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By the time you read this blog, Chef Nicholas and Scott are in town and getting ready for the FL ICES Mini Classes.  This is a 3-day event that is held in Orlando, Florida this weekend!  As a resident of Florida, I am personally excited about this event.  It’s right in my “backyard”!  There is no way I would miss this event! 

But, let me ask a question….have you ever seen a cake event being advertised with classes nearby, but you waited too long and missed out?  I know I have, and I really regretted it.  I mostly missed out on the event because by the time I made up my mind to go, the class was full or the class had been cancelled because no one else had signed up.  I hate when that happens!!

There are so many shows across the U.S.A. and internationally to choose from.  It takes a lot of effort, coordination and hard work to pull these things off.  The teachers work really hard to prepare for their classes.  They spend hours putting together materials and lessons that will help make your decorating skills the best in the business!  But none of this really matters unless you sign up and attend the events!!  

Now, I know life happens and things get in the way of what we thought would turn out to be a ‘regular week or month’, but if you really, really, really (was that enough really’s?....) want to attend these things, we have to sign up and be committed to attend!  Yes, I said WE….. that includes me because I know I am a big procrastinator sometimes!  The deadlines for these things are provided for a reason.  This is the only way for the event organizers and the teachers to plan for their classes.  I know we are all disappointed when a teacher has to cancel because no one has signed up for the class.  You can’t blame the teacher; they need to know if any students are going to come to the class.  It’s up to us, to sign up in a timely fashion and to be committed to being in class!

Hi there!  I sure hope that you had a great Holiday celebration with your family and friends.  It’s a new year and time to make those New Year resolutions.  Or maybe we can just call them New Year Beginnings……  That’s what ISAC is working on right now.

I’ve heard that the best sales of the year happen during the month of January.  Well, at ISAC there is no exception to that rule!  Wait until you hear about these 2 sales that are going on this weekend! Plus classes, classes, classes!

The first sale to tell you about is the 80% OFF SALE. 

The 80% OFF SALE is a sale where everything, as marked in a special section of the ISAC shop, is 80% off!  Some items will be as low as .20¢, 40¢, and 60¢.  The deals and the bargains are just plain crazy!

Here are some photographs of some of the items that are 80% off.  There are so many things available, we couldn’t take photographs of all of it.  This sale will not be available online.

OUT WITH THE OLD, IN WITH THE NEW SALE is the 2^nd sale this coming weekend.  After 25 years in the ISAC shop, Chef Nicholas and Scott are downsizing with a huge early spring-cleaning sale.  And they did all the cleaning!  For sale are iconic items from the shop including the gingerbread and French chocolate restroom décor.  There are cake baking items, restaurant items, home décor, craft, floral, books and so much more.  These items will be marked to sell, so tell all your friends!!

Here are just a few items that you will find at this sale.

The hours for both sales are Friday, 10am-4pm, Saturday 8am-4pm and Sunday 10am-2pm

Happy Holidays to you and your family! 

From Nicholas, Scott and the ISAC Team!

Hi there!  By the time you read this, Christmas will be less than 1 week away.  Yikes!!  I’m sure you are running around picking out last minute gifts for everyone on your Christmas list.  I know I still have some shopping to do!

If you are still trying to figure out what to get the favorite sugar artists on your list, I have an idea for you.  How about giving them a Nicholas Lodge class and some Florida sunshine?? 

Chef Nicholas will be a part of the 2020 FL ICES Mini Classes, in Orlando, Florida.  This is a 3-day event and is scheduled for January 17-19, 2020.  The event is sponsored by the FL Chapter of the International Cake Exploration Society (ICES) and will be held at the Renaissance Orlando Hotel.  This hotel is located just a few minutes from the Orlando International Airport, and they offer a free shuttle to the hotel, so you don’t have to worry about any transportation!  There will also be a lot of vendors at the event and a raffle where FL ICES will give away a 6qt Kitchen Aid mixer!

Chef Nicholas will be teaching all three days.  Each day in class you will learn to create a different and unique set of gum paste flowers and leaves starting at 8:00 am. 

The first class, on Friday, will be Tropical Gum Paste flowers where you will learn several tropical flowers and orchids including Plumeria, Anthurium and Bougainvillea.

 The next day, Chef will teach his class on Bridal Flower Spray.  He will show you how to make a beautiful Rose, Calla Lily, Hydrangea, Baby’s Breath and so much more, using the Flower Pro molds.

On Sunday, Chef will teach a class on Fabulous Foliage.  This class is perfect to learn about foliage that will go with any of the gum paste flowers you make.  You will learn how to make, assemble and color many different types of foliage including Variegated Ivy, Maple leaf and freehand filler leaves. 

Everything you need to participate in the class will be provided for you.  If you have ever attended one of Chef Nicholas’ classes, you know that he packs a lot of information and details into his classes.  All you have to do is show up, ready to learn!

Chef Nicholas has been attending this event since its inception back in 1999.  He has always given his time and talents graciously to the FL ICES organization and we love it when he comes to Florida!  I’m sure he loves getting out of the cold weather in his area in January for a little bit of Sunshine.  Why don’t you join us!?  The deadline to sign up is approaching fast, so don’t delay!

Here is the link to the website where you can get more information and register. 

One last thing to note, there will be a special demonstration with Chef Nicholas and Sidney Galpern of Simi Cakes on Saturday evening.  You will not want to miss this because when these two get together with sugar, you never know what you are going to see and learn!!

Hope to see you in January!

Stay Sweet and Keep Learning!

Hi there!  I can’t believe we are getting so close to Christmas!  Are you ready?  Did you finish your Christmas shopping?  Well, keep reading, because I am here to help you out with some of those things.

First, I must mention the National Gingerbread Competition one more time.  I have to let you know about the wonderful video that was created by Scott Ewing at ISAC that will give you all the details and photographs for all of the entries at the competition.  It will make you feel like you were actually there at the event.

Click on this Gingerbread Competition link to view the video. If you still don’t have your fill of all things gingerbread, the Food Network is airing the 2018 National Gingerbread competition on Thursday, December 19 at 12:00pm EST.

 As I mentioned earlier, if you haven’t finished your Christmas shopping yet, I have the best solution for what to get your favorite sugar artist!

Hi there!  Do you remember when you were a kid how you got to make those adorable gingerbread houses for your family and friends?  Those houses were decorated with the cutest, most innovative assortment of candies and cookies that you could find.  I have actually made a lot of gingerbread houses for clients and friends and I don’t think I will ever look at a piece of candy or cookie or cereal the same way without thinking….. “how will that look as a roof or window on my gingerbread house?”

Well, I want to tell you about the National Gingerbread Competition that was held on Monday, November 18.  You may already know about this terrific event, but in case you don’t, it takes place every year at this beautiful resort, The Omni Grove Park Inn, which is nestled in the Smoky Mountains of North Carolina.  This will be their 27^th year of hosting this event. 

The main lobby of the hotel features a towering Christmas Tree and a seasonal “Gingerbread House Café”.  The café is made of real gingerbread and real “sugar” decorations with cotton candy billowing out of the chimney. Each season the inn staff serve hundreds of gallons of hot chocolate as well as thousands of freshly baked gingerbread cookies to the guest visiting and staying at the inn. 

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! 

From Nicholas, Scott and the ISAC Team!

Hello!  Did you have a chance to attend the Grand Holiday Open House at ISAC this past weekend?  There was a great turn out of cake decorators and sugar artists for both Saturday and Sunday sessions. There was so much to see and do!  Here is a quick summary of all the activities for the day!  Thank you, Scott Ewing, for the wonderful photographs.

The day began with Rochell Ingram of “My Sweet Connection & Divine Baking Divas” in Studio B.  She showed everyone how to make the most adorable Snow Globe cookie.  These are so cute!!

And she showed you how to create her beautiful Cakesicles.  These things make such cute, bite-size gifts.  They look like a lot of work, but once Rochell demonstrated how to make them, it was so easy!!

Next, the group moved into the ISAC lunchroom for refreshments including the popular, freshly baked ISAC Gingerbread cookie.  Did you know this cookie has been served at every Holiday Open House for the past 16 years?  That is one very popular cookie!!

Next, there was a demonstration by Steven Stellingwerf showing his fast, quick and easy Salted Caramel Chocolate Truffles.  Yummy!!  My mouth is watering just writing about those things!!

Next up was Donald Joiner of Cake Boy Confections.  Donald demonstrated Royal Icing techniques that you can use on cookies or Gingerbread houses.  The houses make great gifts and I can’t wait to try my hand at doing these techniques at home.

Chef Nicholas rounded out the session by showing many different holiday ideas using the new Katy Sue Designs silicon molds; some of these molds were specifically designed by Nicholas Lodge.

All of the best products were on hand to purchase and take home so you could recreate these wonderful projects at home.  If you weren’t able to make it to one of the sessions, you can still purchase some of the supplies at the ISAC online store. 

Until next time, Stay Sweet and Keep Learning!

Hello everyone!  If you were at the Ultimate Sugar Show in Atlanta, Georgia this past weekend, I hope you had a great time!  I sure did!!  I had the opportunity to be at the ISAC vendor booth the whole weekend and talk with a bunch of other sugar lovers.  It was great fun and lots of hard work, but mostly lots of fun!! 

The weekend was full of classes, vendors and sugar competitions, as well as, making new friends and seeing friends of old.  Chef Nicholas was the head judge during the show, and he had so much to review. 

The Sugar Art competition had a specific theme to follow called Sounds of the South.  The talented sugar artists created some amazing displays with Ray Charles, Elvis Presley, ZZ Top, Dolly Parton and even some designs using specific songs, like “The Devil Went Down to Georgia”.  Some even had lights and moving turntables as part of the design.  They were so cool! 

The other competitions were the Southern Lady Hat Fashion Show and the Great Southern Bake Off.  The final competition was the USA Qualifying Rounds for the 2021 FIPGC Cake Designers World Championship.  So much to do in one weekend…. Whew…. I’m exhausted.  I hope you had a chance to see everything.  Here are some photographs of the weekend events.

This is such an exciting time of year!  The holidays are right around the corner and there are 2 very exciting events coming up that I just have to tell you about!

The first one starts today, Thursday, November 7 and goes through Sunday, November 10 in Atlanta, Georgia.   I’m talking about the Ultimate Sugar Show’s Baking Supply Expo and Cake Competition which takes place in conjunction with the Business Conference for Sweets Industry Professionals also known as The Sweet Makers Industry Conference.  Now, I know that is a mouth full when it comes to naming cake shows, but stay with me because I think this is definitely one to attend.  There are so many classes, demos, and things to learn at this convention.  There will be special demonstrations and presentations by many well-known cake artists like Ron Ben-Israel, Joshua John Russell, Holly Broussard and Reva Alexander-Hawk, just to name a few.

First of all, I want to share with you that Flower Pro has reached a monumental milestone.

It is YOU that have made Flower Pro so popular by showing your support with your purchases, your comments and sharing your designs with everyone!  Did you know that these products are sold worldwide in 50 different countries!!  That is a great big THANK YOU in so many languages!!  But most of all it comes from the heart!  We Thank you!

And now….just when you think Flower Pro can’t possibly get any better…..this week, Chef Nicholas and Katy Sue Designs launched 3 new molds that will add to their line of fabulous products.  You are going to want to get these molds as soon as possible to add to your collection.

Flower Pro has added the Poppy Mold, Maple/Ivy/Ginkgo Leaves Mold and the Fan Mold.  These molds are all designed by the super talented Chef Nicholas.

Hi everyone.  I wrote last week about the FIPGC -Federation of Pastry Gelato & Chocolate Competition that was taking place on October 19 & 20 in Milan, Italy with Chef Nicholas as one of the judges representing the USA Division.

Well, since the blog last week was written before the winners were announced, I thought I would do a quick follow up to tell you how the event turned out and to tell you the final results of the competition. 

As you know, Chef Nicholas was at the event as a judge and he took a lot of photographs and videos that I would love to share with you.  I think he is part journalist because there are so many photos and videos, it made me feel like I was right there at the competition.  Chef said after the first day of judging, “The quality of work is amazing… not only viewing the pre-made exhibition cakes, but also seeing how parts of the actual cake (cake/fillings) were prepared and assembled”

As most of you probably know, Chef Nicholas is on the road traveling all year long, around the world to so many different events for the Sugar Arts.  It’s hard to keep up with his schedule and keep track of where he is going to be next because he is so busy.  I am going to do my best to keep up with him from a virtual level and report back here to everyone.

This week, Chef Nicholas is traveling to Milan, Italy for the FIPGC Cake Designers World Championship.  This is an international competition that only happens every two years.  This year, it will be held on October 19 – 20 and will have literally thousands in attendance.  FIPGC stands for Federazione Internazionale Pasticceria Gelateria Cioccolateria or to translate, it is the International Federation of Pastry Gelato Confectionery.  Thank you Google Translate! 

 A few weeks ago, I told you about the Sunflower and Daisy Flower Pro molds from Chef Nicholas and Katy Sue Designs that help make your sugar flower creations easier and more fun.  I hope you have these molds as part of your cake decorating supplies by now!

I also hinted about a new mold was coming out and it’s finally here!  This mold creates the most beautiful large and small size Antlers.  This new mold is definitely not a flower but is so much more versatile than a flower.  Just take a look at these fabulous creations.

The team at Katy Sue Designs and the many fans of Chef Nicholas have created some beautiful designs that I want to share with you.  Here are a few cake designs.

These cakes are amazing!! 

Now, I have to admit, when I first saw this mold, I started thinking of all the different cake designs I could make with this mold.  But then I thought…. this mold can be used to create so much more than just cake!  How about cookies or cupcakes?  How about a centerpiece for your table-top or pretty wreath to use during a Holiday celebration?  The team at Katy Sue Designs and everyone out there stepped outside the ‘cake box’ and came up with so many other ideas.  Just take a look.

This is definitely something no one should be without.  These molds are amazing.  Now is the best time to get yours!  

Click on the mold photograph to go straight to the website to place your order.  The Antler molds come in 2 different sizes, but can be used in the same way.  ISAC has plenty of these molds in stock, but you better hurry and order yours before they run out.  

Be sure to post photographs of your designs to the Katy Sue Designs Cake Decorating or Nicholas Lodge Facebook page so we can enjoy your work.  Chef Nicholas has also created a tutorial for the Antlers mold. Here is the link to the YouTube videos for all the great tutorials created by Chef Nicholas, including the Antler molds.  The NIcholas Lodge Antler Mold YouTube Tutorials.  There are 2 parts to this tutorial.

I never thought about the antler molds being on anything other than a cake, but the wonderful cake decorators and designers that work with these molds have really taken this to the next level. 

Who would have thought about this idea?  How cute is this?!

The Antler molds can be used for any holiday decoration or a rural Country theme cake or cookie.  The possibilities were endless.   Order yours today!

Stay Sweet and Keep Learning!

SAVE THE DATE!  Don't forget about the upcoming ISAC Grand Holiday Open House.  The event is scheduled for November 16 from 9:00am – 12:30pm OR 12:00-3:30pm; or you can attend November 17 from 9:00am – 12:30pm.  Each day will have the same demonstrations, so you can choose one of these days and times to attend and not miss a thing!

Registration is $15.00 for the event.  You will receive a $5.00 credit on any purchase you make during the event.  Got to www.nicholaslodge.com/classes to sign up today!

The team here at ISAC is always trying to make things better, easier and more efficient for our customers and friends.  There are many ways we can accomplish this.  We can do this the old-fashioned way and send out surveys by mail; or we can make phone calls to everyone.  But surveys by mail just get tossed in the trash can (at least that is what I tend to do) and who has the time to make all those phone calls?   

With the age of computers and fast technology, the internet is a much better option for these types of things.  There are a lot of websites that ask their users to leave a review about a business, like Yelp, Trip Advisor, Google or Ebay to name a few.  The more reviews that a business gets, the better the business is perceived and people who read the reviews will be more inclined to use that business if others have given it a favorable review.

So, based on that introduction and without getting too technical…. We would like your help.  Would you consider writing a review for ISAC?  We would love to hear about your thoughts, suggestions and creative ideas about how we are doing. 

Hello!  You probably looked at the title of this blog, rolled your eyes and groaned loudly thinking Christmas stuff already??  Well let me assure you that this Christmas blog is going to be one of the ones that you will want to pay attention to, so keep reading!

One of the best and “must do” events of the season is ISAC’s Grand Holiday Open House.  This is a great way to kick off the holiday season and get you in the holiday spirit! Did you know this will be the16th year for this celebration?

Mark these dates on your calendar - November 16 OR November 17.  The open house will be held at the ISAC show room and will be packed full of great Christmas ideas, demonstrations and shopping.

Good Products, Great Products

I am a sugar fanatic!  I love all things about sugar, cake decorating, conventions about cake decorating and the sugar arts and good cake decorating supplies.

When you are out there searching for a good product, don’t you want to make sure this product does what it says it can do and at an affordable price?  You don’t want to spend your hard-earned money on an inferior product that is going to break down after you use it once or twice.  (Trust me on that one, I have some of those)….. well, I have some great news to share or maybe this is old news for some but keep reading!

If you haven’t heard about the Flower Pro products created by Chef Nicholas and the team at Katy Sue then you must have been living somewhere without communication to the outside world!!  Or under the proverbial rock.  😊

These products are amazing, and did you know they have been around for over 1 year!!  That’s right, Flower Pro had a birthday celebration in August of this year.  Now for those of you who already know about Flower Pro and even have some of these molds in your decorating supply box, then you are way ahead of things.  But, if you are just learning about this, you need to catch up with us! 

Got Cake Shows?

Have you ever been a part of a cake show, either on a local level or a national level?   As I search the internet, there are a lot more cake shows than ever before.   Here are just a few to mention.

A new show that was just held in August was the Cake Clash! 2019. 

The Cake Clash! 2019 was held at Maggiano’s restaurant in Atlanta, Georgia.  This is the first time for this event but let me tell you it will not be the last!   The competition got whittled down to 6 local bakers who were fighting for ‘bragging rights’ to the title “Best Baker in Georgia”.  The show was put together by Greta Russo in honor of her daughter.  The best part about the show was that it all benefitted the Aflac Cancer & Blood Disorder Center at the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta.

Of course, Chef Nicholas was a part of this great event as a judge and advisor.  Chef pulled in some very talented judges to help make this event even better.  Thank you to Sidney Galpern and Reva Alexander-Hawk for their contribution with the judging!  Here is a great article about the event and a list of the winners.  https://www.supcreativegroup.com/cake-clash-2019--the-recap?journal=26

Hello!  Have you been missing the weekly blog that used to come out from ISAC?  Me too!  Stephanie did a wonderful job keeping us up to date with everything going on with the team at ISAC and Chef Nicholas, but she has decided to move on to bigger things (taking care of her family!)  Thank you Stephanie for all that you have done!  Your blogs were full of information and lots of fun!!

So what’s next?  Well, I’m happy to announce that I have the privilege and honor of being the person that is going to continue what Stephanie was doing and deliver the weekly blog on behalf of ISAC!  My name is Susan and I would like to welcome you to a new series of blogs that will give you all the latest that is happening with Chef Nicholas and his entire team at ISAC. 

First, I want to give you just a little about myself.   I have been a cake decorator and involved in the sugar arts for over 25 years.  I love to make sugar flowers, decorate, travel and mostly play with sugar!  I am a member of the International Cake Exploration Society and the Treasurer of the Florida Chapter.  I have met so many people and made life long friends in the sugar industry.  It’s hard to say what is more fun, playing with sugar or meeting new friends!