Le Gateau pour la Grace!

Ooh la la, what better way to celebrate your 10th birthday than with a Paris-inspired cake in homage to American Girl of the Year Grace!

I have had a fascination with cake decorating ever since I was a little kid.  One of my favorite things to check out of the library was Wilton cake decorating yearbooks.  I have never taken a proper class, so I wing it and try to make it work with the skills I do have.

Brianna requested a red velvet cake with chocolate frosting (unusual!) and a theme of Paris and GOTY Grace.

I used fondant (ordered from Amazon) rolled out with a rolling pin and cut with a biscuit cutter.  Fondant is similar to a big tub of edible Play Doh.  I drew Eiffel towers, French poodles, and other pictures using a food-safe pen (also from Amazon).  I learned how to draw some of these great shapes at the blog The Decorated Cookie. I added color to my designs with gel food color thinned with vodka and painted with a clean, new paintbrush.  I tried to evoke the colors in Grace’s Patisserie.  I also cut out a few Eiffel towers free-hand with a knife and finished them with edible white glitter.

These were great do-ahead decorations because I could work on them during the week and assemble the cake quickly the day before the party.  I originally was going to put some macarons on the top, but they ended up looking like wayward hamburger buns sitting there.

Detail of fondant circles.  These would be cute on cupcakes!

Last year’s birthday cake also involved American Girl, so I will share that with you in a future post.