Bon anniversaire à la Tour Eiffel

In French class today, we paid homage to La Tour Eiffel.  She is 120 years old this year.  We made a display, some students colored pictures I gave them or found their own.  And of course, a party just isn't a party without cakes and cookies, n'est-ce pas?  I took photos --one young darling asked me "Do you always take pictures of your food, madame??" Eh, oui...  My little Canon PowerShot is always nearby with an extra battery all charged and ready to go.  (The BFF just got a really nice shiny new camera- un appareil-photo- an early Christmas gift and I admit to being a little bit green with envy.)

So here is what was lovingly prepared by some of my students in honor of La Tour Eiffel--

A lovely pink Tour!  My favorite color!  Merci, Christen!

Cookies with sparkly yellow icing for the lights at night!  Merci, Celia!

A cookie cake decorated and colored blue in honor of my visit last November (they've seen loads of my photos, of course)!  Merci, Tim!

A yummy sugar cookie cut out in the appropriate shape being guarded by my pink flamingo!  Merci, Bonnie!

And the pièce de la résistance... this is a cake put together and decorated with fondant and then decorated with piped icing.  Merci, Maggie (and Sydney who doesn't even take French)!

There were also cupcakes, chocolate truffles and donuts with sprinkles consumed today in her honor.  We watched a keynote presentation put together by one of my 7th graders and learned quite a bit of trivia.  Don't we all just love that kind of stuff?  How many tons of metal, rivets, steps, visitors, light bulbs, gallons of paint, suicide attempts and daredevil feats?  I take my students to the top every year.  This coming March we will have lunch in the newly opened Restaurant 58 on the first level.  The writer Guy de Maupassant (1850-1893) supposedly ate lunch at one of the restaurants there every day although he claimed to hate la Tour Eiffel.  He said it was the only place in Paris where he could eat and not have to look at it.  I am not sure I believe that story.

And I even decided to bring in my "leaning Tower of Eiffel" for the classroom shrine.  I will not be giving up my day job any time soon to pursue a career in painting.

Marshmallow Fondant Icing

(http://whatscookingamerica.net/PegW/Fondant.htm) 

I haven't tried this yet, but Maggie used this recipe to make the fondant for her cake.  It looks like a lot of fun, so I will give it a whirl soon. (I did taste it and it's really good... but how can you go wrong with marshmallows and powdered sugar??  Impossible!)

Bon anniversaire, La Tour Eiffel!