They’re extremely popular cakes.
Burn-away cakes — confections where the highest layer is lit on fire and burns away to disclose a hidden message or picture — have been a viral sensation on social media, and now NYC bakeries are being inundated with orders for the fashionable treat.
“This one has been insane,” said Nerwan Khalife, the owner of Astoria’s Cakes by Nerwan. “Our phones have been going off the hook.”
Khalife — a 30-year-old French Culinary Institute grad who has designed cakes for Anna Wintour, Jennifer Lopez, Odell Beckham Jr., 50 Cent and the president of Albania, amongst many others — first learned about burn-away cakes in mid-January when her mother showed her a TikTok in a foreign language with the flashy cakes.
She reasoned she could create something similar by printing a design in edible ink on a skinny layer of wafer paper, comprised of potato starch, that may catch fire and burn away to disclose one other design on a sheet of edible sugar paper.
A fluffy layer of Swiss meringue buttercream would hold the photographs to the cake, and a bumper of the frosting across the fringe of the cake could stop the hearth from burning any further.
“It’s like a candle on a birthday cake, just a little bit larger,” said Khalife. “It’s not gonna burn your own home down.”
For Valentine’s Day, she is making 6-inch heart shaped burn-away cakes that say “Hey Sugar!” on the highest layer, after which burn away to disclose a “Will you be my Valentine!” message.
They’re priced at $150 and her small Queens bakery has already received orders for nearly 80. Khalife plans to cap orders at 100.
“We’re attempting to pace ourselves,” she said. “It’s just us.”
In recent weeks, she’s also done burn-away cakes for birthdays and gender reveal parties with sonogram pictures, and he or she’s working on custom designs for events in March. Prices start at $150 for small 6-inch cakes and go into the 4 digits for larger confections that may feed greater than 100 people.
She’s doing a thirtieth birthday cake with a macabre theme: the highest layer will read “Death to my 20s,” after which there shall be a cheerier “Hello 30!” message beneath.
Khalife can be at work on a divorce celebration cake, which is able to feature a picture of a wedding license that may flame away to read “single and free.”
“Persons are customizing it to anything and all the things and we’re loving it,” she said.
Other Recent York spots are also jumping on the trend. Last Friday, Angelina Bakery in Hell’s Kitchen announced on Instagram that it, too, can be making burn-away cakes, showing off Valentine’s Day and Lunar Recent 12 months designs. There was a right away demand.
“As soon as we put it on social media, our cake orders increased by 300%,” Jefferson Cho, vp of operations at Angelina Bakery, told The Post.
Khalife thinks we’ll be seeing increasingly more of those creative cakes. The longtime pastry chef has seen and done various trends over time.
She’s made shoe-shaped treats, rustic “naked” cakes with fresh flowers and ultra-realistic 3D confections — including one which looked similar to the board game Operation for Wintour’s doctor son Charles Shaffer.
But, she said she’s never seen a method catch fire as quickly as this one.
“It takes the cake.”
