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! 

Autumn Carpenter: Cookie Extraordinaire!

Autumn Carpenter has been in the “biz” her whole life. Her grandparents opened a cake decorating supply company in the 1960s, Country Kitchens. Perhaps you have heard of them (they are a pretty big deal). Autumn worked for the family company creating displays of cakes, cookies, and candies and worked as their wedding consultant. She began teaching cookie decorating classes in the mid 1990s, and has her very own product line! Many of her products are sold at ISAC! Quite a few AC products are in my kitchen right now. Big fan here. Which leads me to once again share with you about her time with us in November. 

A few weeks ago, when I wrote about all the remaining classes that ISAC is offering in Studio B, I mentioned Autumn’s Grand Holiday Cookie class. I am dying for this class. First of all, I love making holiday cookies. Second, I’m always looking for ways to improve upon techniques, and Autumn is going to be sharing SO MANY TECHNIQUES! Did you read that? SO MANY!! You are going to start out learning some basic baking tips for keeping your cookies in the perfect shape for decorating AND you are going to learn how to make cookies on a stick! Next up are the finer points of using run sugar to decorate your perfectly baked cookies. Run sugar is going to give your cookies a flawless, smooth finish. Proper outlining, painting and marbleizing techniques will round out the run sugar skills Autumn shares. Prepare to expand your cookie decorating repertoire with rolled fondant! I don’t know why I never thought to use rolled fondant on cookies! Luckily for me, Autumn will be teaching students how to use edible images, embossing, and brush embroidery to bring your rolled fondant topped cookies to another level!  Not only are you going to be leaving with a slew of new and fun cookie decorating ideas, you will also be leaving with AT LEAST 12 cookies and a small cookie bouquet! I know everyone taking this class is going to be more than pleased with themselves. 

If you would like to sign up for Autumn’s class, there are two dates available November 10th and November 11th. If you are coming to our Grand Holiday Open House, these classes will be the following days, so you should stay and have fun with us! Both classes will be from 9:30-5:30 and lunch will, of course, be provided. Hmm… Do you think we will still have Cookie Time if we are making cookies? To sign up, just click the green link (the dates of the class) above! Or you can call us at 1-800-662-8925.

Open House Secrets!

In the past the International Sugar Art Collection Grand Holiday Open House has been shrouded in mystery until Chef Nicholas, Scott, and the visiting instructor begin their demos. Well, sneaky Stephanie was poking around yesterday at ISAC, and discovered a few fun and tasty morsels to share with you all about this year’s open house! Let’s see, what should I tease you with first? I will start with Scott. Part of his demo smells absolutely DELICIOUS. I’m pretty sure heaven smells like apple and cinnamon. Oh, and don’t forget that good things come in tiny packages, or should I say tiny houses! ;)  I can’t share too terribly much about Chef Nicholas’ demonstration unfortunately. All I know is that he has been really focused on new and stylish trends all year and it will reflect in his demonstrations. I DO know that a big trend this year has been all things Frozen. I did discover a super cool new product that I think Chef Nicholas will be sharing at our Open House: CRYSTALS! If you attended Pastry Live and sampled Chef Nicholas’ rose flavored cupcakes (recipe can be found on the Pastry Live blog), you have already tried the rose crystals. These amazing, sparkly, crunchy crystals are made with either flowers, herbs, or fruit and pure cane sugar. They can be added to drinks, foods, pastries, desserts, etc. to add a little something special. While I was on my snooping mission I discovered that Chef Nicholas might just be using the mint, cranberry, and pumpkin spice (yay!) crystals in his demos. Mmmm, I can’t wait to see and smell and taste the tasty creating he makes with these amazing little crystals!

If you haven’t already signed up for our Grand Holiday Open House, there are still a few spots still available just for you! You can call us at 1-800-662-8925 to sign up, or visit our class sign up page to pick the time that works best for you.

Snow Globes!

Please don’t forget about our Snow Globe Competition! It will be a huge part of our Holiday Open House, and we need you, our favorite people, to join us and make a Snow Globe! If you’d like to read a bit more about it, please check out the blog post I wrote here. You can read the official rules here: Snow-Globe-Competition-Offical-Rules.pdf.  We received our very first entry, and we are very excited! It was made by an 8-year old Girl Scout, and depicts a camping scene! Honestly, how cute is this?!

I can’t wait to see how great everyone’s Snow Globes turn out! I know they will all be just amazing! 

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie

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