At our Spring Open House earlier this month we debuted some brand new piping tips by In2Food (you may be familiar with their spokesman, Joshua John Russell!). Joshua has been giving lots of sneak peeks at these tips on his Facebook page, and we were so excited to see the tips in action and share them with all of our favorite people (you!). Since not everyone who reads our blog could attend our event, I thought I would write up a little blog post about these fantastic tips and show them in action!

Just look at all those flowers! (Photo: Joshua John Russell)

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!

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!!

Sidney Galpern AND Joshua John Russell at ISAC!

Is it too early to start talking about our Grand Holiday Open House this coming November? Nope, didn't think so. Well, this year our Open House will be a bit different. We will have two guest instructors! That's right, TWO!! Sidney Galpern and Joshua John Russell will be lighting up ISAC with their cake decorating super powers. So, if you haven't yet signed up for our Grand Holiday Open House it's never too early, especially  since you are getting instruction from two highly skilled guest instructors andour very own Chef Nicholas Lodge! But wait, there's more...

I was reading over all of the blogs I have written for ISAC so far, and brainstorming about what I should share with everyone this week.  One of my favorites was Fondant- This is your Life. I thought it was fun and informative. While researching that blog, I came across some really interesting facts about the history of rolled fondant that I didn't know beforehand.

I also really loved all the positive comments shared by you, our readers, about both blog posts concerning Chef Nicholas' gumpaste recipe and his pre-made commercial gumpaste. I did, however, feel like something was missing. Fondant, gumpaste.... what is missing from the holy trinity of cake decorating? 

Joshua John Russell has Class!

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!

Goodbye June. Hello July!

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!