I have a little boys first birthday cake coming up and the mother left the theme up to me. I've got a million ideas running around in my head! The mother doesn't want a lot of fondant on the cake but I still want to make it nice and clean, she want to pay only $50 and it will most likely be 2 tier square or round. Anyone have any ideas other than the usual jungle, cars/trucks, etc? Any ideas would be super appreciated, especially if they can be done in mostly buttercream. Thanks so much!

Here's a couple 1st birthday cakes I've made that have gone over really well. I've had numerous requests for these same designs since posting the pictures of them on my Flickr site. They are now my most popular design. They are iced in buttercream with fondant decorations.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivertowncakes/5489348354/in/photostream

http://www.flickr.com/photos/rivertowncakes/5488752597/in/photostream

Gallery search for First+1st+Boy, here are the results I recieved:
http://cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&meta=search&type=full&search=First%2B1st%2BBoy&album=60&search_user=

Stripes, Argyle, Color bocks, blues greens tans. Puppies, bugs, reptiles...

Any of this helping or am I making the idea hamster run faster?

Good luck!

Lexi, I LOVE your boy's cakes!! Would you tell me what kind of letter-cutters do you use? I'm trying desperately to figure out which ones to buy

Those are the Funky Alphabet and Numbers Tappits by FMM. I bought them online at Global Sugar Art. They have both the capital letters and a lower case set.

http://www.globalsugarart.com/product.php?id=17424&name=Funky%20Alphabet%20&%20Numbers%20Tappits%20by%20FMM

Thanks so much everyone! I loved all your ideas, thanks so much for sharing!