please be honest with me here how hard would it be for me to make a birthday cake? i dont make cakes other than the odd fairy cake - my scones look more like rock buns but taste fab lol! and what wud i need for a basic cake - i dont mean ingredients as such more what equiptment and what do i get for the icing etc

it depends what kinda cake you want hun! a normal round or square cake or even one you need to cut into shape is gonna be pretty easy. As for icing you can use buttercream icing or get rolled out fondant icing to cover x

I'm not an expert but i've made a few cakes and i'd say it depends what kind of cake you wana make. Victoria sponge is very simple. That needs two basic 'sandwich' tins, i got mine for sainsburys for about £1. If it's a particular shape you want, you can hire tins from cake craft shops and maybe hobby craft. Some supermarkets and i've seen in poundland they sell different shaped tins too.
As for icing, you can make butter icing easy with butter mixed with icing sugar. There's also water based icing, icing sugar and water that sets hard. or can get fondant icing that rolled out and put over cake from supermarkets/hobby crafts/cake shops. Personally i'm awful at rolling and placing it so i tend to stick with butter icing and it's easiest to make/apply.
Good luck x