Today is graduation day for the 14 students in Chef Nicholas' PME Master Certification class! It has been 13 days of hard work AND fun! We had students from Nigeria, Curaçao, Bahamas, Argentina, and all over the United States. It will be so hard to say goodbye to all of our new friends, but I know that all of these wonderful students are going home having learned amazing skills to share with their own clients. Thanks to all of our PME students, we are going to miss you!

Normally I do photo blogs after our Open House events, but I thought I could share some of the photos we have taken over the last two weeks! I hope it might inspire you to take a class with us- from a quick 2-day class or up to our 13-day master class! (and yes, I share the winner of last week's blog at the bottom).

Hi everyone! Earlier today I posted our weekly blog with a chance to win Chef Nicholas' newest book Spring and Summer Gumpaste Flowers. I asked that you each comment on the post with the flower you were most excited to try from the new book (and there are eighteen flowers- tons of options!), and from those comments, Chef Nicholas would choose a winner. 

Many of you emailed us to let us know you were unable to comment. THANK YOU! I had no idea that the comment feature wasn't working properly! Luckily, the issue has been resolved and I have already had some new comments posted! In addition, the deadline has been extended to Wednesday! 

So! If you tried commenting earlier, and was not able to, please try again! You can find the original post here. 

Thanks for your patience, and good luck!!!

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie

We are smack dab in the middle of our HUGE 13-day PME Master Class! The students have already conquered rolled fondant and they are two-thirds finished with the royal icing module. They will finish up with five days straight of gumpaste flowers! If you know anything about Nicholas Lodge, you know that flowers are his game, so it's fitting to end a two-week class on such a high note. I myself have been a busy bee- printing class textbooks, getting practice sheets made, printing recipes, and preparing the diplomas and master certificates, that I realized I didn't have a blog topic for this week! But thanks to a suggestion from Scott, I realized that I could share some Chef Nicholas gumpaste flower magic with all of you too (his students shouldn't get to have all the fun)!

How exactly can I share sugar flowers through a blog? Well, because Chef Nicholas has a new book out with SIXTEEN different types of beautiful flowers: Spring & Summer Flowers in Gumpaste. Has there ever been a sweeter sixten? I think not. In fact, there is even a chance to win this new book!

If you are reading this blog, you're likely into the sugar arts and decorating cakes, cupcakes, cookies, and the like. That means, you MUST know about the Mirror Glaze trend that is dominating the cake decorating world right now. Basically, it is a glaze with a very shiny, mirror-like finish. There are tons of cake decorators using mirror glaze now, blogs are a buzz with directions on how to make the glaze. But I'm not here to tell you how to make it. Nope. I'm here to tell you that we are selling pre-made mirror glaze at ISAC, in three colors/flavors!

I'm always so sad to see summer go. I love hot summer days, and days by the beach and pool. Of course, in the cake decorating world, the summer can be less relaxing; it is wedding season after all. Weddings every weekend, and hot weather making buttercream melt and fondant sweat. Yuck. The end of summer brings in a calmer period for many cake decorators, and it also means that ISAC will be open on Saturdays again! Hooray! Starting September 10th, we will be in house every Saturday for your cake decorating needs; and I know you are all excited, because just yesterday on Instagram, one of our amazing followers lamented that she wished we were open on Saturdays. 

Reopening on Saturday's isn't my only fun fall tidbit. Nope, I have some fun events, classes, demos, and guest instructors to tell you about!

Big, big news to share! The wildly popular tour and class that teaches essential business skills to make real money in the cake industry: Business of Baking! Michelle Green and Sharon Wee say that, "It’s time you felt how amazing it is to invest in your business and yourself. Yes, we believe you can make a living doing what you love. We’re here to teach you how." You can join in on the business building fun on Monday, September 26, 2016.

It's almost time for the 2016 Sweet Fest Business Convention!! This September 23-25, 2016, business owners in the sweets industry can head down to Atlanta to attend this fantastic event. This conference is a bit different from your average cake/confectionary convention because it focuses on the business side of the industry, rather than the artistic side. Let's be real, it doesn't matter how beautiful your cake design is, or how mouthwatering your cookies are if you don't know how to attract, appeal to, and retain customers. This business savvy and fun convention is more than a trade show, competition, or expo. It is aimed at Sweet Entrepreneurs who want to learn how to grow and manage their business by sharing business knowledge and tools specific to our industry! Oh, and guess who is one of the presenters? Chef Nicholas!

I am very excited to share that Chef Joe Cumm will be returning to ISAC to teach in Studio B again! Chef Joe was with us last August teaching amazing Oriental String work and modeling chocolate techniques. This time around Chef Joe will be teaching some fantastic chocolate techniques! But before we get into the class details, let me tell you about Chef Joe!

Hello friends and happy Thursday! I am in a fantastic mood because Chef Nicholas is featured in an interview in the August 2016 Cake Masters Magazine! Oh, and also because the ICES Convention begins today! Hooray! 

For weeks and weeks Chef Nicholas and I have been politely asking all of you, students, clients, and fans, to nominate Chef Nicholas for the Best Learning Experience Cake Master Award. Nominations have closed, but I am hoping that Chef Nicholas' feature in the Cake Master Magazine is a good omen- fingers crossed that he is selected as a finalist! We won't know who is selected for a while, so until then, why not snag a copy of this month's Cake Master Magazine. It's the floral issue, so Chef Nicholas was the perfect person to interview this month! You can get your copy on their website. Of course, a HUGE thank you to each and everyone one of you that nominated both Chef Nicholas and Scott for the Cake Master Awards!

Let's switch gears to ICES. Earlier this week, the ISAC team diligently packed up loads of fun tools and goodies to bring to all of you this weekend at the ICES Convention in Mobile, Alabama! Chef Nicholas will be teaching his Lily of the Valley and Stephanotis hands-on class this evening, and he will be hosting his Camellia demo on Saturday morning! I know Chef Nicholas hope to see you all in his class or demo! Oh, and of course don't forget to visit Scott at the ISAC booth! We are debuting some new items that you will not want to miss out on!

I hope everyone going to ICES has a great weekend, and you all have fun in your classes and demos! Good luck to all the competitors! And EVERYONE go visit the ISAC booth to take home some cake swag!

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie

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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. 

The ISAC Family must say goodbye to a big part of our team this week. Larry Hunn, our General Manager, is retiring to spend more time with his family. While we are so very sad to see him go, we know that he will be enjoying his grandchildren and the sunny weather in Florida!  Larry has been instrumental in helping ISAC to grow as a business, that we wanted to pay tribute to him in our blog this week.

2015 National Showpiece Championship Winner. Team Kengo Akabame and Toshinori Akishiro won "Best Overall," "Best Chocolate," "Sponsors' Choice," and "People's Choice."

It's that time of year again folks- Pastry Live! In just one month, August 20-21, 2016, the kings of pastry will be visiting our hometown of Atlanta, Georgia for a weekend of competition, seminars, and shopping! Chef Nicholas will be back as a judge again this year, and Renshaw is one of the event sponsors! Yay!

Chef Nicholas' 2015 seminar sponsored my Nielsen-Massey Fine Vanillas & Flavors.

Greetings from Tokyo, Japan!! Just kidding- I'm not lucky enough to be in Japan, but Chef Nicholas is that lucky! Last week Chef Nicholas flew out to teach two weeks of classes at his school; The Nicholas Lodge International Sugar Art Collection Japan. We've been missing him at lot here at ISAC in the good ol' USA, but it looks like he and his students are having the time of thier lives from the photos. I normally only do photoblogs after our Open House events, but I thought I would make an exception for our fantastic Japanese students! Hope you enjoy seeing everything they have created so far!

Bryson Perkins will be visiting ISAC this August and teaching a two-day class in Studio B! Originally from Kailua-Lona, Hawaii, Bryson dove into cake decorating as a hobby to fill his void of homesickness while living in New Hampshire.  Shortly after discovering his talent for cake decorating and sugar art, he was hired as a cake artist at a well know pastry shop. Bryson set off on his own and opened Triolo's Bakery in December of 2012.  Although his cake career is still relatively short, Bryson has had the pleasure of creating one of a kind cakes for, "celebrities, politicians, charitable foundations, and everyone in between."

Earlier this week the Cake Masters Awards opened their nominations for the 2016 awards! In 2015 Chef Nicholas was honored to be a finalist in the Cake Hero category. This year we are hoping that Chef Nicholas will be selected as a finalist (and eventual winner!) of the Best Learning Experience Award. With 38 years of experience, Chef Nicholas has reached an innumerable about of students around the world. On Facebook, Chef Nicholas shared the highlights of his teaching career, and I thought I would do the same here. It's our hope that you will consider nominating Chef Nicholas for the Best Learning Experience, especially if you have had the privilege of taking one of his classes!

Chef Nicholas at the ICES Convention

Guess what happens on Monday? Chef Nicholas will debut his 11th Craftsy class! How amazing is that? Sweet Seasons: Fall Foliage is the last of four seasonal floral themed classes that Chef Nicholas created with Craftsy. Unlike the previous three class (Poinsettia, Cherry Blossoms, and Sunflower) this class does not include any flowers! I bet you'd love the chance to win this class for free! Keep reading to enter our contest!

It's that time of year again my fellow cake decorating friends! ICES CONVENTION 2016! We are less than two months away from bringing the cake decorating world to Mobile, Alabama. Chef Nicholas has already begun to prepare for the big weekend, and I am super excited to share some of what ISAC will be offering, as well as some of the activities at this year’s convention.

About a month ago, I shared Chef Nicholas' E-Z Product line here on the blog. Chef Nicholas has created a fabulous line of products that includes molds, glue, super bond, release, and acrylic holder. Today I'm excited to share that three brand new products have joined the E-Z Family!

In the ISAC family, everyone has their job. Chef Nicholas designs cakes and teaches classes, Scott takes beautiful  photos (and makes the best cookies), I write the blog, and Molly is in charge of making sure we have tons of fantastic products for everyone to enjoy. One of my very favorite things is when Molly tells me we have fun new products in the house. That means we get to try them out and tell you all about them! This is one of those blog posts- new product here for your cake decorating pleasure!

Memorial Day is just around the corner, and that means summer fun is officially on its way! June is a BIG month at ISAC; Sidney Galpern is returning to Studio B with three isomalt classes, and Chef Nicholas has two classes (including a BRAND NEW CLASS)!

Today we are going to talk about what you can do with rolled fondant. And I'm not talking about covering you cake! Chef Nicholas has two techniques to change things up with rolled fondant that students just go bananas over when they learn them for the first time: modified rolled fondant and softened rolled fondant.