December is halfway done, our big sales of the year are all finished, so here at ISAC we are already getting ready to welcome 2016! Just like I said last week, Chef Nicholas will not be slowing down. In January alone he is teaching three classes at ISAC, three mini classes in Florida, and by the end of the month he will be in Chicago teaching at the French Pastry School! So, if you want to start the year with Chef Nicholas, let me tell you all about January's classes!

The man is a machine. Chef Nicholas does not mess around when it comes to his profession. He is currently in Chicago teaching at the French Pastry School, but what he was doing last week is what I think will interest you most. RIGHT after the Thanksgiving holiday the Craftsy team flew into Atlanta. They had a lot to get done...

Can we talk about why December 2015 will be awesome? For starters, you're reading this blog and it's Tuesday! December is going to be so great I couldn't wait until Thursday to post! What is so awesome you ask? Well first off starting today is Chef Nicholas and ISAC's 12 Deals of Christmas sale! Second, we are only two weeks away from announcing the winner of the 4-hour private class with Chef Nicholas! Want to find about more about our great sale and how you can be the winner of the 4-hour private class? Well, my friends, read on...

I am thankful to be part of the ISAC family, and I am thankful to write this blog to connect you- our students, customers, clients, and cake decorators.. This week, Scott has written a wonderful Thanksgiving blog to share with all of you. I hope you all enjoy his message as much as I did when I first read it!

23 Annual National Gingerbread House Competition

Earlier this week Chef Nicholas took up his judging duties at The Omni Grover Park Inn's 23 Annual National Gingerbread House Competition. As always all of the competitors delivered incredible gingerbread pieces, and judging was no easy task! This year's Grand Prize winner received a pretty spectacular prize pack valued at $7500 dollars: $5000 cash prize, 2-night Club Level stay at The Omni Grove Park Inn (including dinner, breakfast, and a spa visit), and a 2-day class with Chef Nicholas (including Renshaw products valued at $600). Man, I'd like to win that! Well... I bet you'd like me to show you some photos from the event, especially all the big winners! Oh, and after you enjoy all the gingerbread eye candy be sure to read about the two giveaways at the end of the blog!

And the winners are...

First things first... I am pleased to announce the winners of the 2nd Annual Snow Globe Competition! The First Place winner in the youth category is Annabelle Columbo. In the adult category the Second Place winner is Lourdes Diaz, and the First Place winner is Christopher Taylor! Congratulations to all the winners and competitors, thank you for taking part in our fun holiday contest!

I am a huge fan of Halloween and Thanksgiving, so I normally get a bit touchy when I see holiday ads and hear holiday music before December 1st. That being said, I know there are many more people who LOVE starting the holiday season as early as possible and start listening to festive music on November 1st and get all their holiday shopping done before Thanksgiving even arrives! No joke, Molly (if you've been in our retail gallery or called us up... you know and love Molly) starts posting on facebook in the middle of summer saying, "X Weeks Until Christmas!" Seriously, ask her.

I'm not quite ready to jump on THAT bandwagon yet. However, this weekend, the ISAC team came up with a really fun and festive holiday contest. So this year I have agreed to start celebrating the holidays early this year. Chef Nicholas wants to giveaway a very personal prize to a fan (or a fan and a friend!). What kind of prize? Well... that depends on you! In 200 words or less, please answer the following question:

On Monday, a new Craftsy class dropped called Show Stopping Sugar Flowers. This class is much different from any class Craftsy has released before. Why? Because it includes lessons from more than just one instructor! And guess who is (of course) one of the instructors of Show Stopping Sugar Flowers... yup! Chef Nicholas!

Photo courtesy of CKProducts.com

The holidays are right around  the corner. Halloween is a week away, Thanksgiving is a month away, and Chanukah and Christmas are just two months away. What makes all these holidays even more fun?! Cookies!! What makes cookies beautiful? Royal icing!! What's NOT fun? Coloring royal icing...

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?

I have some pretty big news to share with you all today. Chef Nicholas has been selected as a finalist in the Cake Hero Award Category at the 2015 Cake Masters Magazine Awards!!! This event is like the Academy Awards of the cake decorating and sugar craft world! 

The entire ISAC family is very excited to announce the 2nd Annual ISAC Ultimate Edible SnowGlobe Competition! Last year was our inaugural event, and we were very pleased with all of the beautiful entries that we received. This year we have had many people ask if the competition would be held at our Grand Holiday Open House, and we are pleased to say YES! At our Open House event, November 7-8, 2015, all the SnowGlobes will be on display and guests will be able to vote for their favorites. The theme is Holiday Memories, so try and incorporate some favorite holiday event or tradtiions in your SnowGlobe.

Guess what? Our Grand Holiday Open House is only 6 weeks away!!! Have you signed up for your spot yet? This year we are going to have a brand new format and TWO, yes TWO guest instructors! Sidney Galpern and Joshua John Russell will both be gracing ISAC with their presence for your cake decorating pleasure! That's not all, both Sidney and Josh will be teaching classes after the Open House as well!!

This past weekend I whipped up a huge batch of cupcakes topped with fresh strawberry Swiss meringue buttercream. I have no events planned, no birthday party or bake sale. I just wanted a sweet and tasty treat. I really do just love me some cupcakes. As I was popping one of those teeny cakes into my mouth, I thought hey... I should write a cupcake blog! 

I do hope that you all enjoyed last week's post with all the fun new products! It was a fun way to start off the fall season here at ISAC. Continuing with the autumnal theme, I thought I would share some information about Chef Nicholas' upcoming classes, both here and in... CANADA!

Happy Thursday friends! After a CRAZY couple of months things are getting back to normal here at ISAC. Since there are no guest instructors or cake shows to write about this week, I am excited to share some really fun new products that I think you all will just love! 

Pastry Live 5 Photo Blog

Hiya friends! It has been a long while since I have done a photo blog, and I thought it would be a great idea to have one this week to share all of the amazing things we saw at Pastry Live this week. With all of the yummy cakes, chocolate, plated desserts, chocolates, seminars, and showpieces, I know you will enjoy this feast for the eyes. 

Photo courtesy of realfood.tesco.com

Spice Up Your Life!

Summer is heating up with a too hot to handle edition of Chef Nicholas' Flavors of the World! This week our dear chef shares his thoughts on all kinds of different spices and peppers! And now, I'll turn things over to Chef Nicholas:

It's never too soon to start!

Last fall I wrote a blog about Chef Nicholas judging the annual National Gingerbread House Competition, hosted by the Omni Grove Park Inn. Well, now it's late summer a year later, and at ISAC this week Chef Nicholas received a letter asking him to judge the competition again this year! While we are excited to once again be part of this amazing event, I thought I would talk a bit about being a competitor in the National Gingerbread House Competition.

Here at the International Sugar Art Collection we are known for offering very high quality instruction on all manner of sugar arts.  Well, this month is no different. In fact, we are busy, busy, busy this August!! The best part is that we have loads of fun classes for you all to take, and it's not too late!

August for ISAC started off big- the 40th annual International Cake Exploration Societe Convention and Show. Chef Nicholas and Scott have been attending the convention for a long time with demos by Chef Nicholas and an ISAC vendor booth. This year was very exciting because we were able to share the Renshaw line of Ready to Roll Fondant and Gumpaste with all the convention attendees!  Yay! Chef Nicholas and Scott drove home from Omaha early this week to prepare for our first guest instructor of the month: Greg Cleary.

Greg is visiting Studio B all the way from Australia! He will be teaching White Wedding Favorites class, an all-white demo cake topped with gorgeous flowers. He will be instructing students on how to make peonies, roses, morning glories, and filler flowers. Tips and tricks on how to assemble and arrange the flowers and foliage will also be covered. It's not too late to sign up for this class, there are only THREE seats left! Since it is not every day that we get an instructor from the other side of the planet teaching in Studio B, we have kept registration open. If you want to sign up you MUST CALL (1-800-662-8925) by 2:00pm EST on Friday August 7, 2015. 

Next up in August is Cake Camp out in Las Vegas, NV. From August 13-16, you will be able to find Chef Nicholas at the Green Valley Ranch! Chef Nicholas is going to be teaching three different gum paste flower classes; overall his three classes will include the tuberose, Love-in-a-Mist, oriental peony, avalanche rose, bride protea, calla lily, bells of Ireland, and bouvardia. These flowers are divided up between each of the three, one-day classes. You can sign up for Chef Nicholas' classes at Cake Camp by clicking here. The course numbers for his classes are NL100, NL101, and NL102.  Who doesn't want to visit Vegas? What makes Vegas even better?! CAKE! Go, sign up now. I'll wait right here. 

The weekend after Chef Nicholas and Scott return from Cake Camp we welcome our second visiting instructor to Studio B- Chef Joe Cumm. This class sounds pretty spectacular to me, plus I think it's a two for one: oriental string work AND modeling chocolate! That's right folks, you heard me, Chef Joe will not only be teaching his students how to create gravity defying oriental string work designs, he will also be teaching them how to make modeling chocolate flowers! I mean, come on... this is a great class to take to learn and build your techniques. You always want to be able to offer the very best to your clients, and if you haven't ever tried modeling chocolate, or the stunning elegance of oriental string work, I want to see you in this class! Oh, and it's just a one day class, so it should fit nicely into your weekend on August 22! 

If you are looking for an activity to do the day after you take Chef Joe's class, then head on down to Pastry Live with the ISAC team on August 23! For three days (8/23-8/25) Pastry Live will be hosting seminars, competitions, and vendors! Chef Nicholas' seminar, New Trends in Wedding Cakes (hosted by Nielsen-Massey), is on Sunday, August 23 at 3:00pm. Last year a pastry chef in attendance told me that Chef Nicholas' seminar was by far the best of the entire weekend. So, I think you should come and watch! Plus, it's a lot of fun to walk around, check out all the different competitions, and chat with pastry chefs and students from around the world. Oh, and Chef Nicholas will again be one of the judges for the Art of Cake competitions! Last year there was a Sharknado cake... I just can't wait to see what the competitors come up with this year! If you would like more information, click here for schedules and tickets.

The judges of the 2014 Art of Cake competition; everyone has fun at Pastry Live!

2014 Art of Cake Winner

The day after Pastry Live, August 26, our third guest instructor will be teaching in Studio B! The wonderful Peggy Tucker is bringing her isomalt skills to her students in two different one-day classes! The first class is Basket and Bow, and students will be creating an adorable basket and multicolor bow, and on August 27, Peggy will be teaching students how to make a little garden fairy. While both of these classes use isomalt, each class teaches different techniques that can be used with this medium. Isomalt classes are not offered regularly at ISAC, so if you have been wanting to try a class now is the time to sign up! If you are interested in both classes, we are offering a special discounted price on the two classes together! 

There you have it friends; our August is chock full of fun visiting instructors, ICES, Cake Camp, and Pastry Live. Chef Nicholas, and all of us in the ISAC family, hope to see you this month!

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie

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