If baking just isn't your thing, or you don't have the time or equipment to attempt it then don't worry, your local shop or supermarket can furnish you with everything you need to create your cake with absolutely no culinary skills at all.

On your shopping list is:

      Cake. (obvious really). Around Christmas you'll probably be able to buy a pre-iced fruitcake ready for you to work some sugarpaste magic on. The rest of the year (or if you don't like fruitcake) you have a couple of other choices.

You might be able to buy round, unfilled cakes, but if all you can get is a victoria sandwich with jam inside you'll have to restrict yourself to light icing as a full sugarpaste covering is going to be a bit heavy for it.

Around here you can also buy blocks of cake - madeira cake, ginger cake, walnut cake etc. and a couple of these sandwiched together with icing is a rather nice and more importantly firm base for something more unusual.

Next you need the decoration. I guarantee that they'll have tubs of pre-made icing, pre-made sugarpaste, pre-made icing in tubes, and cooking chocolate. Lets take these in turn.

• Tubs of icing - I just don't get on with pre-made tubs of icing. Spooning them onto the cake and trying to spread them around just never works for me - I end up tearing the cake with crumbs everywhere. On the other hand, some tubs let you microwave them and pour the icing over - this is a beautifully easy way to do it - although you'll still have the difficulty of covering the sides (if you're at all un-confident about it, just go for the drizzled look!)
• Pre-made sugarpaste - very easy to use, colour it, roll it out (I've even seen pre-rolled for the truely equipment-less!) then drape it over the cake (see here). Some people don't like the taste though, and it's a bit heavy to use on a pre-bought sandwich cake.
• Icing in tubes - saves the mess of colouring icing yourself, but really best for decoration rather than putting a base coat on the cake.
• Cooking chocolate - a chocolate shell on a cake is one of my favourites. Works great with chocolate cake, light sponges (white chocolate for preference there), coconut cake. Gently warm it in the microwave or in a double boiler (there'll be instructions on the back of the packet) then pour over the cake - start in the middle and spiral out. Resist the  urge to spread if you can - again it'll tend to pick up crumbs and you'll lose the gloss if you smooth it as it cools. Beware - if you keep it in the fridge, it's likely to get little droplets of condensation when you take it out to serve. Also, cutting the cake with a warmed knife (dip in hot water then dry) will make your life easier.

Finally, you'll need decoration. Again, head to the cake isle where there'll be everything from little silver sugar balls, to pre-made icing shapes, letters. Some bakeries or fresh made sweet shops also sell this sort of thing. If nothing in the cake isle appeals, then head over to the sweetie isle where there's plenty more to use. Jelly tots, smarties, chocolate buttons . It all tastes good, so use whatever takes your fancy.