Our friend's 20th is in 3 weeks. Their daughter just told me that she wants to do a surprise party for them, so I offered to do the cake. My experience is minimal however - I've made some cakes for friends, taken basic cake and royal icing classes - no fondant class yet (not 'til August)(although I have made marshmallow fondant for a car cake I made for my son) I did get a pic of my "final" cake on display as a draw for others to take these classes - but I know I have a long way to go to having a real "professional" look to my work.

That said, what I know so far is that she loves purple (I will be working on royal icing flowers asap) and he loves peanut butter (I always make something peanut butter when we have them over). I was thinking of making a peanut buttery filling for the cake, but other than what I've mentioned, I have no idea what kind of cake to make. Do I dare do a tier since I haven't yet and have no idea how? do I just make a sheet cake? what kind of cake? what kind of peanut butter filling? just basic buttercream icing? ???

Any help at all would be GREATLY appreciated. I really would like this cake to turn out nice for them.

(and btw, I just found this site - I'm already addicted - there is such a wealth of info here!!!! I don't know where to look first!)

You can add PB to b'cream icing to use as the filling. Also you can put a thin layer of PB on each layer of cake before you fill it w/the PB b'cream.
As for what kind of cake: chocolate OR and other flavor they like.
Size and shape? do you have any round pans? Like an 8" round? A lot depends on who many you want to serve. If you decide to do a sheet cake you could cut it in 1/2 and put the PB b'cream between the two pieces stacked for a nice, smallish cake.
Maybe a nice single layer cake would be best this time, unless they are having a big party w/lots of guests to serve.
There are many YouTube helps on how to put a tiered cake together if you want to go there. A 9 or 10" round with a 6" round on top would be really nice and serve around 50-60. Ice in b'cream w/your royal flowers would be pretty. And before you ask - YES! you can put (most) royal flowers on b'cream. You also can make most flowers in b'cream instead of royal (depends on the b'cream recipe).

I say if you want to do tiers, go for it! Get books from the library and/or watch youtube videos and you will should be able to do it off of that. That's how I learn pretty much everything. Just be sure your dowels are not shorter than your cake (not taller either, but shorter can cause major problems with the lower tier) and that they are all the same height.

I love purple too. Purple roses would be beautiful if you have done those and some elegant but simple piping in purple! Hope it goes well and if there's something you think you can do but haven't done it in a class yet, go for it!!! If you do the research and maybe even do a practice run, it really helps!

Make a statement, Go for the tiered! . Go to YouTube find Edna De la Cruz's videos from Design Me a Cake. She's fantastic and she does a really nice video on stacking. She has a channel and her screen name is tonedna1 and her website is designmeacake.com. The turorials are there too. Good luck!

You guys are amazing!! I never thought about youtube - that was a great idea! I think I will consider a tier. And thanks for supporting the peanut butter - it doesn't sound too anniversary-ish, but it would fit.

I'm so excited to have found this site!

Another question - how do you figure how many people a cake will feed? I wouldn't have thought a 9" w/6" tier would've fed so many, but if that's so, it's not so intimidating and would work. Is there a chart or something somewhere that shows sizes and servings?

There are two serving charts that are pretty standard (I think). Wilton & Erleane's.

http://www.wilton.com/cakes/making-cakes/baking-wedding-cake-2-inch-pans.cfm
http://www.earlenescakes.com/ckserchart.htm

How did the cake turn out? Did you get any photos of it you could share?

It was an incredible hit! People are still talking about it. Someone thought I bought it. They thought my roses were perfect (what do they know! lol!) And the wife of the couple it was for just last night continued to fawn over it, telling some other friends that it was the most wonderful cake she's ever had, and how good the two layer filling was so delicious (the chocolate and maraschino cherry jam). Someone this morning told me that she had heard how wonderful it was. Can you tell my head has swollen to 10x it's size?! I'm loving it - all the pain was worth it.

I did take pics - I'll try to do that sometime this week. Thanks for asking!
(although I'll warn you about the pics - While they all thought it was perfect, it's obvious that it was far from it!! Although it didi taste good. )

Good for you!!! It is so rewarding to hear great things when you do a cake.. it gives you confidence to move to the next step.. don't be afraid to try new things.. you have a world of information and knowledge here at Cake Central.. Tap in to it as much as possible.. that is why we are all here! To SHARE Congratulations.. now get some pictures up in your gallery so you can see your progress as you learn.. Happy Baking!
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So glad to hear how much they loved it! That's what matters. Can't wait to see your photos!