A mother was shocked when a flower candle on her birthday cake popped open into eight more flames.

Mum Jessely Sagaral was celebrating with her daughter Jessabeth, who thought of pranking her with the novelty party piece in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, on December 31.

Footage shows Jessely smiling while holding a small black forest dessert with a lotus-shaped candle on top.

However, she was startled and tossed it off when it suddenly burst into bloom in front of her.

Jessabeth said: 'I did not expect she would throw the cake away. She really did not know that was going to happen.'

The lotus flower birthday candle starts as a closed bud when lit. Some variations spin while playing music and pop open like a blooming lotus, with multiple smaller candles on each petal.