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title: Germ-Free Method for Blowing out Birthday Candles: Video
description: A way to have your cake and eat it, too
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article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:33:31.610Z
og:title: Here&#x27;s a Germ-Free Method for Extinguishing Birthday Candles
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# Here's a Germ-Free Method for Extinguishing Birthday Candles

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by 

[Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/)


## Melissa Locker


Jun 20, 2016 7:50 PM UTC

by 

[Melissa Locker](https://time.com/author/melissa-locker/)


## Melissa Locker


Jun 20, 2016 7:50 PM UTC

Blowing out the candles on a birthday cake is a time-honored tradition that most of us don’t pause to think about. You blow out the candles before the fire burns your life-sized [Jennifer Lawrence cake,](http://time.com/3574256/jennifer-lawrence-katniss-cake/?iid=sr-link5) your [pizza cake](http://time.com/2902046/this-pizza-cake-looks-so-much-more-delicious-than-a-regular-birthday-cake/?iid=sr-link2) or your hand-made by [Chris Hemsworth cake](http://time.com/4322840/chris-hemsworth-daughter-birthday-cake/?iid=sr-link1) to the ground. Not this guy, though. The father in this video posted by [Vindog Unleashed](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJ2HaFQNpXLQpFvm4v9Vz9w) has clearly thought about what it means to blow out the candles on a birthday cake—and he does not care for it one bit.

But this man is clearly not one to sit and pout over spit-upon birthday cake. Instead he devised an ingenious solution that let’s him have his cake and eat it too.

It’s unlikely that his simple method would work on every cake, though. For instance, [this cake](http://time.com/4276343/birthday-cake-made-of-matches-burns-down/?iid=sr-link2) might take more than just a wave of the hand to extinguish.

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