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This Video of a Birthday Cake Made of 7,000 Burning Matches is Mesmerizing

1 minute read

HTD is known for creating fiery chain reactions in an assortment of shapes, but in its latest video, the YouTube channel took things up a notch. In its largest-scale experiment to date, HTD constructed a three-tier birthday cake entirely out of matches—7,000 to be exact—and set it ablaze.

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The clip begins with someone lighting the top tier on fire, kickstarting a domino effect that eventually ignites the other two levels. Once the entire “cake” is consumed in flame, it takes about 45 mesmerizing minutes for it to burn all the way out.

Watch the full video above.

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Write to Megan McCluskey at megan.mccluskey@time.com