Massive chocolate sculpture breaks Guinness World Record

(Qzina Specialty Foods)

Move over Europe, America's love for chocolate has reached new heights.

California chocolatiers have broken a Guinness World Record for building the world's largest chocolate sculpture. The sculpture, crafted by employees of Qzina Specialty Foods in Irvine, California, models an ancient Mayan temple and weighs 18,239 pounds, surpassing the previous record set in Italy in 2010 by more than 7,500 pounds.

“Breaking a Guinness World Record for building the largest chocolate sculpture will be Qzina’s greatest masterpiece yet,” said Richard Foley, founder and CEO of Qzina. “We studied Mayan pyramids at great lengths to create an exact replica of the Temple of Kukulkan at Chichen Itza to honor the original chocolatiers."

Built proportionally to the ancient temple’s true size, the solid chocolate pyramid is six feet tall and its base measures 10 feet by 10 feet – exactly one-thirtieth the size. The sculpture’s base alone weighs more than 3,000 pounds.

The chocolate pyramid will be on display at Qzina Institute of Chocolate & Pastry in California, beginning June 4, 2012. The company plans to destroy the sculpture on December 21, 2012, when the Mayan calendar comes to an end. The method for destruction is yet to be determined.