I want to make cakes this year for our family get together at Thanksgiving and Christmas - to show off my new skills Any ideas on cake flavors and design would be appreciated.

For thanksgiving maybe a pumpkin cake. As for christmas I would say a spice cake

I agree... pumpkin and spice sound yummy! As for design, I took the cup of cocoa (in my pics) to my mom's for Thanksgiving and everyone went crazy over it. It was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be. HTH

I was having the same thoughts as you are and went in to the galleries section and began looking at nothing but Christmas & Thanksgiving cakes other CC members had made and uploaded. Often times the submitter gives a complete description of the cake inside and out. This will give you all kinds of ideas if you don't mind spending a little bit looking at beautiful cakes.

Thanks for the ideas ladies, I definitely need to go to the galleries. I never mind looking at beautiful cakes. I really like pumpkin and spice cakes, so that's a go!

Kimmy, I actually have that hot cocoa saved in my favorite pics. It's just adorable! I don't know that I could do it though.