Students with a pair of Vancouver Island University culinary programs in Nanaimo have begun the week-long process of making the world's largest Nanaimo bar. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By Alex Rawnsley

layer by layer

‘Bring the record home:’ world’s largest Nanaimo bar under construction

May 14, 2025 | 5:28 AM

NANAIMO — Once finished, it’ll be about the size of five King sized beds and weigh nearly as much as an adult Great white shark.

Students and staff at Vancouver Island University’s baking and pastry arts, along with culinary arts programs, officially begun building the world’s largest Nanaimo bar on Tuesday, May 13, a few days ahead of its Saturday, May 17 unveiling.

Chair of VIU’s Professional Baking and Pastry Arts program Aron Weber told NanaimoNewsNOW they’re staying true to the historically-accepted, original recipe from the Nanaimo archives…just massively scaled up.

“The [recipe] we’re using has walnuts in it, there’s some versions with almonds, pecans, other sort of nuts in the base. I didn’t want to make something that was really thick, and throw off the ratio of the Nanaimo bar…so it’s going to be about 70 feet long, but it’ll be the same thickness and same proportions as a regular Nanaimo bar.”

Trays of completed cookie bases are being stacked in the kitchen, ready to head into the chiller ahead of custard being added later this week. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

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Once complete, it’s expected the final product will weigh around 1,100 pounds, roughly twice the size of the current world record.

It’s also expected to have roughly 2.4 million calories, equivaliant to what a healthy, adult man requires over a four year period.

Getting the layers just right is a crucial step in obtaining Nanaimo bar perfection.

Too thick of a cookie layer makes the sweet treat too difficult to bite. Too little and it falls apart.

Weber said to deliver the consistency expected, a team of around 50 students and faculty are creating the base and custard one layer at a time, in sheet trays to ensure the right height.

“We are doing the first two layers in the tray, and then we’ll be joining those on the day of and pouring the chocolate across the 70 feet. Each recipe is precisely scaled, so that’ll give us the consistency, that also gives us some opportunity to really thoroughly chill the Nanaimo bar for the day of the event.”

Students take specifically weighed volumes of ingredients, then press out each tray by hand to a uniform thickness. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Students had a goal of getting 60 trays done on Tuesday, to set up work for the rest of the week.

As they pressed out precisely measured and mixed ingredients into trays Tuesday morning, butter was softening in a side room for the custard to be made Wednesday and Thursday.

Not having to bake the dessert is a huge logistical hurdle avoided, Weber said, however it doesn’t mean they don’t have variables.

Tests on the custard will take place prior to mass production, to ensure it’s exactly right.

“There is a bit of an incorporation of air into that when you’re mixing, it’s kind of a buttercream mixture. We’re actually going to do a test on it called specific gravity, that’s a volume of air incorporated into a product. We’ll test the specific gravity on one batch and then that will determine the specific gravity for the rest.”

Trays of butter sit in a side room, softening ahead of being whipped into the custard layer. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

Tests have also already occurred on the chocolate icing layer, timing how long it takes to set up after a pour.

Weber said the project wouldn’t have come together without the passion of students, as well as support from industry partners and their donations of some ingredients.

Still, it’s a tense time.

“I think it’s very achievable. Of course, I’m going to be up sleepless nights for this week, just making sure that we’re comfortable with everything going for Saturday. But that’s part of being a chef, thinking of all the things that could go wrong and what might go wrong and having mitigation plans for that.”

Ben Cram is one of the students working on the project, and is doing his grade 12 year in high school in the culinary arts program.

He said they’re excited to take the world record away from its current holders in Ontario.

“We’re all just kind of bringing everyone together to just try and and it’s World’s Biggest Nanaimo bar, the record isn’t even held in Nanaimo like we gotta fix that time to bring the record home.”

Roughly half of VIU’s commercial-sized kitchen at the lower cafeteria is devoted to the project, with teams of students working together. (Alex Rawnsley/NanaimoNewsNOW)

He agreed the chocolate layer introduces the most variability into the project, in addition to just the sheer size and scale of the dessert.

“I think when we did the Christmas baking, we were doing 400 plus boxes of cookies and squares. But even that didn’t even come close, the amount of butter we were doing this morning was crazy.”

The pour of chocolate will take place around 11 a.m. on Saturday, with the treat sliced and served roughly an hour later.

It will be at the Windsor Plywood Trades Discovery Centre (building 108) at the university’s Nanaimo campus until 2 p.m.

Donations are being accepted to help fund new ovens for the culinary programs.

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