First birthday cake: To bake or to buy?

Look at me, blogging three times in the past five days!  Record.

I'm totally not procrastinating from cleaning our mildewy/moldy shower and toilets.   

Anyway, I'm in party planning mode and have been thinking about what to do for Cameron's birthday cake.  I have several ideas running through my mind but every one presents it's own problems.  So far, I'm having a lot of fun with the planning and my creative juices are flowing like they haven't in months.  So I don't want the issue of his cake to become a stressful thing or put TOO much thought and effort into it and then be somehow disappointed if A) it doesn't turn out as pretty as I hoped, B) it tastes bad because I tried to make it as healthy as cake can possibly be, C) Cameron doesn't give a rip about the cake I put so much thought into, or D) all of the above.  Ok, let's be honest, Cameron isn't going to care so I should probably just accept that now ;)  

But I'm wondering how to strike a balance between making a memorable/festive/delicious/not- overloaded-with-artificial-junk cake and would love any insight that y'all have!  We're doing an NC State theme for his par-tay.  Whether or not you have kiddos I'm sure most of you can relate to the feeling of wanting to please your guests with food for some occasion...so feel free to chime in!  And if nothing else, enjoy this funny post that tells of one mom's cake making/hating experiences (pardon the language in the first birthday account!)

Oh, and maybe I should share a couple of my ideas to get more specific feedback.

1) A football cake like this (minus the logo because I'm not brave enough).  This would be for our guests and I might make some smaller cake for Cam...or possibly just give him a slice to dig into...

2) Simple red-iced cupcakes arranged in a letter 'C' or number '1' with white iced cupcakes surrounding in a circle so that the whole thing would look like a round cake.  Make sense?  This would serve both our guests and Cameron.  

I'm obviously open to other ideas and have variations of these ideas in mind but basically I want to keep it simple, have  it be tasty, and not be totally sugar filled.  Is that asking too much?? 

What's been your experience with cake baking or did you take the pressure off yourself and just buy one?  (I took a cake decorating class earlier this year just for fun, but also to convince myself that I am perfectly capable of making something as simple as a first birthday cake.  After all, if I really messed it up, Cameron won't remember and surely our friends and family won't hold it against me, right?!)