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. 

Congratulations to all of the wonderful students in the spring 2017 PME Master Certification class! Today is the final day of class, basically graduation day, and they have put in two long weeks of hard work! We had such fun with each and every one of the students in this class, and we are proud of all their accomplishments this week! 

For your viewing pleasure, I have included photos from throughout the last two weeks of class, mini baking essentials class with Reva Alexander-Hawk, as well as our celebratory dinner out together! Congratulations again students! Now get out there and wow all your clients with your new skills!

Hello everyone in cake decorating land! I am back with another wonderful tutorial from Chef Nicholas Lodge! This one I am pretty excited about, I really love the design and how easy it is to recreate at home or in your bakery. Friends... I'm talking about the Rose Cupcake! Chef Nicholas has taken a simply cupcake and turned it into an incredibly life-like, edible rose. Bridal showers, weddings, Mother's Day, baby showers, elegant ladies lunches, gardening club meetings- these cupcakes are perfect for these occasions!  How about I stop with the chit-chat and just get to the telling you how to make your own rose cupcake part?!

Photo: S. Ewing

WAAAYYY back in 2015 ISAC held a little giveaway in which participants could enter to win a free four hour private class with Chef Nicholas. Not surprisingly, we had an overwhelming response from people eager to win this fantastic opportunity. Alas, only one winner could be chosen (to be fair, people could enter to win the class for themselves, or themselves and a friend); Ginia and Margery were selected as the class winners, and just a few weeks ago they cashed in on their winnings and enjoyed their private class! Margery was even kind enough to share her thoughts on her special class with me!

Attentive students ready for their private lesson to begin!

Several weeks ago, I shared our class schedule for January. This week I am revisiting our January class schedule because we have added some fun new classes! Oh, and I'll be sharing a link that you can click to enter to win Chef Nicholas' NEW Craftsy class that launches next week! I'll dispense with the small talk and dive right into it!

It's Here! It's Here!

Guess what?! The 2016 Nicholas Lodge Class Schedule has been released!!! Hooray!! I have had lots and lots of you asking me when it would be released, so today is your lucky day. Shall we talk about what Chef Nicholas has in store for all of you?

Gary Chapman's NEW Book!

Back in the late 1980s/early 1990s Chef Nicholas' books were being published by Merehurst Publishing. The Marketing Director was Gary Chapman, and he was responsible for introducing the company, and its list of cake decorating books, to the USA. Gary and Chef Nicholas attended their first American cake show, an ICES convention in Tulsa, Oklahoma, together. The next show was in Atlanta, and they had a proper booth with reception and demos by Chef Nicholas and others. The rest, as they say, is history! Well, for Chef Nicholas it was history! Gary the Marketing Director discovered his own interest in cake decorating, and thus began his own career as a cake artist!

A while back I shared a post on Chef Nicholas teaching at the French Pastry School (FPS) in Chicago. If you are a fan of Chef Nicholas' Facebook page, you'll know that his students finished up their Wedding Cake projects on Tuesday, and they are all spectacular! These students get wonderful instruction from Chef Nicholas (as anyone who has taken a class with him would agree), but they also have basic tool kits that provide all the essentials needed to make their Sweet 16 and Wedding Cake class projects. We sell these kits at ISAC specifically for the students at the French Pastry School, but I thought I would share all the included tools. Everyone needs to know the essentials to have in your cake decorating arsenal! Oh, and hey, maybe I'll give some stuff away too. Who doesn't love that?!

Happy Thursday everyone! Last week I shared the news that Chef Nicholas has become the Brand Ambassador for Renshaw's line of rolled fondant and gumpaste. Chef Nicholas wanted to share the store of how rolled fondant was initially brought over to the US, and below is his account of how it all happened! I hope you all enjoy!

Photo: S. Ewing/ISAC

We have quite an announcement to share with everyone! Chef Nicholas Lodge was invited to be the Brand Ambassador for the Renshaw Rolled Fondant and Gumpaste product line! Both the ISAC and Renshaw families are very excited to begin this new relationship! Chef Nicholas was involved with the development of the original Renshaw rolled fondant- Regalice. Chef Nicholas has long believed that Renshaw makes the finest rolled fondant and gumpaste- but it was never available in the United States.

Holiday Fun with Nicholas Lodge

Chef Nicholas is only teaching four more classes this year! He has two PME Certification classes in October: Rolled Fondant Techniques and 3-Day Advanced Royal Icing Techniques. I discussed both of these classes, and PME Certification, in a blog last month (you can read that blog by clicking here). Today, let's talk about Chef Nicholas' last two classes of the year- Rolled Fondant for the Holidays and Gumpaste for the Holidays!

PME Diploma and Master's Certificate!

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.

Patchwork Cutter Perfection

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! 

Cake Decorating: Back to Basics

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?

Joshua John Russell has Class!

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!

Fondant: A Retrospective

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!