Ok I need to make a 3D lighthouse cake. HELP!!! Where do I begin? What do I use for the top? Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated!

The easiest thing to do would probably be to make a rectangular cake and then make the lighthouse out of rice krispy treat, then maybe gumpaste railing around the top. Make rocks and land or waves out of the main cake.

Gosh... A long time ago there was a big discussion about lighthouses in the forums... Have you tried a search? It seems like I remember someone building a "platform" with a central dowel, sliding the cakes down on it, and then carving it... I thought Doug did a sketch of it...maybe it was in the forum post...

HTH,
Pat

Search the galleries and try PMing the creator of one you had in mind.

Just a thought....how about making your light house with an edible image of a real light house and then cut in out after sticking it to a thin layer of gumpaste. Once it is dry, you can then put a loly stick on the back to make it stand up on your cake.
With some chocolate seashells and some graham wafer crumbs for the sand, there you have a beautiful cake!
Just a thought.....

Ok, heres' all the ideas you will probably ever need...read the descriptions, most of them tell you just how they do it. I'm just in awe....

http://www.cakecentral.com/modules.php?name=gallery&meta=search&type=full&search=lighthouse

I would bake a few sheet cakes using pound cake, make a stencil of the shape you want the lighthouse: hexagon, 6"circle... trace onto wax paper. use stencil to cut out (semi frozen) sheet cake, stack and touch up carving after stacked together. Dowel rod. If it has a pointed top you could make that part out of RKT.
Have lots of fun!