Cake Ideas?

I was going to make my dad a cake out of this cook book that I saw at the library but I didn't get it (the cookbook). I went back to the library to get it the next day and it wasn't there so I need ideas of cool cakes that I can make. I want something special not just a plain chocolate cake. the one that I thought was cool in the cookbook was a spiral cake where it was a circle cake but it had two different colors of spirals. Another idea I had was to make a checkered cake. Is it really hard or what? I need all the ideas that I can get. Thanks!