Gluten Free Thanksgiving Cake + Patterned Frosting Decor

Hello all!
We spent this last Thanksgiving with Chip's family, most of whom are gluten free. I like being able to bring dishes that everyone can enjoy, and the past few years I have brought a gluten free cake. This year I decided to decorate the cake because why not? I get the urge to decorate cakes every once in a while and this year I wanted to do something different! I scrolled through my neighborhood Wal-Mart and got a few ideas here and there and went home with a few new items and got to work.

I thought maybe I would try one the latest trendy patterns with some of the gold food spray paint that I picked up at Wal-Mart, I also got some pink icing (the canned kind), and gold sprinkles.

Here is my process!

I googled "Fleur-de-Lis pattern" and scrolled through till I found what I wanted. I then copied the image, put it in word and changed the size until it was where I wanted it. I printed it out and cut the inside pattern out with an Exacto knife on a cutting board. Some of the thinner pieces of paper between patterns broke or I accidentally cut through them and I had to tape them back together. This process took me about 20 minutes and I did about three-ish rows. It was a little slow and painful, but I thought the end result would be worth it!!

Here is the pattern I used:

 

 

Here is the pattern on the cake, this was a gluten free yellow cake with store bought chocolate (GF) frosting. I crumb coated the cake, set it in the fridge to solidify a little for a few hours, then iced it again,  refrigerated it again, then pulled it out and decorated it immediately so that the icing would still be cold and stiff.

 

 

 

I used the Wilton Gold Food Color Mist Spray paint (bought at Wal-Mart). I followed the directions and sprayed at about 6-8 inches away from the cake in short strokes. Don't do it too thick or it will run and smear your design.

 

Here is where I Pinstrositized. Next I attempted to make my own chocolate Fleur-de-lis, put it in the freezer and then quaintly put it on the cake. All did not go as planned, first off I didn't melt the chocolate enough, second of all I cut the hole in the piping bag too big and this was the result. "Is that poop or chocolate?"

Also, there is a Symphony bar in the side of this picture but I didn't use that for melting, (I used melting chocolate for that), the chocolate bar was for consuming while baking. Have to keep my strength up ya' know.

 

I messed with the chocolate for a good half hour before I gave up and decided to use the pink frosting for my big fleur-de-lis. I cut out a larger pattern ( I did it by hand, which also took me forever, I should have just printed out a larger one) and traced it with pink frosting, and filled it with gold sprinkles.

 

 

The whole thing turned out great and tasted really good, I got lots of compliments on it. With that being said I need to fine tune my chocolate skills as seen from above. Anyone have any tips for me with decorating chocolate??

 

Happy Monday all!