has anybody got any ideas? 

a 'this is your life' type cake

a clock at 3:00 am

depleted piping bags littered around

a cake decorator face down in a cake on turntable

with an airbrush spraying in one hand and a stencil in the other hand

stacks & stacks of dirty cake pans

empty sugar & flour bags

empty food color bottles

oh-- a mixer that looks like the contents splattered alll over

an oven that is spewing out smoke

assorted little decorative things around, gum paste flowers, some pearl borders etc.

wow now i wanna make one!!!

i think i'd put all the random crazy stuff on a beautiful gold cake for the fifty

i think i'd do a topsy turvy cake so that all the odds and ends will have good places to be  displayed

rolling pin

butter melting down the side of the stove or table

for her hair it would be cool to pipe real small shells

decorating tubes on her finger tips

and the table she's sitting at (plopped face down in a cake) could be a big turntable

oh wow-- i really need to make one of these!!!

a fridge with the door hanging open with a couple tier cakes in there with a cute puppy licking one of them

a delivery cake box with a cat curled up sleeping inside

oh and a stream of army ants scolling around

I'd see if she was a frilly/girly type of gal, then do a really nice, old-fashioned floral.  You don't give us any adea what size, shape cake needed so it's a bit hard to come up with anything else that K8 didn't already cover.