A lady at work wants a small cake for her son's 13th birthday. She wants a 6" round chocolate cake, but is leaving the decorating up to me (obviously no flowers)! The family is Indian Asian, but he is very Americanized. Given that she doesn't want a 3D cake, I'm soliciting ideas from you wonderful folks. Thoughts?

Did She give you any idea about his hobbies or sports???

If he likes sports you could make sports balls and equipment out of fondant or royal icing flow in decorations and put them on the sides. You could also make some fondant stars and a big "13", let them dry and then attach them to lollipop sticks or wire and have them sticking out of the top.
Good luck and post a pic of what you end up with,
Heather

He's interested in baseball.

You could decorate the top of the circle like a baseball and put fondant pennats around the sides of the cake with different teams on them.

Or you could find out if he plays and what his team colors are and do something from that.

Thank you all for your great ideas!

What about just a colorful "happy birthday"? Primary colors with swirls, stars, confetti, etc?

Deb