I would like to make my Grandmother a family tree cake with all of her kids and grandkids! Any ideas how to make this cake? I'm just a beginner and I guess I can try anything... Thanks for your help.

That is cake that is sure to be a hit! Most popular seems to be some sort of sheet cake with a tree on it and from there the variations are kinda neat. Some have made faces out of fondant to represent family members. I made one for my mum-in-law and I put fondant banners with everyone's name on them in the tree along with the apples. She loved it! It's in my photos if you would like to see it.

does it have to be a solid cake or can it be a cupcake cake?

if it can be a cupcake cake, then can arrange easily into a tree pattern.

then can have "fruits" of the tree as individual cupcakes.

if you have access to edible images, could do a photo of each person on each cupcake.

Here are a couple of ideas from Wilton's site:

http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/misc/picnicposse.cfm

http://www.wilton.com/recipes/recipesandprojects/misc/familytreet.cfm

ooooh....yes! PinkPanther's second link is exactly what I was thinking!

I made a family tree cake for my grand-mother..I have yet to put it in my photos but I was a re-creations of the one on cinda's creative cakes...
the title is #561 Froom Family tree
http://www.cindascreativecakes.com/home/home.htm