French baker Yannick Tavolaro poses with pastries known locally as "Dieu and Déesse" (God and Goddess) at "La belle epoque" bakery in Grasse. File photo
Image by: VALERY HACHE / AFP
Image by: VALERY HACHE / AFP
The "God" and "Goddess" cupcakes -- which have been on sale in the shop in the town of Grasse for about 15 years -- are stuffed with ganache and topped with the chocolate figures of a plump man and woman with pink lips and protruding genitalia.
The administrative court in Nice on Thursday ordered they be removed from the shop's window display, though -- finding no "malicious will" on the part of the baker -- it allowed the shop to continue making and selling them.
The court ordered the town's mayor to ensure the cakes were removed from the display immediately, with a penalty of 500 euros for each day's delay.
It also ordered the town to pay a fine of 1,000 euros to the Platform for Reflection and Action against Anti-Black Racism (CRAN), which called for the cupcakes to be banned earlier in March after a complaint from a resident.
The court said the cakes showed "two people of colour in grotesque and obscene attitudes", adding they violate "human dignity, especially that of the African people or people of African descent".
Baker Yannick Tavolaro said he makes the cupcakes only on weekends, and often to order.
In a defamation complaint against CRAN he said the use of dark chocolate is technically necessary to model the figures, which he said were cartoons.
CRAN president Louis-Georges Tin said he was "delighted" with the court ruling Thursday, adding it was a warning to the rest of France.
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