Big news everyone! The incredibly talented Ceri Griffiths is coming to ISAC this November, all the way from the UK! Chef Nicholas and Ceri have known each other for years, but this will be the very first time that Ceri will be teaching at ISAC in Studio B! Ceri Griffiths, author of the award winning book "Border Inspirations 1&2" and internationally recognized English over-piping expert, will be teaching his English Over-Piped Elegant Wedding Cake class. This is an intensive 2-day royal icing class.  Ceri will share with you several of his piped borders, his method of creating toothpick roses and many hints and tips to achieve beautiful work in royal icing.

This class is aimed at students who have previous piping skills due to the volume of piping involved and the pace of the class.

THIS IS NOT A BEGINNERS CLASS!!!

Summer is coming to a close. The busy summer wedding season is wrapping up, and depending on where you live, the kids are either back at school, or will be in the next couple of weeks. The days will soon become cooler and longer as fall begins. Why not sharpen some of your cake decorating skills, as the summer rush slows down? Chef Nicholas has a lot of fantastic classes coming up this fall, and he would love to see you in class! 

Congratulations to all of the wonderful students in the spring 2017 PME Master Certification class! Today is the final day of class, basically graduation day, and they have put in two long weeks of hard work! We had such fun with each and every one of the students in this class, and we are proud of all their accomplishments this week! 

For your viewing pleasure, I have included photos from throughout the last two weeks of class, mini baking essentials class with Reva Alexander-Hawk, as well as our celebratory dinner out together! Congratulations again students! Now get out there and wow all your clients with your new skills!

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

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...

I'm a big fan of sparkly cakes. Wait, let me start over. I'm a big fan of sparkly everything! When Molly (ISAC's most famous customer service specialist) suggestion writing a blog on edible sequins, I was totally on board! I started by talking to Chef Nicholas about the methods he shares with his students, searched Craftsy classes, and finally researched methods online. I have quite a bit to share with you, so let's get started!!

Red Hat Happiness

For years, and I mean YEARS, the ISAC team has been just dying to connect with the Red Hat Society Ladies and to create a fun filled class just for them! For those of you who are not familiar with the Red Hat Society, it is a social organization for woman over fifty (although, now women of all ages can join) who just like to have fun! Starting back in 2010, Scott had me look into contacting this fantastic organization. Unfortunately, we were never able to connect with a local group and get a class going. Then we hit the jackpot!

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? 

PME Diploma and Master's Certificate!

Are you certifiably crazy for cake decorating? No? Well, you are in luck! This fall Chef Nicholas Lodge is offering three classes with PME certification! PME Diplomas and Master's Certificates are internationally recognized awards and they are designed as professional level cake decorating courses.

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!