Level 181

Level 181 is the eleventh level in Cupcake Circus and the forty-seventh ingredients level. To pass this level, you must bring down 2 cherries and score at least 20,000 points in 50 moves or fewer. If you have extra moves left in this level, Sugar Crush will activate striped candies and score you additional points.

It is an extremely hated level (on Facebook) due to sheer amount of layers of icing and the ingredients being isolated from the main board (forcing the creation and usage of special candies to bring down the ingredients). It is available to be voted as the hardest level in Reality.

Difficulty

 * The level design is similar to level 95, with two islands. However, the two islands consist of three-layer and four-layer icing, which make this level Insanely Hard. The icing on both sides have the following layers: 3-4-4-3 (top to bottom).
 * The ingredient column is not connected to the main part of board, and the only way break the icing is to make horizontally striped candies or their combinations.
 * The main part of the board is not wide enough to make striped candies easily.
 * Due to different mechanics on each version, some may find this level easier on mobile, because if you overlap the striped candies in the same row, it shreds 2 layers on mobile opposed to 1 on Facebook.

Strategy

 * There is only one way to pass this level on Facebook - the hardcore way. After making room for the main board area, keep on blasting horizontal stripes into the icing. Wrapped candies are useful, as they can be mixed with striped candies, including the vertical ones, which help significantly in this level. A colour bomb only helps indirectly in terms of reducing colours for a better chance to make special candies, or making a colour bomb + striped candy combo (not recommended as the striped candies created from the combination may be too low, too high or have stripes in the wrong direction).
 * In short, assuming all horizontal striped candies are placed correctly and set off, there are a total of 14 hits needed to bring down the ingredients. If wrapped candy + striped candy combinations are used, placed correctly and set off, there are a total of 7 hits needed to bring down the ingredients (Four to take out the four-layered icing and three striped candies or three wrapped candy + striped candy combinations to take out the three-layered icing).
 * Try to overlap stripes on the same column on mobile to shred more than 1 layer. If you get 3 or 4, you can shred 1-8 layers!
 * A way to sort of cheat the level is to get 28 lollipop hammers and destroy all the icing.

Getting Three Stars (For Daring Players)

 * Difficulty: Very Easy
 * Five colours make it easy to create special candies (essential as special candies must be used to drop the ingredients).
 * The ingredients are worth 20,000 points (2 ingredients x 10,000 points per ingredient = 20,000 points). Hence, dropping the ingredients alone leaves the player having to earn an additional 45,000 points.
 * 50 moves is more than sufficient to create at least a colour bomb (though not necessary).
 * The player is required to earn an additional 900 points per move (45,000 points / 50 moves = 900 points per move). However, the icing at the start of the level means that players will only earn points in the low hundreds for at least the first five moves.
 * The icing at the start of the level mean that a good number of moves have to wasted to clear them and increase the size of the board. Despite this, special candies can be formed after the first two to three moves.
 * Since the cherries are on the isolated sides of the board, the only effective way to clear them is to use a wrapped candy + striped candy combination, reducing the number of moves left for sugar crush. Furthermore, that above mentioned combination has to be done multiple times, further reducing the number of remaining moves.
 * If done correctly, the player would only need at least 6 combinations to complete the level.
 * This above point is slightly negated by the fact that the above combination can give thousands of points. In fact, with well placed wrapped candy + striped candy combinations, it is possible to finish this level in as few moves as possible to give a huge amount of points due to sugar crush.
 * The three star target score is relatively low. Most runs of passing the level will end up with at least 80,000 points.

Trivia

 * This used to be the second level in Hell's Cluster.
 * This is one of the game's hardest and most hated levels. It is one of the hardest ingredient levels in the whole game. This isn't quite as notorious as the original level 147, but it isn't that far off in difficulty. In YouTube videos which show how to pass this level, almost every comment consists of foul language concerning on this level's difficulty.
 * It is known as one of the Candy Crush's hardest levels, and the hardest ingredient drop level according to the wiki, and the probably hardest level of Hell's Cluster.
 * This level had been voted as the third hardest level in the game just before levels 461 and 500 were introduced, only to be under the original levels 147 and 350. However, with the increase of more levels into the poll, its rank has dropped. However after all the insanely hard levels (see below) got nerfed, its place is retained, only to be behind levels 165 and 578 (both levels 165 and 578 got nerfed as well)
 * This level is the last of the seven insanely hard levels which was never nerfed, the other insanely hard levels which have been nerfed on 28 May 2014 are levels 323, 350, 421, 425, 461 and 500.
 * Although a lot of Insanely Hard levels were nerfed on May 28, 2014, this was not. It is the only remaining level that was insanely hard when it first came out to have never been nerfed once in the Reality version (its Dreamworld version got nerfed twice).
 * It is impossible to lose this level due to not reaching the required score. This is because the ingredients gives the player 20,000 points.