Why Are People Torching Their Birthday Cakes on Social Media?

Weirdly for a man who is—as his many birthday candles clearly indicate—81 years old, Biden is right on trend with Gen Z (cake-wise, if not approval-rating wise). Bettina Makalintal recently reported about the pervasive new TikTok trend of burn-away cakes, which is, as it sounds, a cake whose layers disappear engulfed in flames. Makalintal attributes the current popularity of the trend to bakers Namaya Navaratnarajah and Denise Steward and goes into the science behind it, which involves frosting sheets, wafter paper, and perhaps just a touch of latent pyromania. TikTokkers are making their own approximations with aplomb, and TBH, it’s mesmerizing to watch:

Not to be outdone, this week Marc Jacobs gave us a new chapter in the “cake on fire” genre with an Instagram video of himself blowing out the candles on an absolutely flame-drenched sheet cake (and attempting to protect his bag from the blaze). Now that an A-list has embraced the trend, it’s pretty objectively fashionable, right? Secure that bag, Marc!