Hello dear friends! Can you believe that January is already over?! Chef Nicholas is busy imparting knowledge to students at the French Pastry School as we speak, lucky ducks! He did want me to share some fun upcoming events with you all though!

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 Year of the Cake: 2015

Well, hello there! I've really missed writing fun blogs for you all! I did short blogs the last two weeks since both Christmas and New Year's Day fell on Thursday (my normal publishing day). I love all the readers, but hey- family comes first. With the holidays now behind us, I'm ready to dive into writing new, interesting, and fun blogs for all of you to enjoy! This week I am going to entice you with two classes and a special little sale that we have coming up.

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.

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

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!

ISAC's Grand Holiday Open House

Thank you, thank you, thank you to EVERYONE who attended our Grand Holiday Open House this past weekend! It was, as always, so nice to see our old friends and even nicer to meet so many new ones! We hope that everyone had as much fun as we did!  I was going to write a loooooong blog describing the event, but I thought it might be fun to do a photo-blog. So, scroll down and enjoy! (Make sure you go all the way to the bottom, that's where I share the winners of the ballot drawaing and our First Annual Snow Globe Competition!).

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? 

Nicholas Lodge's Gumpaste- Even Easier!

Way back in July I wrote a blog sharing Chef Nicholas' world famous recipe for Tylose Gumpaste (you can read that post by clicking here).  That particular post got an enormous amount of positive feedback across social media! Well, what if I told you I had great news about Chef Nicholas's gumpaste, especially for those that don't want to make it themselves?  Hold on to your hats: you can now BUY premade Nicholas Lodge gumpaste! 

Cake Organization at its Sweetest!

If you have taken a class with Chef Nicholas, in person or on Craftsy, then you know how well organized he is while teaching and that he keeps a very well organized classroom. In classes, student workspaces neatly include all the tools needed for each particular class. This is a helpful and much needed necessity considering how many tools are used in the lessons!  When the Nicholas Lodge line of cake decorarting products were developed, more than just tools were designed- orginaztional supplies were created to work seamlessly with the tools in the NL line as well as the tools cake decorators already have in their tool boxes. While brainstorming for blog ideas, Chef Nicholas personally suggested sharing one of his favorite products- the NL Multi Purpose Holders!

Holiday Fun with Nicholas Lodge

Chef Nicholas is only teaching four more classes this year! He has two PME Certification classes in October: Rolled Fondant Techniques and 3-Day Advanced Royal Icing Techniques. I discussed both of these classes, and PME Certification, in a blog last month (you can read that blog by clicking here). Today, let's talk about Chef Nicholas' last two classes of the year- Rolled Fondant for the Holidays and Gumpaste for the Holidays!

Nicholas Lodge's International Sugar Art Collection's

First Annual Edible Snow Globe Competition

Christmas will, of course, still be in December, but we here at ISAC are pretending it's coming early because we are excited to share our upcoming Snow Globe Competition with all of you! So excited in fact that we have already been making our own Snow Globes to share with you and to give you inspiration! First, let's talk a little bit about Edible Snow Globes!

Pastry Live Atlanta 2014!

Tuesday was the final day of Pastry Live 2014! It was a big weekend for the ISAC team, and we were VERY involved; we had a vendor booth, Chef Nicholas judged two competitions (Art of Cake Competition, and the National Showpiece Championship), The Art of Cake Seminar, sponsored by Nielsen-Massey Vanilla and hosted by Chef Nicholas, AND we were one of the event sponsors! I would argue while Nicholas had more important jobs, mine was more fun. Walk around soaking in the sweetly scented air, have fun, meet people, and gain inspiration for writing this very blog! My job is hard, but it's all for you dear readers- no pain no, gain!

Cake Decorating: Favorite Tools

Last week on the Chef Nicholas Lodge Facebook page, we asked everyone to share the one cake decorating tool they couldn't live without. There were a ton of great responses, a few funny ones, and a clear winner! I also have a favorite suggested by our very own Scott and Nicholas! Oh, and read to the end to find out how you can win a sweet surprise!

Nicholas Lodge's Newest Book!

I am so excited to share some wonderful news with our wonderful readers! This past weekend, at the 39th annual ICES convention in New Mexico, Chef Nicholas released his brand new book, New Trends in Sugar Flowers. This is the second book of a trilogy; the first, Potpourri of Flowers, was first published in 1999 and re-released in 2013.