It's that time of year again. Those lucky students in Chicago who attend the French Pastry School's L'Art du Gâteau get Chef Nicholas' full attention for two weeks’ time. Chef Nicholas naturally teaches the Cake Decorating Techniques portion of the 16-week program. This is an intensive program. Imagine taking ALL of Chef Nicholas' classes in less than two weeks’ time, and you'll understand just how much these students learn in a short amount of time. 

These students are training to be professionals, like many of you readers have become. As I said, this program is no joke. Here is a snippet from the French Pastry School website concerning the course outline:

• The foundation of fondant, buttercream, royal icing, and modeling chocolate. (9 hours lecture; 52 hours lab)
• The foundation of gumpaste decorations and piping skills. (8 hours lecture; 52 hours lab)
• The foundation of chocolate and sugar decoration. (9 hours lecture; 52 hours lab)

Let's count that up. That is 182 hours of cake decorating instruction. That is seven and a half days. Think about that, they are learning fondant, buttercream, royal icing, modeling chocolate, gumpaste, piping, chocolate AND sugar decorations. Think of all the classes you have taken, think of the time it has taken you to learn ALL of the skills in those areas. Of course, under that general "gumpaste," it includes botanically correct flowers! Sugar decoration includes pastillage, pressed sugar, pulled sugar, and blown sugar. So again, look at everything these students are taking into their cake decorating brains in only 182 hours. The days are often very long, and start very early. 

If you follow Chef Nicholas on Facebook, you will have seen the class projects from his students. Usually the students create a set of cookies, a Sweet 16 cake, and a wedding cake. Chef Nicholas shares the vision boards and then the final cakes that the students create. When Chef Nicholas posts these photos on his Facebook page it is unbelievable how many people post with really supportive, admiringly, and complimentary words. My favorite part though is when the students themselves get to respond to the thoughtful comments that people have left in admiration for all the hard work put in. I'm not even a student and I find all the compliments so gratifying. 

 What do you think? Would you love to be a student in L'Art du Gâteau at the French Pastry School? Or do you prefer taking classes with instructors at your leisure, or at cake and sugar art shows? No matter how to walk down your cake decorating career path, learning from Chef Nicholas is always worthwhile. I wish all of the current student's learning with Chef Nicholas the best of luck becoming amazing cake decorators and pastry chefs!

There are still seats available in these great classes this summer at ISAC! Click the links below to register now. 

Renshaw Academy Master Certification Class with Chef Nicholas Lodge, 10/13-10/22

English Over-Piped Elegant Wedding Cake with Ceri Griffiths, 11/7-8

Sweetly yours, 

Stephanie 

Our goal is for you to be completely satisfied with your Amazon order! If for any reason this is not the case, we would appreciate it if you would give us a chance to address your concerns, before leaving feedback or a review, by emailing us at customersvc@nicholaslodge.com. We would be grateful if you would leave us a positive feedback and review of your Renshaw Fondant. Leaving feedback seems like such a little thing, but it has great impact on our business and we would greatly appreciate your time in leaving it.

2017 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

WINNER of the 2017 Golden Tier Educator of the Year Award

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

Chef Nicholas Lodge: 2015 Finalist for the Cake Masters Cake Hero Award

Fruitcake. If you are an American, you are probably rolling your eyes. If you are from nearly anywhere else, your mouth may be watering from memories of delicious holiday treat or dense and sweet wedding cake. Fruitcake is a very popular dessert throughout the world, but here in the old United States of America, the humble fruitcake has a laughable reputation. Johnny Carson joked that there was only one single fruitcake in the whole entire world, and people just keep passing that one cake around as a gift. In Manitou Springs, Colorado there is a yearly fruitcake toss (the record for distance, 1420 feet, was set in 2007 by a group of Boeing engineers). In American English slang, a fruitcake is a person who is strange or even crazy. Well, I think it's high time to restore good old fruitcake's reputation with help from Chef Nicholas and his family recipe!

Chef Nicholas' homemade family fruitcake! Photo: S. Ewing

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!

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?

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?!

Twelve Deals of Christmas

Hello again friends! I do hope you are all enjoying our Twelve Deals of Christmas sale. If you aren't sure what I am talking about, each day for the first 12 days of December we are offering a special deal on some of our favorite products! So far we have had special deals on pump brushes, FondArt, metal flower cutters, and today