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.

Hello friends! I have fun and exciting news to share with all of you! Chef Nicholas will be at CookieCon! Hooray! Last year was the first time Chef Nicholas attended CookieCon, but I never mentioned it here on the blog. If you are thinking to yourself, Stephanie... why did you TELL US Chef was going to be at CookieCon? That my friends, is an easy answer. The 2017 CookieCon event sold out so quickly that I didn't even get the chance to write a blog about it. That's right... the event sold out so fast that the blog I was preparing became irrelevant by publication day! Yes, CookieCon is THAT AMAZING. 

Last week I mentioned that Chef Joe Cumm would be returning to ISAC and Studio B this December for a class on French Macarons and petit fours. The class was completely sold out in four days!! Wow. I understand, I love me some French Macarons. I love the variety of flavors and how light and airy they are with a slight crunch when you take a bite. Yum, yum, yum. 

Right before our Spring Open House last month ISAC was excited to announce the publication of the 25th Anniversary Edition of Lunch is Ready, Scott's amazing cookbook! If you have had the pleasure of meeting me during one of our fabulous classes, you will know that cookie time is my favorite part of the day. It should be no surprise that my favorite part of Scott's cookbook is his cookie recipe section. After speaking to copious amounts of students, I know that many of them enjoy cookie time as much as I do. In fact, during a recent class I engaged a student in a friendly debate over which of Scott's cookies was the best. It didn't help that I couldn't even decide on my own favorite (butterscotch, lemon, ginger, pineapple... I still can't decide!). 

I am in a particularly giving mood today, so when Molly suggested sharing a recipe from the 25th Anniversary of Lunch is Ready, I readily agreed. So my friends, thank Molly when you see her- today I am sharing Scott's Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Cookies AND I am giving away a free copy of Lunch is Ready!

Hey guess what?! Today's blog is a decorating TUTORIAL!!! Hooray! Chef Nicholas has decorated some really adorable cookies with an Easter theme, so I thought I would share them because Easter is this weekend AND the techniques easy! Best part, even though the techniques are easy the designs are sure to really impress all your friends, families and clients! Chef Nicholas demonstrated these cookies at our Spring Open House, and they were so popular among our guests, I knew I had to share it with all of you too!

Photo courtesy of CKProducts.com

The holidays are right around  the corner. Halloween is a week away, Thanksgiving is a month away, and Chanukah and Christmas are just two months away. What makes all these holidays even more fun?! Cookies!! What makes cookies beautiful? Royal icing!! What's NOT fun? Coloring royal icing...

Photo courtesy of realfood.tesco.com

Spice Up Your Life!

Summer is heating up with a too hot to handle edition of Chef Nicholas' Flavors of the World! This week our dear chef shares his thoughts on all kinds of different spices and peppers! And now, I'll turn things over to Chef Nicholas:

Fantastic Floral Favorites!

Happy Thursday dear readers!! Today my humble offering is another Flavors of the World segment by Chef Nicholas! Chef Nicholas has a very refined, sophisticated palette, and he just loves floral flavors. I'll also be sharing two delicious recipes developed by the man himself- Vanilla Lavender Shortbread Cookies and Rose and Pink Champagne cupcakes! But enough about me; I'll let Chef Nicholas share his floral story with you.

Spring has Sprung!

The entire ISAC team sincerely hopes that everyone who attended our Spring Open House this past Saturday enjoyed themselves! We certainly loved hosting not only all of our dear shoppers, students, and clients, we also immensely enjoyed hosting Susan Carberry as our guest instructor this year!  Much like I did after our Grand Holiday Open House, I thought I would focus on sharing photos instead of writing about the day!

Red Hat Happiness

For years, and I mean YEARS, the ISAC team has been just dying to connect with the Red Hat Society Ladies and to create a fun filled class just for them! For those of you who are not familiar with the Red Hat Society, it is a social organization for woman over fifty (although, now women of all ages can join) who just like to have fun! Starting back in 2010, Scott had me look into contacting this fantastic organization. Unfortunately, we were never able to connect with a local group and get a class going. Then we hit the jackpot!

It's Cookie Time!

Have you ever enjoyed a sweet, spicy, and crispy gingerbread cookie? Do you love rolling, cutting, and decorating scores of sugar cookies during the holidays? Have you ever wondered why cookies are such a big part of the winter holiday food tradition? Well my friends, in honor of the International Sugar Art Collection's Grand Holiday Open House this weekend, I thought I would research everyone's favorite holiday treat.

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! 

Fantastic Fall in Studio B

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).

A Day in the Life:

Cake Decorating Student

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.