When I was growing up, one of my favorites things to do during the holiday season was to build a gingerbread house. I say, "WAS," because as I grew up and starting building the house on my own I realized how much WORK it was! Cutting and baking the ginger bread (or even going to the store and buying a kit), setting up your workspace and all the necessary supplies, constructing the house and waiting for the royal icing to dry... and that's before you get to the fun of decorating! Oh, then you have to clean everything up! Oy! Sadly, for me and probably many other families, the planning, preparation, and clean up just outweighed the fun and memory making of building gingerbread houses as a family!

I miss the happy memories of being silly with my brother and parents as we decorate a yummy little holiday house, and I want that back now that I have kids of my own. Well, Scott decided that maybe ISAC could become a tasty, gingerbread construction site over the holiday season- and now we have Gingerbread Depot! 

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 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!

And the Winner is...

I know you are all just on pins and needles waiting to hear who won the FREE FOUR-HOUR PRIVATE CLASS WITH CHEF NICHOLAS!!! Without further ado, the winner (and friend to share the class with) is: 

ICES Fun Facts

Today is the first day of the 40th annual ICES convention! I thought in honor of this big event, I would share some fun facts about the ICES organization today!