Blog

This week I have a short and sweet blog post to share! I would wager that everyone who reads this blog knows that Chef Nicholas is the undisputed king of sugar flowers. So it should come as NO SURPRISE that Chef Nicholas has been named Cake Masters Magazine's August Cake Icon! This is a huge honor, and Chef Nicholas wanted to share the link for this month's magazine (see below). We hope that you enjoy his interview honoring him, as much as he enjoyed giving it! Chef Nicholas always says that he is dedicated to his students and clients, so it is so meaningful to be honored in this way. 

http://www.cakemasters.co.uk/product/august-2018-issue/

Now, as the king of sugar flowers, Chef Nicholas also has the best tools. He designs all of his own sugar flower cutters, and has them custom made by a company in the UK with a 25 year history in the business. These metal cutters are made of top quality, tin-plated steel; they are finished with a lead-free solder to ensure your sugar flowers are 100% safe for consumption. These cutters aren't flimsy, and they are not cookie cutters. They are serious cake decorating tools. Guess what? Chef Nicholas has been creating some brand new designs to go with some new techniques he has been developing. So, we have decided to offer a fantastic sale on some of our most popular metal flower cutters! 

Right now, you can get select cutters on sale for up to 50% off! This sale will run while supplies last, so hop on over to our online retail gallery and check out all these wonderful cutters! These cutters will help you create incredibly lifelike flowers that are sure to impress all your clients! I hope that you can all find some cutters that you just need to add to your collection! There are a lot of choices to look through! Click here for some retail therapy!

There are still seats available in these great classes this summer at ISAC! Click the links below to register now. 

5-Day Ultimate Gumpaste Flower Class

French Macarons and Chocolate Bon Bons with Joseph Cumm, 8/25

Tea Party Pastries with Joseph Cumm, 8/26

Renshaw Academy Master Certification Class with Chef Nicholas Lodge, 10/13-10/22

Stephanie 

Our goal is for you to be completely satisfied with your Amazon order! If for any reason this is not the case, we would appreciate it if you would give us a chance to address your concerns, before leaving feedback or a review, by emailing us at customersvc@nicholaslodge.com. We would be grateful if you would leave us a positive feedback and review of your Renshaw Fondant. Leaving feedback seems like such a little thing, but it has great impact on our business and we would greatly appreciate your time in leaving it.

2017 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

WINNER of the 2017 Golden Tier Educator of the Year Award

Winner of the 2015 Craftsy Blogger Award for Best Craftsy Cake Decorating Instructor Blog

Chef Nicholas Lodge: 2015 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

Anyone out there read this blog from India? In Mumbai, maybe? Well, if you are reading this, get excited! Chef Nicholas will be heading to Cakeology this October! What is Cakeology you ask? According to the vent website, "Spread over 3 days, Cakeology 2018, is the first show of its kind – bringing every day cake artists, sugar artists, bakers, chocolatiers, retail bakers, ​professional ​pastry chefs and foodies to celebrate the world of Baking and the Art of Cake Decorating. This exciting weekend has something for everyone." Hmm, that does sound like a fun weekend. This is the third year of Cakeology, and Chef Nicholas is so excited to be a part of this year's event! 

Were you at the ICES convention in Cincinnati last week? If you were there, you may have enjoyed seeing the incomparable Ceri Griffiths demonstrating at our ISAC vendor booth. In fact, he was demonstrating his new collaboration with Katy Sue Designs, the Continuous Quilting mold. Chef Nicholas Lodge was the exclusive vendor of this brand new product (available in both large and mini sized!), and it was a HUGE success! The large molds completely sold out, and the small molds nearly sold out (Chef Nicholas is taking the remainder to CookieCon!). If you didn't get a chance to check out this AMAZING product, check out this video:

 So, why am I chit-chatting about Ceri Griffiths? Well, because we are lucky to be hosting him in Studio B this coming November! Chef Nicholas and Chef Ceri have been friends and colleagues for a long time, and we are extremely excited to be hosting him this year! This marks the very first time that Chef Ceri will be teaching at the International Sugar Art Collection! Read on for more details and dates. 

We have a month packed full of classes this August! We have two classes with our very own Chef Nicholas Lodge (yay!), and two classes with Chef Joseph Cumm. I have written about Chef Joe's classes, but we have had a change to one of the classes that I think you will all be very interested to hear about. Before I tell you all about the new class projects that Chef Joe will be teaching, let's talk about Chef Nicholas' two August classes!

Last week I wrote about the rampant problem of counterfeit products flooding the cake decorating market. I am excited to tell you that the post received very positive feedback across social media. Countless people shared the post on their personal pages, their business pages, in their cake decorating group pages. It was a really encouraging sign that many in the cake decorating community not only agreed with our position on the dangers of these tools, but also encouraging to know that the community WANTS safe, high quality products!

Our excitement over the solidarity we felt was dampened by the fact that we discovered more shops on social media selling illegal knock-off products. This one page was selling items ripped off from Katy Sue Deigns, PME, FMM, and Lauren Kitchens! Some of the knock offs are even pictured as the same color as the original molds! Though, I wonder if the images of the molds were pulled off the original designers' websites and used in their shop (while the knock-off seller actually sends the cruddy, none FDA approved silicone!). I was just looking at the offending Facebook page before I began writing; it is so frustrating that they claim to sell high quality products when they are obvious fakes. I also noted that on this page, it stated the materials were FDA approved. In my last post I noted that if counterfeit sellers like about the design and quality, it's no stretch to assume they are lying about the products being food safe.

However, I had a thought since I posted the last blog. If a business in the USA is selling these products, they have done none of their own research, development, or design. They buy the knock-offs from an overseas manufacturer who may SAY that the material is food safe. Unlike a person like Chef Nicholas who will take all necessary steps to ensure the material is in compliance with all FDA rules and regulations, a business may just take the manufacturer at its word. In light of my last post, this could be dangerous and unsafe. Remember, that cheap price tag comes at the cost of quality and safety. 

Think of it this way. You own a successful cake business. You have loyal clients because you make yummy desserts with the very best ingredients. Then you notice that your clients stop ordering from you. You find out another baker has come into your town. They have a very similar name, have an identical business logo, use the same recipes, display cakes that look identical to your designs, but the cakes are a quarter of the price because they are using cheap, poor quality ingredients. How would that make you feel? You would hope your clients don't fall into that trap! 

Thank you again to all of you who shared the original Real or Fake blog post from last week. I encourage you to share the post (which can be found on Chef Nicholas' Facebook page) on your page, your business page, or in your local cake community page (like an ICES chapter). We need all in the cake decorating and sugar arts community to stand up and against these illegally made counterfeit products!

One final note- in last week's blog I did state that most knock-off silicone molds are pink. This is true, they also have a nasty chemical smell. I forgot to add that there are original, reputable product designers that use shades of pink as their signature color for silicone molds (that ARE food safe). However, as I said last week, if you are unsure if a product is legit, check the designer's website or social media page! It is very easy to reach out and get confirmation from someone like Chef Nicholas or Sidney Galpern or Lauren Kitchens. We are one big sugar arts family, and we rather you ask us or check our websites for an approved vendor list then buy a product that is hazardous to your client's health. 

Buy smart and buy safe! Please share the original post on social media by clicking here. 

There are still seats available in these great classes this summer at ISAC! Click the links below to register now. 

Hanging Handbag with Mayen Orido

The Boombox Cake with Mayen Orido

Renshaw Academy Sugar Flower Module

5-Day Ultimate Gumpaste Flower Class

Tea Party Pastries with Joseph Cumm, 8/25

Tea Party Pastries with Joseph Cumm, 8/26

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie 

Our goal is for you to be completely satisfied with your Amazon order! If for any reason this is not the case, we would appreciate it if you would give us a chance to address your concerns, before leaving feedback or a review, by emailing us at customersvc@nicholaslodge.com. We would be grateful if you would leave us a positive feedback and review of your Renshaw Fondant. Leaving feedback seems like such a little thing, but it has great impact on our business and we would greatly appreciate your time in leaving it.

2017 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

WINNER of the 2017 Golden Tier Educator of the Year Award

Winner of the 2015 Craftsy Blogger Award for Best Craftsy Cake Decorating Instructor Blog

Chef Nicholas Lodge: 2015 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

Lately there has been a bunch of buzz about knock-offs in the cake industry. A lot of buzz. You may be thinking to yourself, "Who cares if it is a knock-off? It's the same product for a fraction of the price!" That's not taking into account the entire picture though...

Three weeks ago, I announced that Chef Joseph Cumm would be returning to our very own Studio B to teach two days of his Tea Party Pastry class! Just two days ago, Chef Joseph sent me an email including all new, detailed, close up images of the desserts featured in his class! You guys... I opened his email and my mouth instantly began to water! I honestly started at the photos for a good five minutes before decided I needed to find some sort of dessert at that moment. 

All joking aside, the desserts look delicious! As a reminder, if you forgot what was on the roster of tasty pastries being taught in the class, here is a refresher list: Mini Cakes, Scones, Rugelach, and a variety of cookies and tartlets. These desserts are not only perfect for tea parties, but also dessert parties or dessert buffet. They would even impress your book club members, teachers (or camp counselors I guess since it's summer!), boss and coworkers, etc. These desserts, wrapped up in a box would be a perfect thank you gift. 

I bet you guys want to feast your eyes on the photos that I mentioned earlier... don't you? Well, before I show you- don't forget that this is a one-day class, and it is being offer twice (on two consecutive days). You can sign up for either session: August 25 and August 26. Both classes will offer the exact same subject matter, instructions, and desserts. If you are ready to register for Chef Joseph Cumm's Tea Party Pastries class, please just click one of the dates above to be taken to the registration page. 

Now, on to those mouthwatering dessert photos!

Is your mouth watering? Mine sure is! I need that Opera Cake in my life right now! Which dessert are you looking forward to making with Chef Joseph?! We can't wait to see you in our next class. 

Upcoming Classes at ISAC:

There are still seats available in these great classes this summer at ISAC! Click the links below to register now. 

Hanging Handbag with Mayen Orido

The Boombox Cake with Mayen Orido

Renshaw Academy Sugar Flower Module

5-Day Ultimate Gumpaste Flower Class

Tea Party Pastries with Joseph Cumm, 8/25

Tea Party Pastries with Joseph Cumm, 8/26

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie 

Our goal is for you to be completely satisfied with your Amazon order! If for any reason this is not the case, we would appreciate it if you would give us a chance to address your concerns, before leaving feedback or a review, by emailing us at customersvc@nicholaslodge.com. We would be grateful if you would leave us a positive feedback and review of your Renshaw Fondant. Leaving feedback seems like such a little thing, but it has great impact on our business and we would greatly appreciate your time in leaving it.

2017 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

WINNER of the 2017 Golden Tier Educator of the Year Award

Winner of the 2015 Craftsy Blogger Award for Best Craftsy Cake Decorating Instructor Blog

Chef Nicholas Lodge: 2015 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

Chef Nicholas Lodge is widely accepted as a master in this field of cake decorating. He has been in the industry for over 40 years and has been teaching for almost as many years. People from all of the world have taken classes with him; Chef Nicholas has taught in 26 different countries. Not to mention the distance that some of his students have traveled to take classes with Chef Nicholas in his home classroom at ISAC in Atlanta. What kind of class would inspire someone to travel from an entirely different country, continent, or hemisphere? How about the first ever Renshaw Academy Master CLASS!!!

Just this week Chef Nicholas added one of his most popular classes to his summer class schedule: 5-Day Ultimate Gumpaste Flower Class! YAY! This is a class that consistantlygets requested, fills up, and sells out. What makes this class so very popular you ask? Well, buckle up, because it's a doozy!

As you well know, last summer ISAC celebrated its 25th anniversary, and Chef Nicholas has been in the industry for 40 years. Along the way, lots of friends have been made. One of those friends is Chef Joseph Cumm. Chef Joe often visits ISAC to teach in Studio B. Over the last few years he has taught chocolate bon bons, chocolate showpieces, chocolate flowers, a wildly popular French macaron class (which began as 1-one day class, and turned into 3-one day classes!), and most recently, he was a guest instructor at our Spring Open House 2018 event teaching chocolate Easter eggs. We are excited to announce that Chef Joe is coming back in August to teach Tea Party Pastries!

It's June which means summer has officially arrived. In the cake decorating world, summertime brings the annual ICES convention! YAY! The ICES convention is an important yearly tradition for the ISAC team; Chef Nicholas first came to the US in the 1980s to teach and demonstrate at an ICES convention. Chef Nicholas has been a fixture at the yearly event since then. After opening the International Sugar Art Collection, there has always been a vendor booth at the convention as well. The 2018 ICES convention in Cincinnati, Ohio will be no different. Chef Nicholas is teaching, and we will have our world-famous vendor booth for loads of retail therapy. 

After two weeks of royal wedding blogs, it seems fitting that this week I get to introduce the third module of Renshaw Academy- Royal Icing! This is the third Renshaw Academy class being offered by Chef Nicholas Lodge this year. It is one of three modules needed to earn the Renshaw Academy Master Certification! This class offers two brand new techniques cakes, designed by Chef Nicholas specifically for this module! 

Last week I delved into the two ingredients that would star in the wedding cake made in honor of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle: lemon and elderflower. This week, I thought I was share some pictures of the simple, rustic wedding cake! The cake was a simple sponge cake, with elderflower and lemon syrup (the elderflower syrup was created at Sandringham one of the Queen's estates!). It was filled with fresh lemon curd, and iced with an elderflower Swiss Meringue Buttercream, and topped with fresh flowers, including peonies. Below you will find a cool video posted on The Royal Family twitter page; it is a Q&A with the cake's creator Claire Ptak. 

Have you heard there is a big wedding this weekend? Like a royally big wedding. Ha, you see what I did there?! All joking aside, Prince Harry (grandson of Queen Elizabeth II) is marrying Miss Meghan Markle (an American!). In Britain, fruitcake is the traditional choice for wedding cake flavors. In fact, When Prince William and Catherine Middleton married, they had an eight-tiered fruitcake with sugar flowers and royal icing. Harry and Meghan are breaking with traditional, and have opted for a sponge cake with fresh flowers and buttercream... and flavored with elderflower and lemon. When I was engaged and visiting bakeries for taste testing, I did not come across a single elderflower and lemon flavored cake. I thought it might be fun to discuss these flavors in today's blog, and in honor of the royal couple and wedding cakes everywhere!

Cake, cookie, cupcake, and candy making is our business at ISAC (what, you guys didn't know that? HA!!). You may have also noticed we sell a lot of tools to make all those sweet and delicious treats. To the uninitiated, a cake supply store selling floral tape is a bit confusing, but we all know that Chef Nicholas is the all time reigning champ on finding sweet related uses for ordinary everyday products. Because Chef Nicholas is so creative, he sees things like  ice cube trays as flower formers. Things we mere mortals would never be able to envision ourselves. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen Chef Nicholas pull out a mundane tool or household object, and then do something incredible with... the best part is hearing his students actually OOH and AHH during this mind blowing process.

My favorite example of this was a few years back at our Grand Holiday Open House event. Chef Nicholas had a cake on display that had fondant in the exact same texture as a comfy, cozy thermal shirt. Many people were murmuring that there must be a new texture mat out, because how else could you achieve that look. When Chef Nicholas presented the cake during his demonstration he whipped out a piece of drawer liner. Yes you read that right. DRAWER LINER. He simply pressed it onto the fondant and voila! Instant thermal cake. I mean, come on man! 

Hiya everyone! I thought I would do something special this week. I have been wanting to do staff spotlight blogs for a while, and I just never get a chance to fit them into the blog. Well, as I was prepping for the blog this week, I realized that my work BFF's birthday was this week! I thought to myself, classes and cake decorating can wait one week so that I can honor the birthday girl, and the familiar friendly face we always see when walking into the retail gallery: MOLLY!

Molly began working at ISAC in 2009, as a retail associate. I was hired in early 2010, and Molly helped to train me up to work in the gallery too. I really enjoyed working with Molly; she is hilarious, and has a great sense of humor. It didn't hurt that we both loved some of the same campy shows from the 1980s (JEM AND THE HOLOGRAMS). Back then our days were filled with stocking up the shelves with awesome cake decorating supplies, signing people up for classes, and even teaching a class together ourselves (that's right. Molly and I developed and taught Camp Cupcake for kids). 

Since those early days, Molly has taught cookie decorating classes in Studio B; Molly designs and decorates some amazing royal icing cookies! And now she also manages most of the day to day operation in the retail gallery. Molly orders all the products we sell, manages our Amazon Prime storefront, responds to all of the ISAC emails, processes online orders, interfaces with Chef Nicholas and Scott on grander ISAC topics, and of course... Molly is there to brainstorm, help, and suggest ideas, methods, and products with all of our customers. I know that so many of our customers love Molly. I see it in the way they talk to her in the store. I hear it in their voices when they ask for her on the phone, I see their disappointment when they realize it's Friday, and she isn't working. When we host the master classes, we have a class dinner and all of the staff come along. The students always want Molly to sit at their table. You guys, even my mom, who is not a cake decorator, loves Molly. She thinks Molly is just beautiful. If I am on a work call and my mom is nearby, she will always say, "Is that pretty Molly?! Tell her I say hi!"

Chef Nicholas, Scott, Ann, Carol, Jan, and I are grateful to have the pleasure of working with Molly every day. So, if you see Molly this week, or talk to her on the phone, or send in an email, be sure to wish her a happy birthday (a little late, it was on May 1)! Thanks for all you do at ISAC Molly. We love you, and hope you have a great birthday week! 

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie

2017 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

WINNER of the 2017 Golden Tier Educator of the Year Award

Winner of the 2015 Craftsy Blogger Award for Best Craftsy Cake Decorating Instructor Blog

Chef Nicholas Lodge: 2015 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

Hey, hey, hey! Last month, Chef Nicholas kicked off Renshaw Academy; amazing and intensive cake decorating certification courses designed by Chef Nicholas exclusively for Renshaw. There are three different modules: Sugar Flowers, Sugarpaste (rolled fondant), and Royal Icing. In March, the very first Renshaw Academy class on American soil took at ISAC. This first class was the Sugar Flower module. In May, Chef Nicholas will be teaching the second module: Sugarpaste!

Many of our readers know that Sidney Galpern, of Simi Cakes, is a frequent guest instructor at ISAC. Sidney is a superb all around pastry chef, but she is best known for her isomalt designs. Many of our students have taken classes with Sidney in Studio B, and we are so excited to be offering two classes with Sidney this June. In the past, I had written a few blogs dedicated to different products that shape the cake decorating (and pastry) world. As I was brainstorming ideas for this week's blog, I reread some of these previous blogs for a bit of inspiration. I thought it might be fun to tell you all about this history and science behind isomalt. And, Sidney, if you are reading this- I hope I get it all right!

I don't know about you guys... but I am ready for some consistently warm weather! Normally, here in Atlanta, it is pretty hot my mid-April. I think in the last 7 days I have been turning my heat on, my heat off, my air conditioning on, my air conditioning off. I wear shorts one day, and a winter coat the next day. The weather here has been making me crazy, and I have been dreaming about summer weather and the beach vacation I have coming up this summer. I thought, what better way to shake off the last of the winter weather blues by chatting about MIAMI! Well, specifically everyone's favorite cake and candy expo in Miami: SoFlo!

Everyone at ISAC is way beyond excited because Mayen Orido from Way Beyond Cakes is coming to teach two incredible classes in Studio B this July. Everyone knows about sculpted cakes and gravity defying cakes. These cakes are eye-catching and mind boggling. Mayen is taking these types of cakes even further! Would you like a purse cake that actually hangs down when you carry it? What about an old school boombox cake you can carry on your shoulder and HAVE IT PLAY ACTUAL MUSIC?! We are absolutely thrilled to have Mayen come teach both of these classes! Read on for more information about these amazing hanging cake classes and Chef Mayen!