Little Man Turned 2

Have you ever looked at your kids, knowing they aren't babies anymore, but you can still see a little glimmer of their baby selves? Well, I have been searching for that with my kids lately and what makes it harder is that my baby boy Cooper turned 2 on Friday. I know he's getting bigger, but is it so wrong to want to shrink him down to be my baby again?

I mean, why does this...

Need to turn into this?

Well, in true Kelsee fashion, I wanted to do a big fun thing for the little man. And due to the fact that his birthday is so close after the holidays, I waited until the last minute to do everything... again, in true Kelsee fashion. So I enlisted the help of my dear friend Chelsea from Reese's Pieces and Me to come and teach me the art of cake decorating! Ok, it wasn't so much as enlisting her help, it was bribing her with an apron and begging a bit. So she was kind enough to come over and help me, and by help I mean she did the majority of the hard things and I looked on in awe of her mad skills.

She found a great picture someone did of a tire cake with a monster truck on it, which was my original theme for the party. However, after getting "Cars" the movie for Christmas, the Lightning McQueen obsession started and I quickly changed the theme. But the tire was the same. We used the Duff brand fondant frosting, which actually doesn't taste too bad. I made a pound cake using this recipe that my mother-in-law sent me and has been using for years. It turned out really nice!

Pound Cake

6 eggs
1 cup cold butter
8 oz cream cheese, cold and cut up in small pieces
2 3/4 c sugar
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups sifted cake flour


Let eggs stand at room temperature for 30 minutes or until at room temperature. Generously butter and flour either 2 loaf pans or 1 bundt pan. Beat cold butter approximately 2 minutes on low speed, add cream cheese, beat on low 3 minutes (until waxy and well blended). While still mixing add sugar in slow continuous stream. Add salt. Continue creaming for 5 minutes (scrap sides of mixer bowl halfway through). Increase mixing speed to medium, continue 2 minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating 20 to 30 seconds after each egg. Beat vanilla in with last egg. Gradually add 2 1/2 cups flour on low speed, mixing until just blended. Turn off mixer. Fold in rest of flour just until combined. Turn batter into prepared pans, shake and drop pan on counter to release air bubbles. Place on center rack of cold oven. Turn oven to 300 degrees. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes to 1 1/2 hours without opening oven door. Test for doneness. Transfer to cooling rack, cool for 10 minutes before removing.

*1 hour and 45 min for bunt pan

Here is the finished product of the tire cake!

I loved the "Cooper's Tires" on there. Our little Cooper couldn't read it, but it was fun to see it anyway.

The best part about the cake was the kids excitement when the black fondant turned their tongues black.

Another fun thing I did for each of the kids was we made cars for each of them out of diaper boxes. We covered them in packing paper, cut out the bottoms, spray painted the backs of paper plates black, glued white paper in the centers and then secured the plates to the boxes with paper brads.

I got a bunch of stickers, got out the crayons and let the kids decorate their own cars.

They had so much fun!

Thanks again to Chelsea for coming over to help me with the cake and your apron will be done this week.

And happy birthday to my little man. No matter how big you get, you will always be my baby.