It’s tradition to light candles on top of a cake, but a trend involving setting cake itself aflame has recently spread across social media like wildfire.

The fiery decoration has been around for years, but its recent popularity is attributed to two cake makers on TikTok.

Social media scrollers may be familiar with the Pokémon-themed cake that starts with a likeness of Charmander before burning away to reveal two other Pokémon characters. It was designed by Namaya Navaratnarajah, an Ontario-based baker known on social media as @cakesbynams.

Her triple-layered Pokémon creation garnered over 2 million likes on TikTok and Instagram.

It was preceded by a cake made by Denise Steward of Denise’s Delights. Steward reignited the trend with a New Year’s-themed cake with an initial layer that read “3 2 1” that when set fire, gave way to a sheet below that read “In my 2024 era.” She used wafer paper for the top layer in a paid partnership with Paper2Eat, a company that makes edible ink and paper.

Burn-away cakes involve two top layers, separated by a thick border of piped icing. The outermost layer is made from flammable ingredients such as sugar, rice and other forms of starch. The bottom layer is decorated with regular edible icing.

Ellen DeGeneres furthered the trend with a blue and green-hued burn-away cake to celebrate her 66th birthday. It read “Happy Birthday” before the flames gave way to “Ellen” written in cursive underneath.

Safety concerns

The cake trend has yet to heat up in Central Oregon, however.

Some members of the Bend Foodies Facebook group said the trend was fun, but others said they were concerned with the safety risks of setting a dessert ablaze.

Sherry Newcomb, owner of a Bend micro-bakery business, said, “It looks like a huge liability if things go wrong. It’s a ‘no’ for me.”

But Jilian Nelson pointed out that burning a layer of cake didn’t seem considerably more dangerous than birthday candles.

According to Dish, the fire risk of burn-away cakes is comparable to candles or sparklers. The cake may even lose its flammability if left in the fridge for over 24 hours due to the sugar-absorbing moisture.

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Time-honored cake recipes

Despite receiving requests for burn-away cakes, established Central Oregon cake businesses such as Ida’s Cupcake Cafe and Nancy P’s Bakery and Cafe are sticking to tried and true recipes. Both businesses draw the line at allowing customers to choose customizations such as cake flavor and frosting.

Owner of Ida’s Cupcakes, Autumn Lodge Persinger said, “We don’t do (burn-away cakes) because our cakes are so soft, to frost over top of the cupcakes altogether would destroy them.”

The cupcake cafe, which has two storefronts in Bend and one in Redmond, attempts to make its cakes and cupcakes as moist as possible.

“I think the taste is much more important,” Persinger said, adding it’s the same reason Ida’s doesn’t use fondant for decoration.

Nancy P’s Cafe and Bakery creates custom cakes for all occasions with the option to choose cake flavor, frosting and an optional ganache or fruit filling. Owner Katy Clabough said she sticks to time-tested techniques using real ingredients rather than experimenting with trends, which sometimes fizzle as quickly as they take hold.

“We just keep it totally simple, totally real. We don’t use inks. We don’t use spray,” Clabough said. “We’re very traditional with our cakes.”

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Trend sparks interest

There are a few Central Oregon cake makers considering turning up the heat in the kitchen, however.

Heath Goss, owner of Kook’i, said she’s considering adding burn-away cakes to the menu.

The cookie company owner, known for her shortbread and the sassy artwork she decorates it with, began with pop-ups and selling baked goods at select stores but found a more permanent home at The Podski Food Cart Lot in December.

“I’m always down for new, fun ways to have fun with desserts,” Goss said.

Elaina Reinsch, a home baker who owns a small La Pine-based baking company, said she would love to create a burn-away cake, but just for her family and not on a commercial scale.

A burn-away cake is highly labor-intensive for a reveal that lasts a handful of seconds and has nothing to do with the flavor of the cake.

If there’s a food trend as full of flavor as it is eye-catching, perhaps that’s one worth following.