Cake Bomb

Cake Bomb is a blocker in Candy Crush Saga, first introduced in level 366 of Pudding Pagoda. This blocker is very unusual in many different ways. It is the first and only blocker to take up 4 squares, or a 2x2 area. The blocker has a strange design - a round pink cake with a star in the middle and 5 balls on the outside. The number of hits needed to destroy this blocker can vary significantly, from just the one hit to a maximum of 8 (the most of any blocker).

By simply breaking candies adjacent to the cake, it will break one segment off. The segment broken will be in the quadrant closest to the candies that were broken. Each quadrant contains two slices of cake. If a special candy hits the cake it will take up to four slices off the cake, therefore reducing their efficiency greatly.

When all eight slices of cake have been removed, a pink party popper appears on the bottom right hand side of the screen after all cascades have been completed in the move that the cake was destroyed, and sends a ripple of explosion through the entire board, blowing all candies and blockers away, or if it's a blocker with several layers, takes a layer off, whilst removing the blocker itself from the board as well. The disadvantage is that any special candies on the screen are also blown away, rather than setting them off. This becomes a serious threat in level 421.

No points are awarded for removing the slices on the Cake Bomb. The amount of points earned for clearing a Cake Bomb is based on the number of candies on the board. 100 points are awarded for every regular candy or special candy cleared by the party popper. The amount of points increase if candy bombs are cleared as well.

Exploding a Cake Bomb on the last move of a level will result in the party popper clearing the board of candies.

Strategy
The positions of the cake bombs can affect the difficulty of a level directly. If they are positioned in the middle, it is quite easy to break them by just using normal matches. If they are situated on the edges or corners, it can be quite hard because special candy would be required for the corner slices to be cut off, even resorting to special candy combinations.

The most common way to remove the blocker, aside from normal matches, is using multiple striped candies, including the Color Bomb + Striped candy combination. Wrapped + Striped candy works wondrously as it can remove up to 4 pieces of the cake. If lucky, a Wrapped + Wrapped combo removes all 8 pieces of the cake in one turn by blowing up two times near the blocker. A single color bomb alone do not contribute much for setting a cake off. In Jelly levels, cake bombs usually have jellies underneath them, so it is essential to try to find ways to set them off as soon as possible. In levels where there are 2 or more cake bombs, try to blow them up one at a time, not simultaneously, or else it will act as if only one cake was destroyed.

In Ingredients levels, sometimes the cake bombs block the path for ingredients to drop down, forcing the player to get rid of them in order to complete the level. It is also possible for a level to contain so many icing squares that a player has to break the cakes to have an easier time bringing the ingredients down.

Cake bombs can appear in candy order levels, too. In normal order levels (the ones requiring certain colors of candy), they are helpful for weakening a lot of blockers on board and boost the progress. If a cake bomb is destroyed, the candies presents on the board count as order, which is helpful in some levels like level 377.

However, they can become a hazard in special candy order levels. It is important to know that all non-marmalade special candies do not count towards the progress for collecting orders. A notorious level is Level 421, which requires the player to mix striped candies together 7 times (although now reduced to 5 times, it is still difficult). Because all special candies are lost after a cake is blown up, the level requires all 4 cakes to be removed before concentrating on mixing combos. It can be a nearly impossible task to pull off, not to mention the order itself is extremely difficult already.

Trivia

 * Clearing a cake bomb is more effective than the Color bomb + Color bomb combo as the combo doesn't touch most blockers. It destroys blockers, although it only takes one layer from multilayered icing.
 * This blocker can take anywhere between one and eight hits to destroy. It can therefore take more hits than a five-layer icing.
 * This is the only blocker to take up four squares.
 * The only thing the explosion doesn't destroy is other cake bombs.
 * Special candies can only ever take up to four slices off the cake. Even a Striped + Wrapped combo only takes one off each quadrant (maximum 4 slices).
 * However, a colour bomb + colour bomb combo will not remove any slices off the cake.
 * The cakes sit in a sachet similar to the icing sachets. The sachets have hearts inscribed in them, one on each quadrant.
 * Jellies can hide behind the cake bomb.
 * Jellies behind cake bombs aren't destroyed by the explosion. They can only be destroyed if they are within the range of a special candy when it goes off.
 * Jellies that don't have a candy on them are not destroyed by the explosion. However, they can be destroyed if candies occupy them.
 * In the entire game, there is a total of 83 cake bombs in Reality and 0 cake bombs in Dreamworld so far.
 * Reality: 32 in Pudding Pagoda, 6 in Licorice Tower, 6 in Polkapalooza, 6 in Soda Swamp, 7 in Rainbow Runway, 4 in Butterscotch Boulders, 2 in Sugary Shire, 3 in Cherry Chateau, 4 in Meringue Moor, 5 in Ice Cream Caves, 2 in Sour Salon, 1 in Jelly Wagon, 1 in Gummy Gardens and 4 in Glazed Grove
 * Dreamworld: Coming soon
 * If more than one cake bomb is destroyed at the same time (example: 2), the first party popper will clear the board, and a second popper will clear the board as well
 * This blocker is usually helpful as it cleans the entire board, but it can also make a level much harder. Level 421 is hard because of the cake bombs.
 * If a cake bomb is destroyed during Sugar Crush, then the popper will work, but any special candies created by cascades from the board being cleared by the Cake Bomb will not be set off.
 * Jelly Fish, Coconut Wheels and Lucky Candies  will actually set off and do their jobs if they are not in marmalade when a cake bomb goes off. When it is in marmalade, the marmalade will just be removed, even on mobile.
 * Destroying a cake bomb on the same move a candy bomb reaches 0 will fail the level rather than eliminating the board.
 * The Cake Bomb can be destroyed in one move, although it's incredibly difficult. One must get two wrapped candies to fall next to each other in squares adjacent to the blocker's squares, then mix them. The first explosion will take a slice off all four quadrants, and the second explosion will remove the rest. In the incredibly rare event that an opportunity like this will happen, this can be incredibly helpful in levels such as 377 and 437.
 * In iOS and Android versions, the sound of the party popper will not play; it will just blow all candies and blockers on the board.
 * When a candy besides a quadrant of a cake bomb is hit by a color bomb, the closest quadrant is not destroyed.
 * No cake bombs appeared in Sticky Savannah, Biscuit Bungalow, Wafer Windmill, Cereal Sea and Taffy Tropics.

Notable levels

 * Level 375 - 10th level
 * Level 381 - The 16th consecutive level of cake bomb and is the last of the 16 consecutive levels
 * Level 401 - 20th level
 * Level 421 - An extremely threatening level where cake bombs are a serious hazard.
 * Level 477 - 30th level
 * Level 639 - 40th level