Two hundred years ago Sunday, August, 24, when America and the United Kingdom were enmeshed in the War of 1812, some Brits burned the White House to the ground.

So how did the British Embassy in America decide to celebrate this bicentennial — which some historians attribute as the turning point of the war? By joking about burning it down again, of course.

Shortly after realizing that putting sparklers on a White House cake was perhaps in poor taste, The Embassy’s Twitter account apologized for its tone deaf tweet:

Contact us at letters@time.com.