Christmas will, of course, still be in December, but we here at ISAC are pretending it's coming early because we are excited to share our upcoming Snow Globe Competition with all of you! So excited in fact that we have already been making our own Snow Globes to share with you and to give you inspiration! First, let's talk a little bit about Edible Snow Globes!
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).
Tuesday was the final day of Pastry Live 2014! It was a big weekend for the ISAC team, and we were VERY involved; we had a vendor booth, Chef Nicholas judged two competitions (Art of Cake Competition, and the National Showpiece Championship), The Art of Cake Seminar, sponsored by Nielsen-Massey Vanilla and hosted by Chef Nicholas, AND we were one of the event sponsors! I would argue while Nicholas had more important jobs, mine was more fun. Walk around soaking in the sweetly scented air, have fun, meet people, and gain inspiration for writing this very blog! My job is hard, but it's all for you dear readers- no pain no, gain!
Thank you to everyone who commented on our Favorite Things blog earlier this week! I loved reading all of the reasons that you shared for wanting to win the Mini Palette Knife and the NL Floral Tape Cutter! Without further delay, here are the winners!
The winner of the Mini Palette Knife is Diane Schoonver!
"The mini palette knife is definately a must have. It gets under everything that nothing else will."
The winner of the NL Floral Tape Cutter is Karen Grey!
"I would love to win the tape cutter! I teach cake decorating at our community college and I am forever trying to tear tape into smaller pieces for flowers!"
Congratulations to both of our winners! Please email us at customersvc@nicholaslodge.com or call us at 1-800-662-8925 so we can get your prizes out to you! Thank you again to all of our readers who participated!
Sweetly Yours,
Stephanie
Last week on the Chef Nicholas Lodge Facebook page, we asked everyone to share the one cake decorating tool they couldn't live without. There were a ton of great responses, a few funny ones, and a clear winner! I also have a favorite suggested by our very own Scott and Nicholas! Oh, and read to the end to find out how you can win a sweet surprise!
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.
I am so excited to share some wonderful news with our wonderful readers! This past weekend, at the 39th annual ICES convention in New Mexico, Chef Nicholas released his brand new book, New Trends in Sugar Flowers. This is the second book of a trilogy; the first, Potpourri of Flowers, was first published in 1999 and re-released in 2013.
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!
It's long overdue, but Chef Nicholas' gumpaste recipe is finally here on our website!
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!
Welcome to our blog! We here at Nicholas Lodge's International Sugar Art Collection (ISAC) are very excited to be connecting with our students, customers, and fans in this fun and informative way! Our goal is to share new and exciting products, tried and true products, quick demonstration videos, discuss upcoming events and classes, and maybe even some fun giveaways and contests for our readers.
We are happy to announce the new blog for The International Sugar Arts!
© The International Sugar Art Collection by Nicholas Lodge