If you are thinking of making your own i'd suggest going fairly simple and practice lots
I was going to make mine but i couldnt ice it at all so gave up on that idea
I was however sucessful at making cala lillies in sugarpaste - they are really simple
My cake is going to be hand piped and im sure i could never do that lol

Offer to make lots of birthday cakes to practise and then go from there. I would keep it super simple just in case

I might try and learn to make sugarpaste red roses and get an m & s cake x

Have a look in your local area for cake making supplies shops and wedding cake shops, we went to one in Liverpool and there were loads of ring binders with different designs for inspiration, then we found a supplies shop that sells all sorts of cutters, toppers, boards etc - my mum was so excited, took her on the Saturday and she had a day off 2 weeks later so went straight to the shop to look through all his supplier catalogues to see what he could get - apparently she's getting him to order her a mini light up water fountain - who knows where that'll be on the cake!!

I bake a lot and I absolutely love it. For my wedding I didn't want to make a cake because it takes such a long time and I don't want to stress over this the two days before my wedding. We are having wheat- and dairy free cupcakes. The baking is the least bit but icing each and evryone to perfection really takes a long time. I would need to spread it into 2-3 days also because I don't have the room to store them. For my sons birthday in summer just under 100 cupcakes lived in the bathtub for a day :-)

Bridalmiss gave you very good tips - but beware, baking yourself is not necessarily cheaper if you want to go down the professional decorating route. Coloured sugarpaste is really expensive and so are good organic ingredients. I am very lucky with a friend who has a cake business and she's giving me a really good price. If I would have bought in all ingredients it would be a little cheaper (not much though) but not worth all the stress.

hay hunniI'll bump a thread called "show off your cake" for you.
Some great ideas in there that might help you.

As for making your own if your happy to do it then go for it........(have you seen a thread by crocadillo, she made her cake and WOW is all im gonna say)



if you cant find it let me know

i have a few pics in my album cos im in a dilema which to choose lol

This is ours, 4 tier ivory iced cake, covered in purple and ivory icing hearts. 2 tiers chocolate orange, and 2 tiers vanilla and raspberry buttercream x

There's several websites that i use to get cake stuff from, and i recently discovered one that does ready made cakes that just need icing and decorating! I've ordered 1 lot of cake mix from them plus a fruit cake for my friend's wedding so whilst i don't know what it tastes like but the fruit cake looks scrummy! Normally, i'd make myself but we're having building work and i didn't think she'd want brick dust in her cake.

I'm making my own too, although i seriously don't want to! I'm definitely having red velvet cake with vanilla frosting between the layers, although i'm unsure on the design yet. I wanted to have just two round cakes with candy striping in our colours and fresh flowers on, but OH isn't keen. He's seen 4 rectangular cakes, all the same size that are stacked immediately on top of each other but offset, similar to how bricks on houses are constructed. He's also seen a 4 tier cake where the bottom and 3rd tiers are hexagonal, whilst the 2nd and 4th are round. I'm trying to work out which of these shapes to go for

Ooh nik106 could you send me the links to the sites u use to get cake supplies please? Trying to buy in bulk for this birthday party! Xx