Way back in July I wrote a blog sharing Chef Nicholas' world famous recipe for Tylose Gumpaste (you can read that post by clicking here). That particular post got an enormous amount of positive feedback across social media! Well, what if I told you I had great news about Chef Nicholas's gumpaste, especially for those that don't want to make it themselves? Hold on to your hats: you can now BUY premade Nicholas Lodge gumpaste!
Thank you to everyone who commented on our Favorite Things blog earlier this week! I loved reading all of the reasons that you shared for wanting to win the Mini Palette Knife and the NL Floral Tape Cutter! Without further delay, here are the winners!
The winner of the Mini Palette Knife is Diane Schoonver!
"The mini palette knife is definately a must have. It gets under everything that nothing else will."
The winner of the NL Floral Tape Cutter is Karen Grey!
"I would love to win the tape cutter! I teach cake decorating at our community college and I am forever trying to tear tape into smaller pieces for flowers!"
Congratulations to both of our winners! Please email us at customersvc@nicholaslodge.com or call us at 1-800-662-8925 so we can get your prizes out to you! Thank you again to all of our readers who participated!
Sweetly Yours,
Stephanie
Last week on the Chef Nicholas Lodge Facebook page, we asked everyone to share the one cake decorating tool they couldn't live without. There were a ton of great responses, a few funny ones, and a clear winner! I also have a favorite suggested by our very own Scott and Nicholas! Oh, and read to the end to find out how you can win a sweet surprise!
Several weeks ago I was lucky enough to take some great action photos during the Modern Marie Antoinette cake class. The cake had so many intricate designs, details, and embellishments- it was amazing to see how beautifully everything fit together. Half-way through the second day of class, Chef Nicholas demonstrated how to lace up the corset. What stood out to me once he was finished, was the adorable, and perfect, little bows at the top and bottom of the corset laces. When Chef Nicholas showed the students just how easy it was to make the bows, a light bulb went on, and I knew I had to share these bows with you on the blog!
I think it is a safe bet that nearly all the readers on this blog have used, or have heard of, rolled fondant. It is certainly a staple in all of Chef Lodge's cake decorating classes and a product that continually flies off the shelf in our retail gallery. The sweet marshmallowy taste and the stretchy, forgiving texture has made fondant wildly popular in the cake decorating world in recent years. I have used fondant to cover cakes and cookies, I have made fondant flowers and figures, I have even made fondant cameos! I've never questioned how this all-powerful substance came into being. Last week, I wrote about our new Jadeite colored fondant, and I wondered at the origins of fondant. Where was it invented? When was it first used to cover a cake? What makes it so stretchy? I am a researcher at heart, so I indulged my curiosity and delved into the deep, dark, sordid past of fondant. No, wait. Let me try that again: I indulged my curiosity and delved into the sweet, sugary, delicious past of fondant. Yeah, that's better. Fondant: THIS IS YOUR LIFE!
© The International Sugar Art Collection by Nicholas Lodge