The display was a dream-come-true for 7-year-olds, or a real-life version of the movie “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.” Replicas of Zingers that were as big as a suitcase, cupcakes that would be too big to squeeze into a pizza box, and a lollipop that could last for months.

Not enough for you sugar junkies out there, yet? How about a version of a gummy worm that was nearly 2 feet long, or an 8-pound Tootsie Roll?

All were among the creations of the students in Pastry Chef Kevin Shaw's class at the Oregon Coast Culinary Institute.

The students recently turned the lobby at the institute, on the campus of Southwestern Oregon Community College, into a giant dessert bar. But even with all the other colorful distractions, all eyes turned to Brandon Finley when he to slowly trudge through the lobby.

The 24-year-old, who went to North Bend High School, labored as he carried his tray toward the center of the table. The other students watched and everyone moved out of Finley's way.

The tray made a soft thud as it finally was placed on the long, folding table covered with a white tablecloth.

On the tray: a giant replica of a Tootsie Pop.

How big was it?

For the stick, Finley used a 24-inch French-style rolling pin.

The ‘tootsie' portion of Finley's creation weighed 15 pounds. Quite a treat, if you could get through the 25 to 35 pounds of candy coating that Finley estimated he used.

Be glad he didn't stick to his original plan.

“I planned on doing it bigger,” Finley said. “But, we ran out of sugar yesterday.”

If you couldn't find sugar at your local market the past week, you know who to blame.

The idea for the display of mammoth treats came from Shaw, who was in a discussion about never knowing what a customer will ask for when they walk through the door of your bakery.

“I was talking about doing stuff without recipes. For a wedding, one couple asked me to make a 36-inch-long Twinkie cake and a Ding Dong to go with it,” Shaw said.

Out of that discussion, a project was born. The students were asked to bring in a snack food. They then broke down their components and figured out how to make them from scratch - minus preservatives and chemicals.

“They had to learn how to re-create cakes,” Shaw said.

And it was more than baking the students were learning.

“There's structural engineering in this,” Shaw said. “This is the first time they've worked with syrup-based products. It may seem bizarre, but there's a lot of science in this.”

First they made smaller versions of their projects. Then those were supersized about 20 times. Thus, a version of a Peep that was a foot tall.

“The hardest part is the chemistry,” Shaw said.

Finley agreed. His first attempt at this project, he was going to make giant versions of Dots.

“I couldn't get the science right,” he said.

So instead of three days to make his lollipop, Finley had just 36 hours.

“This is their first time working without a net,” Shaw said about the students who wo working without recipes. “They have to use the skills they've learned so far to reverse-engineer their project.”

And from the looks of their creations, the project was a success.

“I'm so proud of these people,” Shaw said. “We've only been together five or six months, but the things they can do now!

“Could they have done this in October? No. Now, they take it and succeed at it.”

I'm still having dreams about that Zinger over there. +