What is the difference between a Barrage, Cake and a Battery?

The world of fireworks can be more than a little confusing when it comes to the types of products that there are available and no more so than when it comes to the terminology used to describe them.

Firework Cakes come in many different sizes and shapes and our range contains different numbers of shots from as few as 16 and go up to 1500 plus. The majority of them comprise of numerous card tubes glued together and fused timed differentiated for each shot. They can have an infinite choice of effect to each shot. Once the firework cake is lit, the fuse burns from tube to tube, igniting each shot in turn, which then flies up into the air where it explodes with an effect. Thus, a 16 shot cake will have 16 tubes, a 49 shot cake will have 49 tubes and so on.

There are some who refer to Cakes as barrages as single effect all the way through whereas a cake may contain multiple effects. For example, the Whispering Palms is a 40 shot barrage offering massive high calibre palms all the way through but the colours and effects may differ very slightly with the palm glittering or strobing but it remains a single effect. Others, like the Armistice, maintain the same effect all the way through with no change to the overall effect.

You may call an average cake a SIB or party in a box. These types of fireworks offer a variety of effects and are usually designed by the manufacturers to produce a whole display from a single fuse. Cakes are more like a bunch of single shot roman candles if you want a more basic understanding. You will often find shops describe a cake as a combination roman candle.

There are some which we would describe as a display in a box where a massive number of tubes is conjoined but each may have a completely different sized tube, containing different compositions within. For example, The King Hell from Epic Fireworks is a fanned 100 shot multi effect cake with differing sized tubes which varies the burst, sound, colours, effects and off the cuff, this is one of the busiest cakes in our range with fanned effects, straight comet effects, peonies, spinners and crackling stars.

The upshot is, whether you want a cake a roman candle a barrage or a battery, we have something to suit every taste from super loud to really quiet they are all spectacular and are guaranteed to bring a smile to even the frostiest of faces.