An American Girl in Paris Patisserie Baking Party

On New Year’s Eve of 2014, my daugh­ter, Anabelle and I were glued to the tele­vi­sion screen, as the new Amer­i­can Girl of the Year was being announced! Anabelle’s Gigi was the first to intro­duce her to the Amer­i­can Girl brand, bring­ing down her Aunt Car­olyn’s child­hood doll from the attic every time we came to vis­it. Then a cou­ple of years lat­er, she received her very own doll for Christ­mas and with prac­ti­cal­ly every trip to LA, we carve out some time to vis­it the Amer­i­can Girl store. So, you can imag­ine our sheer excite­ment as they revealed that Grace, the 2015 Girl of the Year, was a bak­er obsessed with all things Parisian! Could it be any more per­fect for us?!

When it came time to choose this year’s par­ty motif, there was no ques­tion in Anabelle’s mind that it just HAD to be cen­tered around Grace and her love of bak­ing and France! We want­ed to go all out this year since last year we had to delay her cel­e­bra­tion due to my book tour and end­ed up throw­ing a belat­ed End­less Sum­mer pool par­ty a few months lat­er. We set­tled on An Amer­i­can Girl in Paris theme, focus­ing on bak­ing and the dol­l’s adorable patis­serie… in Paris, of course!

Start­ing with the invi­ta­tion, I con­tact­ed my sweet and incred­i­bly tal­ent­ed friends at Pig­gy Bank Par­ties to re-work the fab­u­lous apron enve­lope they orig­i­nal­ly cre­at­ed last year to match the dol­l’s pol­ka dot apron, to which I added some rib­bon and heart stick­er details. For the invite itself, the amaz­ing Jes­si­ca Weible Illus­tra­tions designed a pre­cious image of a lit­tle Parisian girl and her doll to repli­cate Anabelle’s and Grace’s out­fits, which I incor­po­rat­ed into the lay­out invit­ing friends and fam­i­ly to come Mix It Up with us!

As usu­al, the desserts and sweets are one of the most impor­tant aspects of our par­ties, so there was no ques­tion I want­ed to bring Grace’s patis­serie to life! To set the scene, Pig­gy Bank Par­ties designed the most gor­geous ele­ments of the bak­ery for a life-size back­drop. I then turned to Drift­wood Print­ing, who print­ed out the most stun­ning, high qual­i­ty images. The back­drop was print­ed in three pan­els, which we then attached with dou­ble-sided tape, then set it up on a pho­tog­ra­phy stand with the assis­tance of spring clamps. I just love how it turned out! The rest of the patis­serie was repli­cat­ed with three-dimen­sion­al com­po­nents, inclu­sive of the oven {cre­at­ed from a tele­vi­sion stand we found at a thrift shop}, a fridge {book­shelf} and the bak­ery dis­play {a buf­fet table found at a con­sign­ment store and paint­ed with chalk paint}. The scene was accen­tu­at­ed with a red bistro café set and an adorable bak­ery cart sim­i­lar to the dol­l’s. And no Parisian par­ty is com­plete with­out an Eif­fel Tow­er, so I can’t begin to tell you how excit­ed I was to find this fab­u­lous Eif­fel Tow­er stand-up from Birth­day Express!!! Not only did it com­plete the decor, but was per­fect for pho­to ops!

In search­ing for an out­fit that would coor­di­nate with the Grace, I turned to Sweet Threads Cloth­ing Co. who makes THE most dar­ling chil­dren’s clothes. Michelle designed an adorable cus­tom Eif­fel Tow­er shirt to match back to the dol­l’s and a repli­ca of the dig­i­tal image on the invite and decor! I just love Michelle’s atten­tion to detail, includ­ing the lit­tle addi­tion of a lit­tle bow on the tip of the tow­er. Anabelle was gift­ed the match­ing pink beret from the Amer­i­can Girl store from a dear friend to com­plete the look! And, just like the doll, she had an out­fit change dur­ing the par­ty when it came time to begin baking!

Mylar let­ter and num­ber bal­loons are all the rage right now and after uti­liz­ing some in my recent Break Out the Bub­bly par­ty, I knew we had to have some at this cel­e­bra­tion! This time, we opt­ed for the giant 36″ bal­loons to spell out PARIS from the most charm­ing on-line shop, Paper Crush. They helped to set the scene and since each bal­loon has lit­tle tabs with holes, it was so easy to string twine through them to hang them up, which helped to save mon­ey since it was­n’t nec­es­sary to fill them with helium!

One of Anabelle’s favorite Amer­i­can Girl items was Grace’s lit­tle bak­ing set, which includes an aqua-col­ored mix­er. I have a bit of a love affair with the fab­u­lous KitchenAid stand mix­ers, as you might have seen in our Apple Cider and Bake Sale Stand last Fall, so we just HAD to have a match­ing Aqua Sky col­or­way for our par­ty! Pri­or to par­ty day, Anabelle and I used the mix­er to bake the dozens and dozens cup­cakes and cook­ies for the kids to dec­o­rate dur­ing the par­ty {stay tuned for a sep­a­rate post for more details!}. Not only did the KitchenAid mix­er coor­di­nate per­fect­ly with that of the dol­l’s, but Case Bakes made THE sweet­est cook­ie to match as well! It does­n’t get any cuter!

Patis­serie Sweets and Treats Highlights:

♥ Cook­ies

In addi­tion to the beau­ti­ful stand mix­er cook­ie that Case Bakes made, Casey went above and beyond in cre­at­ing some of the most exquis­ite {and deli­cious!} cook­ies I’ve ever seen! From designs coor­di­nat­ing back to the designs and invite to amaz­ing Eif­fel Tow­er cook­ies {just like the dol­l’s!} to per­son­al­ized pat­terns and THE cutest French mac­arons, the cook­ies were très mag­nifique!

♥ Cup­cakes

The cup­cakes on the Patis­serie counter were baked in Wilton® wave bak­ing cups, iced with the new Col­or­Swirl™ 3‑color cou­pler and dec­o­rat­ed with top­pers made with Dec­o­ra­tor Pre­ferred Fon­dant that I made. Stay tuned for some tutorials!!!

♥ Mac­arons

When Michelle at From Scratch told me she was going to make cus­tom French mac­arons for our par­ty, I nev­er imag­ined they would be as gor­geous as they turned out to be! From pol­ka dots to stripes to bows and Eif­fel Tow­ers, Michelle cap­tured it all in a col­lec­tion of cap­ti­vat­ing mac­arons that were not only adorable, but delec­table as well! Ooh la la! Michelle was even so sweet to cus­tomize the fla­vor to brigadeiro, a tra­di­tion­al Brazil­ian del­i­ca­cy, know­ing it is my native country!

♥ Madeleines

Sandy from Fire­fly Con­fec­tions and Fan Girls Cook made the most fab­u­lous surf­board cook­ies for our End­less Sum­mer par­ty last year that there was no doubt we need­ed to indulge in more of her deli­cious sweets in our Patis­serie! In brain­storm­ing ideas, she sug­gest­ed the clas­sic French pas­try: Madeleines! But, of course, she sent no ordi­nary madeleines, but rather lit­tle choco­late chip cakes dipped and driz­zled in choco­late and sprin­kles! Déli­cieux!

♥ Mini cake stands & Molds

I was beyond thrilled when I received a fun pack­age from Mai­son du Bon­bon, includ­ing Eif­fel Tow­er and frame fon­dant molds to help with the cup­cake top­pers, as well as the super fun minia­ture stands, which I used to dis­play some of the sweet French macarons!

I’ve always admired the gor­geous work by Sweet Geor­gia Sweet! From cus­tom wreaths and ban­ners, Bethany always deliv­ers the most daz­zling, high qual­i­ty prod­ucts, but for this par­tic­u­lar event, there was no ques­tion that her rib­bon top­i­ary would be absolute­ly par­fait for a French-themed par­ty! The beau­ti­ful rib­bon col­ors and pat­terns coor­di­nat­ed with the rest of the par­ty decor and served as the cen­ter­piece of the dessert display!

When I inquired about the best place to find beau­ti­ful and ele­gant pack­ag­ing, I was con­stant­ly point­ed towards Nashville Wraps. When I browsed through their gor­geous array of prod­ucts, my only issue was nar­row­ing my selec­tions from their huge assort­ment! I was look­ing specif­i­cal­ly for a gift bag that would serve as a dis­play at the Patis­serie, but could also dou­ble as a favor bag for guests to take home. I was so excit­ed when I found these black and white pol­ka dot and stripe bags! Their pink tis­sue paired mar­velous­ly with the gift bag, while a thank you tag was attached with their gros­grain red rib­bon. I cut out images of the lit­tle girl and her doll with the Cri­cut machine and added them to the front of the bag, tying the whole sweet pre­sen­ta­tion together!

When we were search­ing for a ban­ner to accen­tu­ate the decor, I head­ed straight to Lil­ly­paul Designs, who makes the most amaz­ing made-to-order fab­ric ban­ners! Since the Amer­i­can Girl doll, Grace, has a French bull­dog named Bon Bon, I explained to Can­dace that I was look­ing for dec­o­ra­tions to cre­ate a lit­tle pen to hold bull­dog pet bal­loons I had found for the kids to adopt. She cer­tain­ly did not dis­ap­point when she sent me this dar­ling, col­or-coor­di­nat­ed fab­ric strip ban­ner! I added a let­ter ban­ner to the top, mak­ing the adop­tion pen sim­ply adorable!

The lit­tle pas­try chefs were offered cus­tom aprons that I made with the assis­tance of the Cri­cut Express machine and glit­ter iron-on. The boys received tuxe­do aprons with pol­ka dot bow ties, while the girls had Eif­fel Tow­er designs, accen­tu­at­ed with beau­ti­ful black and white striped rib­bon from Nashville Wraps!

Cup­cake & Cook­ie Dec­o­rat­ing Highlights:

The big activ­i­ty for the par­ty con­sist­ed of the dec­o­rat­ing of cup­cakes and cook­ies, which was achieved with the immense help of Wilton® prod­ucts! I opt­ed for a white with black dot paper cov­er so that I would­n’t have to wor­ry about it get­ting dirty or stained and it worked perfectly!

 ♥ Displays

I was super excit­ed that Wilton® just released two new dis­plays just in time for the par­ty! The Dis­play Your Way™ cup­cake tow­er housed the naked cup­cakes and the best part is that you can adjust the tiers to dis­play from 5–25 cup­cakes! And my favorite char­ac­ter­is­tic of the Dis­play Your Way™ cake pedestals is that you can cus­tomize it in a vari­ety of ways to match back to your desserts and decor! The glass top is remov­able and I added a light blue pol­ka dot pat­tern by sim­ply cut­ting pat­terned scrap­book paper. I then embell­ished the sides with love­ly black and white ging­ham rib­bon from Nashville Wraps.

♥ Dec­o­rat­ing Supplies

The pas­try chefs were offered a pletho­ra of Wilton® prod­ucts with which to dec­o­rate, inclu­sive of Dec­o­rat­ing Icing for the cup­cakes, Cook­ie Icing for the sug­ar cook­ies and a vari­ety of sprin­kles and icing dec­o­ra­tions {i.e. bows and cup­cakes}! The Dec­o­rat­ing Icing pouch­es were ide­al because they don’t require addi­tion­al icing bags or tips since they already come with two! I also uti­lized addi­tion­al Dec­o­ra­tor Pre­ferred Fon­dant to cut out plain white top­pers so that the kids could uti­lize Food­Writer™ edi­ble pens to write and draw their own mes­sages and designs.

♥ Sta­tions

Each dec­o­rat­ing sta­tion was equipped with a cut­ting board from Ikea and sprin­kles in indi­vid­ual con­tain­ers from the 99¢ Only Stores. And no par­ty is com­plete with­out the amaz­ing work from Pig­gy Bank Par­ties! In the past, they designed card­board box envelopes for our No Toy Gets Left Behind par­ty, as well as adorable tiki pop­corn box­es for our Vin­tage Hawai­ian Luau! For this par­ty, I pro­vid­ed them with my wish­es and they once again made them come true with THE most jaw-drop­ping­ly gor­geous cup­cake and treat box­es, which were repli­cas of the Amer­i­can Girl patis­serie! The top is remov­able and inserts can be added to hold two cup­cakes. They were just per­fect for the kids to take home their deli­cious creations!

Food and Drink Highlights:

♥ Lunch boxes

When it comes to kids par­ties, I often find it so much eas­i­er to pre­pare and pack­age the chil­drens’ lunch­es in advance. Though I’ve used lunch and gable box­es in the past, I thought it would be super cute to incor­po­rate actu­al bak­ery box­es this time around to match back to the theme. I found the per­fect pink bak­ery box­es at Nashville Wraps, along with black and white twine, which was used to tie the box­es! The con­tents of the box con­sist­ed of French crois­sant sand­wich­es, pol­ka dot and striped paper bags from Petite Par­ty Stu­dio filled with chips, pol­ka dot and striped nap­kins from Hoopla Events and plas­tic cup­cake con­tain­ers from the 99¢ Only Stores filled with fruit.

♥ Drinks

Glass milk jars that I embell­ished with vinyl Eif­fel Tow­ers were filled with blue punch for the kids and French mus­tach­es were added to the fun pol­ka dot paper straws from Hoopla Events! To avoid the straws get­ting too soft pri­or to the par­ty start­ing, we attached them to the bak­ery box­es, which added to the pre­sen­ta­tion, until the chil­dren were seat­ed and ready to eat!

I just love set­ting up pho­to booths at par­ties because it pro­vides fun dur­ing the par­ty, as well as cute memen­tos after! I’ve used so many pho­to booth props from the fab­u­lous Paper & Cake, from our Grow­ing Up 80’s and End­less Sum­mer par­ties and even for our cheer­ing par­ties dur­ing the World Cup, that it was no sur­prise that I fell in love with their adorable Parisian prop set! We set up a pho­to sta­tion where guests could get Dolled Up and take pic­tures by the stand-up Eif­fel Tow­er from Birth­day Express! In addi­tion, we had these amaz­ing heart-shaped 36″ bal­loons from the Petite Par­ty Stu­dio, along with their col­or-coor­di­nat­ed tis­sue tas­sels and black and white pol­ka dot balloons!

We also set up an art table à la Paris where the kids show their art­sy side by draw­ing with crayons pack­aged in dec­o­rat­ing bags and fin­ger paint on over­sized paper or minia­ture can­vas­es and easels!

Our very own Amer­i­can Girl had the most mar­velous time in Paris with her doll and espe­cial­ly her friends and fam­i­ly that attend­ed to help her mix it up and cel­e­brate her sweet­est birth­day yet!!!

 

Ven­dor Credits:

The Amer­i­can Girl in Paris par­ty could not have been achieved with­out the tremen­dous tal­ents, assis­tance, gen­eros­i­ty and sup­port of all our amaz­ing­ly sweet friends and ven­dors! Mer­ci beaucoup!!!

♥ Event styling, cup­cakes and print­a­bles: Moi! a.k.a. Lyn­lee’s 

♥ Cake dec­o­rat­ing sup­plies and stands: Wilton®

♥ Stand mix­er: KitchenAid

♥ Dol­ly & Me graph­ic: Jes­si­ca Weible Illustrations

♥ Back­drop design, apron enve­lope, cup­cake box­es: Pig­gy Bank Parties

♥ Back­drop large for­mat print­ing: Drift­wood Printing

♥ Stand up Eif­fel Tow­er: Birth­day Express

♥ Bak­ery box­es, gift bags, tis­sue paper, rib­bon: Nashville Wraps

♥ Eif­fel Tow­er shirt: Sweet Threads Cloth­ing Co.

♥ Cus­tom cook­ies: Case Bakes

♥ Cus­tom French mac­arons: From Scratch

♥ Cus­tom French madeleines: Fire­fly Confections

♥ Fab­ric top­i­ary: Sweet Geor­gia Sweet

♥ Fab­ric ban­ner: Lil­ly­paul Designs

♥ Pol­ka paper dot straws and nap­kins: Hoopla Events

♥ Pol­ka dot and stripe favor bags, 36″ heart bal­loons, pol­ka dot bal­loons: Petite Par­ty Studio

♥ 36″ Sil­ver PARIS let­ter bal­loons: Paper Crush

♥ Paris pho­to booth props: Paper & Cake

♥ Mini cake stands & fon­dant molds: Mai­son du BonBon

And be sure to stay tuned for some fol­low-up posts to our Amer­i­can Girl in Paris party!

 

Merci Beaucoup!

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