Here, you’ll find 18 stunning 40th birthday cake ideas for women that’ll make your 40th birthday memorable. If you’re looking for inspiration to place an order with your local baker, or you want to recreate one of these cakes yourself thanks to the guidance I provide, you’re in the perfect place.
How to find a 40th birthday cake idea suited to your cake-decorating level?
I’ve come up with a system. The cake ideas are presented to you according to their level of difficulty. There are three categories :
What Are Beginner Cake Ideas?
These are easy cake ideas. If you’ve never decorated a cake before (or only did it once or twice), these are the cakes that you should pay attention to.
- What you’ll find: Beautiful cake ideas that only require basic cake decorating techniques. This is a great place to start your journey.
What Are Intermediate Cake Ideas?
Low Intermediate Baker: If you are confident that you’ve mastered the cake decorating basics, such as how to smooth a cake, but feel like you still have a lot of techniques to learn apart from this foundation, this category is perfect for you.
- What you’ll find: Cake ideas that require both basic decorating skills and one or two techniques that are a little bit more advanced. This is a great place to grow your cake-decorating skills.
High Intermediate Baker: If you’ve mastered both basic techniques and several more advanced cake decorating techniques, these cake ideas are made for you.
- What you’ll find: Stunning cake ideas that can be fairly challenging, but are a great place to get even better than you already are.
What Are Advanced Cake Ideas?
If you consider yourself an experienced cake decorator and have mastered most of the decorating techniques, including the use of fondant, then this is the perfect place for you.
- What you’ll find: Showstopping and challenging cake ideas, perfect to sharpen and maintain your skills.
The Grading System
Finally, I’ve also assigned a grade of difficulty to each cake inspiration: 1/5 being the easiest design and 5/5 being the hardest. The goal is to make the ranking the most accurate possible. You will find this to be particularly helpful if you happen to fall in the Beginner or the Intermediate Cake Ideas categories.
Growth Tip : This list is great a place to set goals about your cake decorating skills. Pin this post and come back later to tell us how far you’ve come in your cake decorating journey !
How to follow the instructions of the designs.
For the cake designs in the beginner category: I’ll provide written instructions on how to recreate the cake idea presented to you. Don’t hesitate to watch video tutorials about basic techniques such as how to smooth a cake.
For the designs in the intermediate category: I’ll provide some guidance on how to perform the more complicated techniques.
For the advanced category: you are an experienced baker, at this point, and you will find great opportunities to put this experience to use. To be completely honest, I cannot make myself several cake ideas from the advanced category, so trust your abilities and go for it.
Find the perfect 40th birthday cake ideas for your baking skills.
Growth Tip : If you aim to get better at cake decorating, you should choose a cake idea that feels sligthly above your current cake decorating level. Get out of your comfort zone !
40th Birthday Cake Ideas For Beginner Bakers
Here, you’ll find 4 easy 40th birthday cake ideas perfect for beginner bakers.
Simple 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 1/5.
What you will need:
- Enough purple frosting to cover your cake.
- Silver edible leaves + small paintbrush.
- Fake black flowers.
- A silver cake topper.
How to recreate this cake?
- First, you must crumb-coat the cake to avoid any crumbs in your final design. Apply a thin and even coat of frosting with your offset spatula all around your cake.
- Smooth it with your bench scraper, holding it at a 45-degree angle on the cake while spinning your turntable. Your bench scraper isn’t supposed to move, only turn the table.
- It doesn’t have to be perfect as it only is the first coat. Chill the cake 20 to 30 minutes in the fridge (until your frosting sets).
- Then, apply a thicker coat of frosting and repeat the smoothing operation. Fill in any gaps and smooth the cake again. Repeat this operation until the cake looks smooth enough for you. Here, you’ll find a video tutorial of the covering process, if needed.
- Next, chill your cake in the fridge for 30 minutes or until your buttercream cover sets.
- Use a knife warmed with water to get sharp edges on your cake.
- Then, with your paintbrush, transfer small silver leaf bits from the sheet of paper to the cake. Don’t use your fingers as it will stick to it.
- Finally, add your cake topper and your flowers to your cake.
What you’ve learned :
As a cake decorator, the most basic technique you have to master is how to frost a cake properly.
Golden 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 1/5.
This is a perfect example of how you can adapt a cake design to your own taste by playing with colors.
What you will need:
- Enough black frosting (or white frosting) to cover your cake.
- Golden edible leaves + a small paintbrush.
- Cake decorations and cake toppers.
- Artificial or fresh flowers with their stems wrapped in floral tape.
How to recreate this cake?
- First, crumb coat, cover, chill, and cut the edges of your cake as explained in the previous cake design.
- Then, with your paintbrush, transfer small golden leaf bits from the sheet of paper to the cake. Don’t use your fingers, it will stick to it.
- If you’re using fresh flowers make sure to wrap them with floral tape to avoid contact between the stems and the cake.
- Finally, add your cake toppers.
What you’ve learned :
As a beginner cake decorator, cake toppers and decorations are your best friends, make the most of them.
White 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 1,5/5.
What you will need :
- Enough frosting to cover your cake.
- A piping bag and an open star piping tip (like the 6B by Wilton).
- Number cookie cutter + Fondant + DIY golden paint.
- Golden cake decorations (if you don’t have macaron on hand you can easily replace them, with ball cake toppers).
How to recreate this cake?
- First, crumb coat, cover, chill, and cut the edges of your cake as explained in the previous cake design.
- Then, knead your fondant until it’s pliable enough to roll it to a thickness of 1/8th inch.
- Cut your numbers using your cookie cutters, and paint them with your edible gold paint.
- Stick them on your cake using buttercream as your glue, and let it set in the fridge.
- Next, add dots and a few rosette swirls with your 4B piping tip.
- Finally, place your cake decorations.
What you’ve learned :
Using fondant to write on cakes is much easier than using buttercream.
40th Birthday Cake Ideas Perfect For Intermediate Bakers
Here, you’ll find nine 40th birthday cake ideas perfect for intermediate bakers.
Floral 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 2,5/5 (Low-Intermediate)
This floral cake would be perfectly suited for a spring or summer birthday.
A little guidance
Use a mix of fresh and dried flowers to recreate this cake design. You’ll also need to learn how to use a cake comb to recreate the buttercream’s texture.
Vintage 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (Intermediate)
If you want a trendy and Insta-worthy cake, vintage cakes are the way to go.
A little guidance
Check out this vintage cake piping tutorial to learn to create your own vintage cake.
40th Birthday Heart Cake
Difficulty Level: 3/5 (High-Intermediate)
You can easily personalize this kind of message cake by playing with colors and the message of your cake.
A little guidance
You don’t need a special cake pan to create a heart cake, you can DIY them using your usual round cake pans.
Elegant 40th Birthday Cakes
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5.
Maybe you’re in need of a more elegant yet unique cake. In this case, you’ll love these two 40th birthday cake designs.
A little guidance
Using cake stencils is an easy way to add texture, and therefore character, to your birthday cake designs.
Watercolor 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5 (High-Intermediate)
While playing with texture is a great way to add personality to a cake design, playing with both colors and texture creates even more unique cake designs.
A little guidance
Here you’ll need to combine the watercolor buttercream technique with the use of a cake stencil.
Palette Knife 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5 (High-Intermediate)
If you want a 40th birthday cake that looks like a work of art, you’ll love this palette knife flower cake.
A little guidance
Check out this beginner palette knife buttercream flowers if you’ve never made this kind of cake before.
Abstract 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 3,5/5 (High-Intermediate)
Abstract cakes always look elegant but they do require some experience because the line between abstract and messy is sometimes thin.
A little guidance
You can recreate this abstract birthday cake using the same technique as for the palette knife flowers but using your usual angled spatula. Just add a second buttercream layer on the two bottom thirds of the cake and let it set in the fridge beforehand.
40th Birthday Cake Ideas For Advanced Bakers
These five 40th birthday cake ideas will be perfectly suited to experienced cake decorators.
Blue 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty level: 5/5
If you love floral and vibrant cake designs, you’ll love this one.
Chanel 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty level: 5/5
On the other hand, if you’re looking for something a bit more sober you’ll prefer this kind of white birthday cake. Don’t hesitate to adapt it to your favorite luxury brand.
Gold and Peach 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
You can also play with metallic colors to make sure your 40th birthday cake design stands out from the crowd.
Pink And Green 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
Pastel green and pastel pink also make a great combination.
Square 40th Birthday Cake
Difficulty Level: 5/5
Finally don’t hesitate to play with darker colors and original shapes for an elegant 40th birthday cake.
If you’re looking for more cake ideas, check out my elegant cake ideas for women, or one of my other birthday cake ideas for women, including floral cakes, heart cakes, and much more.
Did you enjoy these 40th birthday cake inspirations? Sharing is caring!
Please let me know in the comments and/or tag me on Instagram @theperfectcakeidea. I’d love to see your creations. And, don’t forget to pin this post so you can come back to it.
