Hello again friends! I do hope you are all enjoying our Twelve Deals of Christmas sale. If you aren't sure what I am talking about, each day for the first 12 days of December we are offering a special deal on some of our favorite products! So far we have had special deals on pump brushes, FondArt, metal flower cutters, and today
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Last week, at the end of my blog, I casually mentioned our new 2015 class schedule was available on our website. Let's talk about that, shall we?
I'm going to continue the winter theme just a bit longer with this blog. I can't help myself; I'm just too excited about all our upcoming winter events. Today I am going to talk a bit more about Autumn Carpenter's upcoming class with us, and then I'm going to share a few secrets from our upcoming Grand Holiday Open House!
The ISAC team is gearing up for a very busy fall and winter season. We have quite a few Studio B classes, our Grand Holiday Open House, and Chef Nicholas is splitting his time between his classes here in Atlanta, and the classes that he instructs at the French Pastry School in Chicago (not to mention judging the National Gingerbread Competition).
Are you certifiably crazy for cake decorating? No? Well, you are in luck! This fall Chef Nicholas Lodge is offering three classes with PME certification! PME Diplomas and Master's Certificates are internationally recognized awards and they are designed as professional level cake decorating courses.
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!
When people think of classes that are offered at the International Sugar Art Collection, "Chef Nicholas Lodge" and "professional level" are probably the first words that pop into their heads. I am here to tell you that yes, Chef Nicholas Lodge teaches most of our classes (of course!), and yes, many of our students are professional cake decorators. However, Chef Nicholas is not our only in house trained pastry chef and not all our classes are aimed at professional decorators! Nope. Who, you ask, is our other pastry chef?
Last weekend ISAC hosted a class with Joshua John Russell! I wrote about his upcoming class a few weeks ago on the blog, but the process photos from the class just BLEW UP on facebook and instagram, so I thought I would share how amazing the class actually was! I was very excited because I had never met Joshua before! Before Saturday, I had only seen him on the TV shows Food Network Challenge and Last Cake Standing. He lives here in Atlanta, and is a regular at ISAC (both as a visiting instructor and valued shopper!). Joshua is such a nice guy, and was totally fine with me hovering over him taking pictures while he taught his class. That's right dear readers, I had to suffer and hang out with one of the coolest cake decorators in the world just so I could write a fun and exciting blog for you! :) All joking aside, Joshua was very nice, a wonderful teacher, and just an amazing and stylish cake decorator. If you have taken his Craftsy classes you know that he is inspired by fashion and fun fabrics; seriously, one is called Fashion Inspired Fondant. If you haven't taken his Craftsy classes... well, why haven't you?! His Modern Buttercream Class is FREE. FREE!
Boy oh boy, June was such a busy month for us here at ISAC! We had five different classes- New Trends in Gumpaste Flowers, Summer Gumpaste Flowers, 2-Day Ultimate Rose, Modern Marie Antoinette (with Chef Nicholas and Chef Lauren Kitchens), and Grand Master of the Jedi Order: Yoda with Lauren Kitchens! It was fun having all those classes, catching up with returning students, meeting new students, and having Chef Lauren was such a treat! Chef Nicholas, ever the dedicated teacher, hopped a plane to Japan last Wednesday so that he can teach at our sister school: Nicholas Lodge Sugar Art Gallery Japan. He will be teaching there for a total of two weeks. If you are one of our blog readers in Japan- I hope you are having fun with Chef Nicholas! We miss him here in the USA!
Ok, Lauren Kitchens is not my best friend (yet). I may or may not have only met her this week, but let me tell you something- she is awesome. She's friendly, down to earth, HILARIOUS, and she makes the coolest freaking cakes! This week, Lauren graced ISAC with her cake making super-powers. She joined forces with our resident super hero, Chef Nicholas, to teach students how to make a Modern Marie Antoinette cake, and yesterday she taught 13 lucky students how to make a Yoda cake! I was able to sit in on both classes, and seriously... they were so much fun! I'm actually pretty jealous I didn't actually get to MAKE either the Marie Antoinette or Yoda cakes. Sad day. However, I got to hang out with Lauren, her assistant Jessie, and all of the amazing students in both of the classes, so I'm still counting it as a win! If you would like to see some of the process shots from the Modern Marie Antoinette and Yoda classes, please check out our facebook page: www.facebook.com/ChefNicholasLodge
I know I mention it each week, but we really do have a huge, loyal, and enthusiatic fan base here at Nicholas Lodge's International Sugar Art Collection (ISAC). There are people we see all the time in our retail gallery, customers who regularly call in their orders because they love talking to our wonderful customer service specialists (Yay- Molly, Gretchen, Anne, and Molly. Yes we DO have two Mollys!), our facebook page is very active with an innumerable amount of positive and happy comments from our fans, and of course- the students in our cake decorating classes.
Welcome to Sweet Tricks and Cake Tips! This will be a short, periodic blog segment that will introduce you to cool cake related tips and tricks, fun instructional videos, and brand new tools from the Nicholas Lodge (NL) product line! What interesting item am I sharing this week, you ask? Well, all you gumpaste flower makers are going to love it! May I introduce:
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