My first cake!  

Well, I need some advice, and I know this is the perfect place to ask. See, my little brother is having his Bar Mitzvah in a couple of months. This, for those unfamiliar with the tradition, means (among other, far more meaningful things, like my brother becoming a Jewish adult) throwing a big party for all of his friends. My mom is more or less on her own with the planning of this, and she's the freak-out type anyway; so she's freaking out a bit. Already! I know. Anyway, she also is unable to afford any sort of lavishly catered event. In order to help her to feel better about having so much to do and so little to spend on it, when I was visiting home around New Year's I volunteered to make the cake.

(By the way, I also said I would DJ. This was not a good idea - I'm living in Switzerland, and I don't even listen to the radio or watch TV, ever. I am probably more out of touch with what the kids are listening to these days than most American septuagenarians. All of those 13-year-olds are going to throw their yarmulkes at me, or worse)

I have an artistic bent and even some cake-decorating experience (I worked at Baskin Robbins in high school - why does that seem so pathetic, written down?), so I'm pretty sure that with a little practice and reading, I'll be fine with the making-it-look-nice part. I'm kind of clueless about the rest of it, though. I read the thread about wedding cake icing - clearly a lot of people here know their stuff when it comes to making and decorating a big fancy cake. I would love it if anyone could point me in the direction of good internet resources, a favorite cake decorating book, and especially just basic advice about what kind of cake and icing I should be basing the whole thing on. I'm the type to just sort of charge ahead with a project like this, without even taking a moment to think about what questions to ask. This time, though, I'd like to do it the right way for once!

Thank you so much (and wish me luck)!

Related Resource: adult living