Review of Custom Lettering and Monograms by Nicholas Lodge

This class by Nicholas Lodge is one of the best that I have taken on the Craftsy platform. Being a familiar student of his, I was curious how he would come across on a video lesson. A few years back I sought instruction from him at his fabulous school down in Atlanta, Georgia. It was an intensive 5-day course on gumpaste sugar flowers and it was well worth the trip down there.

Let me digress a moment further by highly recommending any sugar flower instruction from this seasoned artist. Any of these three Craftsy courses, “The Ultimate Sugar Rose”, “Classic Sugar Flowers” or “Mastering Modern Sugar Flowers” would be time well spent! After learning in person from him how to make beautiful flowers, would I be disappointed with seeing him pick up a piping bag? Or scribing letters into fondant? The answer is a resounding no and I have marveled on his ability to make whatever he is teaching so interesting.

Since Nicholas Lodge has over 35 years of experience in the field of creating edible art, he has so much to offer in time-saving tips. Not only do I highly recommend this class, I highly recommend that you should watch it more than once. Nicholas does a lot of talking and when he speaks; something useful is coming out of his mouth. This class is going to appeal to beginners and intermediately skilled cake artists and definitely to those who are afraid of the big, bad piping bag. He shows you how to streamline the process of getting lettering on the cake and have it look fabulous. I really appreciate his attention to detail and his goal of perfection. He not only focuses on lettering, he instructs you on how to approach what you are doing with a balanced end result in your cake designing.

In taking this class, you will see that there are so many different and interesting ways to get your lettering and/or monograms to look spectacular. Nicholas demonstrates all that he talks about: scribing, pinpricking, embossing, integrated monograms, stencils, patchwork cutters, metallic painting and metallic piping, pressure piping, color flow, and my most favorite part of the class, the modified fondant. I really love what he does with a little spray bottle full of H20...it is like magic! I used this method when making some gorgeous fondant covered cookies shown below. That one tip ALONE, made the class super special for me, but watching this class you will learn so much more than stenciling a cookie or piping a “Happy Birthday” message.

Out of all the great instruction this class provides, I have to say a surprising result of this class is that I lost my disdain for patchwork cutters. I really didn’t enjoy using them before because I always had a hard time getting the letter out of the cutter. That was until I watched Nicholas’ “pie crust” method! Now, if and when I have to use them again I won’t be dreading it…it will be a “piece of pie”! Or should I say, “a piece of cake”? Or why don’t I just admit that all the tips and methods that Nicholas teaches in the class add up to one big “piece of GREAT”.

Does Custom Lettering and Monograms by Nicholas Lodge sound right for you? Purchase it here for 25% Off! Not ready to purchase? Then we recommend starting with one of Craftsy's free mini cake decorating classes!