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! 

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.

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! 

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

Photo: S. Ewing/ISAC

We have quite an announcement to share with everyone! Chef Nicholas Lodge was invited to be the Brand Ambassador for the Renshaw Rolled Fondant and Gumpaste product line! Both the ISAC and Renshaw families are very excited to begin this new relationship! Chef Nicholas was involved with the development of the original Renshaw rolled fondant- Regalice. Chef Nicholas has long believed that Renshaw makes the finest rolled fondant and gumpaste- but it was never available in the United States.

Chef Nicholas' Craftsy Sneak Peek!

I'm going to make you wait just a bit longer for my Craftsy news. Why? Well, because last week I told you that our In-side Sale would be starting on Saturday, January 17 and go through Sunday, January 25. THAT HAS CHANGED! It will now begin Monday, January 19 and go through Saturday, January 24. I just wanted everyone to mark their calenders correctly!  

Now... who wants to know what we have been up to this week at ISAC? What if I told you Chef Nicholas was filming not one but TWO new Craftsy classes!

The entire ISAC family wishes all of you a happy and healthy New Year!

Merry Christmas from the ISAC family!

Yule Log Cake

With the holiday's right around the corner, I thought I would delve deeper into some holiday cake decorating.  To me the obvious choice was the Bûche de Noël or the Yule Log cake. In all honesty, I was not super familiar with this cake until recently. Up until I started working at ISAC, when I heard "Yule Log" I thought of the televised burning log each Christmas (which I did not understand). Before I talk about the actual cake, let's talk about the history of the Yule Log.

Happy Thanksgiving from the ISAC Team!

We hope that everyone has a happy, healthy holiday today! I know everyone of you will be enjoying your delicious Thanksgiving feasts with your family and friends! If you are one of our overseas friends, celebrate with us by having a big dinner and being thankful for all that you have!

GREEN Friday Sales!

We here at ISAC value holidays with our families, and our physical store will be closed Friday. HOWEVER!!!!!! Our Black (GREEN) Friday sales will be available on our website! So, sleep in and shop our online shop in your pjs ALL WEEKEND LONG!  I shared all of our sales last week, but I will recap them again so you can be ready to shop til you drop starting Friday:

Chef Nicholas got back Tuesday after judging the National Gingerbread Competition held at the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, North Carolina. This was the 22nd year of the competition and Chef Nicholas tenth year as judge. Prior to his tenure as judge for the National Gingerbread Competition, Chef Nicholas judges two Food Network Challenge episodes shot at the resort: "Gingerbread Mansions "and "Gingerbread Champions." This week, you are lucky enough to hear about the competition and judging process straight from the judges mouth! Chef Nicholas himself wrote this week's blog! Enjoy!

Oh, and be sure to read all about our fabulous upcoming holiday sales at the end of this blog!