How to Make a DIY Burnaway Cake

Doing something for the bit is not a new idea. Neither is setting your desserts on fire. But the latest TikTok cake trend feels like an evolution that could only be born of our collective obsession with short form video, requiring a stunt for everything from pregnancy announcements to documenting your sad desk lunch. The hashtag #burnawaycake is rapidly encroaching on 200 million views on TikTok at the time of this writing and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon.

Possibly the most viral example of the trend is this one from TikTok user @cakesbynam, which uses a triple-layer technique to show the evolution of Charmander to Charmeleon and eventually, Charizard. The video currently has over 37 million views, which is a lot for anything but especially for cake. By now you’ve probably heard about Ellen DeGeneres’ head-scratchingly simple Pickleball-themed burnaway cake, or seen the Mean Girls-inspired burn book burnaway.

Burnaway cakes are poised to become the newest way to reveal your baby’s gender or announce some “personal news.” But do you really need to pay a professional baker to make one for you? That depends on how much you enjoy a good DIY.

The theory behind the burnaway cake is fairly straightforward: The bottom design is printed on a thick frosting sheet (think a piece of edible card stock) that’s fixed to the top of the cake. A layer of buttercream is then piped around the edge to create an air gap. Then a second image is printed on a sheet of edible paper called wafer paper, followed by another round of buttercream to create the illusion that this is just a regular cake.

To create the viral video moment, set the wafer paper on fire, then watch the top image burn away, revealing the image on the frosting sheet. It’s worth noting that some bakers, like TikTok user @denises_delights93, seem to be using pre-piped meringue borders instead of buttercream. This actually seems like a pretty genius hack because it comes with the added benefit of a toasted marshmallow flavor profile.

Most professionals use an edible ink printer to create their designs, a unitasking tool that can cost anywhere from $270 to $6,000. If you want to recreate the trend at home, I have a simple, cost effective solution for you: edible ink markers.

You’ll also need to buy both wafer paper and frosting sheets, but the upfront investment will cost you around $50 for enough supplies to make 12 burnaway cakes at around $4 apiece, which is a pretty good deal—especially if you have halfway decent drawing skills. Just freehand the image or phrase you want revealed on the frosting sheet, then put a different one on the wafer paper.

Speaking as someone who cannot draw at all (ask me about the time I picked up a copy of How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way), don’t be afraid to embrace the expressive stick figure. Even if you’re not exactly a budding artist, you can still make a pretty cool burnaway cake using little more than colorful handwritten phrases a la @drakeoncake combined with fun sprinkles and some simple-but-effective piped borders.

Since the cake is really secondary here, there is absolutely no shame in buying a premade grocery store cake to use as your base, or making one from one of BA’s favorite boxed cake mixes and using a few of these tips to make it taste homemade. If you want to go a step further, BA’s Easiest Vanilla Birthday Cake isn’t that much harder to make than a boxed mix. And yes, you can make a burnaway design on a simple chocolate sheet cake, too. So next time you get a promotion (or better yet, quit your job!), consider announcing it through the timeless symbolism of a flaming cake.