Simple Decorating Tips for 40th and 50th Birthday Cakes

Ever get stuck on how to make a cake special for a 40th or 50th birthday? These ideas make any birthday cake festive.

Quick and Easy:

• Add black food coloring to chocolate icing for dark color without a bitter taste.
• Tint shredded coconut with green food coloring to make grass for cakes with graveyard scenes.
• Crumble chocolate wafer cookies to use as dirt on graveyard and over-the-hill birthday cakes.
• Bake a cake in a small bowl for a perfectly rounded hill.
• Use themed cake decorations just right for the occasion.

Candle Cake:

Perhaps the best idea for an easy 40th or 50th birthday cake is simply adding candles…lots of them. It may be the simplest cake, but it has huge impact. Use favorite cake and frosting flavors to make a birthday cake. A round cake with a few stacked layers helps with presentation but any shape will do. Add the candles and light them up!


Tombstone Cake:

Jokes about graveyards and tombstones often emerge when someone turns 40 or 50. R.I.P., anyone?

A cake to go along with this friendly banter is actually easy to replicate. Inspired by a dessert intended for a Halloween celebration, this quick tombstone cake starts with a simple 13” x 9” sheet cake. It fits right in with a 40th or 50th birthday party.