Cake glorious cake

I love cake I do, I could eat it everyday! In fact the first thing I ate when I got up this morning was a piece of chocolate cake (just a small piece)

Lately I've been seeing cake everywhere, lots of fab designs, homemade, cupcakes, tiered, cakes with fruit or covered in chocolate (my favourite) and it's made me feel quite inspired to make my own.
I've made cakes before, like the basic kind with a bit of butter cream but I'm thinking I want to take the next step and start decorating and designing, particularly for birthdays.

In May it's my daughters 12th birthday and she wants an Alice in wonderland themed tea party so I have been looking at cakes like the one below via pinterest. It definitely isn't for a beginner like myself so I think I will make a simpler version with 1, or maybe 2 layers!
The other cake, also via pinterest, I thought would be nice for Valentine's and as the man is trying to lose weight I suppose it will have to be a Valentine gift to myself :)

My 15yr old is studying food technology for her GCSE's as she wants to be a baker when she's older but she's really having a hard time at the moment. The cooking part of the course is fine but there is a lot of written work and she has to make a 26, A3 page portfolio within a few weeks. Falling being with this work has really started to put her off the course and I'm hoping that if I spend time baking and get her involved it will encourage her to carry on with her dream.

As they say 'there is no time like the present' so today I am going to bake a lemon drizzle cake just to get me in the mood!