There are so many cake recipes. If you want to get creative you'll need something solid (not heavy! heavy is bad when it comes to cakes). Madeira Cake or Fruitcake are the ideals although some chocolate cake can work too.

When trying to assess a pre-baked cake for construction consider what you're planning to do with it. Buttercream rosettes? Pretty much anything can support buttercream. Full on marzipan, sugarpaste, royal icing wedding cake that you're making a fortnight in advance: Fruitcake.

My mother (who made some absolutely fantastic birthday cakes for me when I was a kid) swore by Madeira Cake. It easily lasts a week (some say it improves over time), it's freezable, and it's dense enough to be built into various shapes and support all sorts of crazy icing styles.

Plus it's an easy recipe to remember.

It's in the recipe section, but it's just 1 egg, to 2 ounces each of sugar, flour and margarine (or butter). A three egg cake is enough for a kid's birthday party of around 10 guests. If you want to spice it up you can add vanilla, orange rind, cinammon, cherry pieces, sugar strands.. it's very forgiving.

For more detail, see the individual sections on recipes, decoration and planning