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Greg Cleary comes to ISAC

G'day mates: mark your cake decorating calendars! In August, Greg Cleary will be coming all the way from Brisbane, Australia to teach in Studio B! Yay!

As promised here are the winners of the Birthday Blog prizes! Thank you to everyone who commented on last week's blog! I do hope that all the winners listed below enjoy their prizes, whatever they may be!

Today is an exciting day! Why, you ask? Today we celebrate the one year anniversary of the Nicholas Lodge Blog! Hooray!!! Writing this blog each week for all of you has been a lot of fun, and I have learned so much more about cake decorating and baking in the process! I have enjoyed researching each topic, consulting with Chef Nicholas on what you all would like to read about each week, and reading all the positive comments and emails we receive from our pleased readers (that's you!). So, how should we celebrate this momentous occasion? What's a birthday party without presents- let's giveaway some prizes!

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.

Chef Nicholas has TWO NEW CLASSES this summer! HOORAY! These two classes are being offered for the first time; some of the flowers have been taught by Chef Nicholas years ago in discontinued classes, and are back by popular demand by our wonderful students, and some flowers are being taught for the first time ever! Let's not stand on pretense, I'll tell you all about them right now!

2015 ICES Convention

The 2015 ICES Convention is less than two months away, and this year we celebrate its 40th anniversary! If you have never attended an ICES Convention, why not start this year? There is a long list of classes, competitions, demos, and shopping to enjoy

Summer Camp is Better with Cake!

Who didn't love summer camp as a kid? Well, ok, probably a lot of kids, but only because they were too young to go to CAKE CAMP!! Every other year the California Cake Club hosts the weekend-long Cake Camp, and guess what? The 15th Cake Camp is this year: August 13-16, 2015, in Las Vegas, Nevada! There are demos, classes, and a vendor area (code for shopping!). There will be about 18 different retail booths in the vendor area, including our ever popular International Sugar Art Collection booth! There will be 29 wonderful instructors this year teaching a variety of techniques; all skill level classes will be offered, so there are classes for beginningers, experts, and everyone in between! Oh, and guess who will be teaching three 1-day flower classes at Cake Camp? That would be Chef Nicholas Lodge!

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?!

Sensational Citrus

Welcome to our third installment of Flavors of the World! I am very excited to share Chef Nicholas' article today because it's all about citrus flavor, and this girl LOVES citrus flavors! Spoiler Alert! I share a favorite ISAC recipe in this blog! Without further ado, I will let Chef Nicholas tell you all the best uses for citrus flavoring!

Tremendously Talented Friends!

Since this is, in fact, Chef Nicholas Lodge's blog, I spend a lot of time talking about Chef Nicholas. Today I thought we would take a short break from that, and talk about some of Chef Nicholas's friends: Marina Sousa, Lauren Kitchens, and Alan Dunn! Each of these cake-decorating extraordinaires are near and dear to the entire ISAC team, and I have some interesting tidbits to share about each of them!

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!

Chef Nicholas' Vanilla Orchid. Photo: S. Ewing/ISAC

Very Versatile Vanilla

Welcome to the second segment of Chef Nicholas' Flavors of the World blog! Last time the topic was degustation, and you can read that blog by clicking here. Today we delve into actual flavors and Chef Nicholas thought we should start with perhaps the most famous of all the flavors available throughout the world: Vanilla! Be sure to read til the end for a chance to win!

It's been awhile since we had a Products We Love blog, and I thought it was about time to share a product that I've been dying to share with you since way back in November after our Grand Holiday Open House! Yeah, I know... I've been holding out on your for FOUR whole months with this product! Well, sit back, relax and allow me to share all the reasons that I love DecoGel!

In American Cake Decorating (ACD) magazine this coming year, Chef Nicholas will explore the flavors of Asia, Africa, Europe, India and the Middle East, the Americas, and everywhere in between! The proper use of these flavors, and how to integrate them into cakes and pastries, will be covered. You can look forward to recipes, hints, and tips and tricks, and resources! Since space in the magazine is limited, an edited version of what Chef Nicholas wrote is printed. I thought I would share his editorials here on the blog in their entirety! I'll be sharing them periodically over the next few months, and I hope you enjoy them! While the theme is FLAVORS of the World, we will start with degustation, or the tasting of food, before we delve into the different flavor profiles that are both universally popular and that are Chef Nicholas' favorites!

Spring Open House and Susan Carberry!

The ISAC Spring Open House is just three weeks away on March 28, 2015! Unlike our Grand Holiday Open House, the spring event is only one day. One of the sessions has already filled up, but there are still three others you can sign up for. The sessions are filling up quickly, so if you want to come, give us a call today or sign up online! The best part about this year’s event is that Susan Carberry will be our very special guest instructor at Open House and then staying on after to teach THREE different classes in Studio B! Dying to know more about Susan and her classes? Well, allow me to enlighten you!

Chef Nicholas' Craftsy Class is ALMOST HERE!

There are only FOUR more days until Chef Nicholas' newest Craftsy class launches! Hooray! I know everyone reading this is doing a serious happy dance right now! How do I know? Because I see and read all the facebook comments, blog comments, and emails begging for Chef Nicholas to release new Craftsy classes. Hey, they don't call me the social media goddess for nothing. I thought since we have less than a week on the countdown, I would share a bunch of the project photos and tell you a bit about the class.

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!

When I worked in the retail gallery here at ISAC, one of my favorite things to do was restock all the dusting powders: petal dusts, pearl dusts, luster dust, hologram (or disco) dust, and highlighters. Why? Because the colors are beautiful, and it seems to me as if ISAC offers every color imaginable!

As beautiful as all these colors are, we very often have people ask which of the dust powders will best suit their needs. I thought it might be helpful to everyone out there who wondered if they should get the luster dust or the pearl dust if I explained how each of the dusts are different! You will never again question which product you should buy!

Petal dust comes in many colors, and produces deep, bold, matte colors. If you have taken a class with Chef Nicholas, you have seen how using petal dust can add dimension to gumpaste flowers, and give them a natural and realistic appearance. Colors can be mixed together to create your own custom colors; you can lighten a color by adding cornstarch, or if you are dusting on a dark color you can add white petal dust. Petal dust is most often used dry, but it can be mixed with vodka for painting, or mixed with a bit of vegetable shortening to color gumpaste or to stencil a design.

Pearl dust is a fine, pearlescent dust that can be translucent or can have a very subtle reflective color, and works like magic in the NL Pump Brush. One of our best selling products, Super Pearl, is a staple in nearly all of Chef Nicholas' classes! Pearl dusts come in colors or you can mix super pearl can be mixed with petal dusts for subtle color with a bit of luster.

Sparkle dust comes in white and several colors. This dust has larger particles than pearl and luster dusts, and it is often used on flowers like hydrangeas and amayrillas as a finishing dust, and acts as a diffuser. Chef Nicholas white sparkle in his NL Pump Brush in many of his classes; when he makes strands of pearls in the NL E-Z Strand of Pearls mold he mixes white sparkle with vodka to paint the pearls.

Luster dust is like the child of petal and pearl dusts! It adds not only color, but also shimmer, shine, and dare I say... LUSTER! Chef Nicholas often mixes it with lemon extract for painting on rolled fondant. I love using luster dust; I think it makes everything look a bit fancier with a satiny finish.

Hologram (or disco) dust is comparable to glitter, and comes in a huge variety of colors. It will not impart any color like brushing petal dust onto a surface will, but it will make your project sparkly.The best way to use get hologram dust to adhere to your project is spray laquer! Place your lettering, flower, etc on plastic wrap or other covered surface and spray it lightly with the laquer. The sprinkle on the hologram dust with a small shaker to ensure even coverage. If you want to make something red, start off with red gumpaste, spray it with laquer, and sprinkle on the red highlighter dust! Our most popular hologram dust is Snow Sparkle; it gives an iridescent sparkle that is really gorgeous.

Last but not least is highlighter dust! It comes in gold, silver, and bronze and gives a very high-sheen metallic finish. It is usually not edible and should only be used on decorative pieces that will not be eaten, like a plaque. Chef Nicholas usually mixes it with confectioner's glaze for royal icing pieces or with citrus oils (lemon or orange) for ribbons. In Chef Nicholas' Craftsy class, Custom Lettering and Monograms, there is an entire lesson on metallics. Hey, would you like the class for 50% off? Sure you do, just click here!

With the exception of hologram dust, which is sprinkled onto a project, all other dusting powders can be simply brushed onto fondant, gumpaste, chocolate, or royal icing. However, for more intense colors or even application, a few drops of grain alcohol or vodka can be mixed in. Water shouldn't be used as most dusting powder is not water soluble; mixing it with water would just create a sticky mess.

ISAC carries a HUGE range of dusting powders! Chef Nicholas even has a number of exclusively created colors that cannot be found anywhere else! Dusting powders are an important part of any cake decorator's arsenal, and knowing the difference is a necessity when starting new projects!

Only 11 days until my new Craftsy class, Nicholas Lodge's Sugar Flowers Out of the Box, launches on March 2, 2015! You can enter for a chance to win the class for free by clicking here, just be sure to enter by March 1, 2015!

Sweetly Yours,

Stephanie

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Winner of the 2015 Craftsy Blogger Award for Best Craftsy Cake Decorating Instructor Blog

Hello dear friends! Can you believe that January is already over?! Chef Nicholas is busy imparting knowledge to students at the French Pastry School as we speak, lucky ducks! He did want me to share some fun upcoming events with you all though!

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!