to chop chocolate and make fudge.
They poured their first tray around 4 a.m. Sunday.
Jody DuBeau, 29, of Lansing, said his upper body strength allowed him to chop chocolate with some finesse.He didn't mind the work "because it's for a really good cause."
Lansing resident Reed, 21, was exhausted after an 18-hour shift of cutting and pouring chocolate and washing dishes. "I like it all," she said. "It's amazing to see actually, to see from the start to the finish."
While she may buy some fudge for friends and family, she's not sure she'll buy any for herself.
Largest Slab of Chocolate Fudge Facts
Total Weight : 520020 Pounds
Measured : 36.3 Feet Long, by 8 Feet 3 Inches wide and was 6 Inches Deep
Chocolate : 2811 Pounds of Chocolate
Milk : 309 Gallons of Sweetened Condensed Milk
Butter : 705 Pounds
Hartley Congratulation to William & Team from Paavan S. (World Amazing Records)
Congratulations to Chef Nick and the Culinary Arts Program for breaking the fudge world record on June 29, 2009! To purchase a pound of the record-breaking fudge, log on to www.lcc.edu/foundation or visit the Foundation Office in the Rogers Carrier House on LCCs campus. Flavors available include mint and chocolate and the cost is $10/pound. All proceeds go to benefit local area youth and LCC scholarships - Please Check Video
