Dad Invents Device That Keeps Your Kid From Spitting On The Cake

A dad from Virginia saw a problem that has been around since the beginning of birthday parties, but became inspired with the pandemic's free time and need to not transmit illness.

It's a problem that's been around for centuries. You light the birthday candles and ask your kid to blow them out, and if they're under the age of seven, they spittle all over the cake. You're used to eating food that's been spit on by your kid, and surely grandma and grandpa don't mind much either, but everyone else at the party is staring in horror at the newly wetted cake-top.

Mark Apelt, a 44-year-old dad from Richmond, came up with the Blowzee Birthday Cake Candle Extinguisher while he was at a kid's birthday party before the pandemic.

"We were at a kid's birthday party with some friends and the sun was coming through the window at just the right angle so that you could see all of the droplets fly through the air and all over the cake when the kid blew out the candles," Apelt recalled to The Daily Progress newspaper.

He talked with other parents about it, who also wondered if there was a spit catching device out there.

"I thought there had to be something, some device already on the market, but there really wasn't," he said. "Then, once the pandemic hit, we had a lot of time to think about it and a reason to work on the idea."

He got to work, creating the Blowzee, a device that diverts that nasty little kid breath and spit away from the cake.

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"There's a little electric sensor in there, so when you blow into it, you're activating the sensor, and it switches on the fan, and that creates enough clean air flow to blow out the candle. Meanwhile, the air you blow circles around and comes back toward you," Apelt said.

Kids (and especially adults) loved the Blowzee.

"We didn't know what they'd think about it, but we tried it out on some kids at a party and they loved it," he said. "It's more like a toy for them."