Britton's 2nd Birthday Party and My First Cake Decorating Attempt

Another unpublished post! I'm farther behind than I thought. 

So Britton's first birthday was way low key - family only and cupcakes. It was nice but I felt like a little guilty for not making it a bigger deal or at least making him a real cake. So to make myself feel better (because really does a two year old care as long as there is cake?), I decided to throw Britton a race car themed birthday party for his second birthday. I thought he might appreciate it a little, and I had fun putting it together (though I couldn't have done it without Darren's help).

I stole most of the ideas off Pinterest, but I did come up with the idea of the cheese stick roadsters. The idea of decorating a cake terrified me, but I wanted to use the frosting set I had requested for Christmas and decided Britton's birthday was the best excuse to start using it. I chose the easiest design I could find on Pinterest. Who makes two or three tiered cakes for a toddler's birthday anyways or even likes fondant? Darren definitely helped with the cake, but I'm still pretty proud of it and it even tasted yummy. Britton loved the race cars on the cake, and to my surprise he even blew out the candles on his own this year (without spitting on the cake either). I was very impressed and realized my baby is now a toddler for real.

The snack spread. We had the party at a park with a playground near our apartment.

Darren helped me decorate the plates with race car checked centers and edges while we watched a movie the weekend before the party. They turned out cute.

I have this huge set of cookie cutters we received as a wedding gift with random shaped cutters like feet, dinosaurs, lions, and race cars - glad I discovered the race car when searching for a heart shaped cutter for valentine's day.

These are the cheese stick roadsters. Darren thought it wouldn't work but the toothpicks just barely fit into the holes of the Ritz crackers enough to stick in the cheese filling of the crackers.

Apple cars with grape tires - idea stolen off Pinterest and inspiration for the cheese stick roadsters.

The cake! Shaped like a figure eight (4 round cakes - stacked two deep and cut to piece together)  with a road in the shape of 2 and cars driving on the road. I made the little checkered flags. The cake was almost a disaster when we realized we should have made four round cakes instead of two and were scrambling to cook and cool the second cakes just hours before the party.

Goodie bags for Britton's friend. The tags said "Thanks for racing to my party!" They were filled with race car pencils and stickers.