Howdy! It’s Joey, back with more Fun Fact Friyay. Warm up those lungs, because we’ve got a LOT of candles to blow out.
The record for most lit candles on a cake is 72,585, celebrating the life of meditation teacher Sri Chinmoy.
It’s my birthday weekend, and the festivities started last night with a friend dinner at one of my favorite Austin places. (Shout-out Salty Sow, which features charming portraits of pigs all around the establishment.)
When it was time for dessert, our group couldn’t decide between bananas foster beignets or a salted caramel budino, so we got both and had no regrets. The restaurant put a candle on my budino, and I thankfully was able to extinguish it without too much trouble.
I was only 72,584 candles short of the all-time record, which took place on August 27, 2016. The Sri Chinmoy Centre in New York teamed up with Ashrita Furman to celebrate the life of Sri Chinmoy, an Indian spiritual leader who moved to New York in 1964 and taught meditation in the U.S. Eventually, he taught over 7,000 students across 60 countries.
Chinmoy died in 2007 at age 76, but people continue to celebrate his legacy. And any chance we get to make and eat a giant cake, we have to take it.
Unlike a classic cake you might get for your birthday, this was quite the behemoth. The cake was 80.5 feet long and two feet wide, requiring 100 people using blowtorches to properly light it.
Once lit, the candles remained burning for around 40 seconds, securing the world record. And don’t worry, no one had to blow out the candles through their mouths (could you imagine all that spittle?!). The birthday crew used carbon dioxide fire extinguishers to get rid of the flames, and everyone got to have their cake and eat it, too.
Previously, Mike’s Hard Lemonade held the record, with a mere 50,151 lit candles. I guess that’s something.
So, as we head into the weekend, wish a happy birthday to me or a stranger, and cheers them with some cake or a lemonade. I can’t imagine a better celebration.
Happy Birthday, Joey!
Many years ago, I lit 30 candles on a friend's birthday cake and melted the frosting. Just wondering what the cake holding 72,585 candles had as the topping. Surely nothing with sugar, which (I found out) melts at a certain temperature. Happy Birthday!!