Fresh Avocado but not in a salad!

Friday, May 22, 2012

One of our customers has requested Avocado soap to sell in her shop.  We thought - no problem we have plenty, then we looked at our supply and realized we'd sold almost all of our stock at the Mountain Laurel Festival last week.  Today I whipped up a batch, Alison was way under the weather and visiting her doctor's office so I tackled the batch by myself.

There aren't very many pictures because making soap and being the photographer at the same time is pretty tricky and I have no desire to drop my phone into a bucket of soap batter!  So without further ado, here is a brief look at what transpired today as I flew solo in the soap kitchen.  The recipe we use is almost straight from Ann Marie Faiola's (The soap Queen) book Soap Crafting, we love this book and this soap and so do our customers!

First thing I did was prepare the lye/distilled water mixture so it would be cooling down.  Next I measured into my cuisinart 3.8 ounces of distilled water then I added 3 ounces of fresh avocado and pulsed it until it looked like a green milkshake.

I set the mixed avocado aside, then began measuring out my oils which were:  Avocado, Olive, Coconut, Palm and Palm kernel flakes.  I had heated the coconut, palm and palm flakes so the oils were a bit warm, while they cool down I'll mix my colors.

The coloration on this soap resembles the colors found in a fresh avocado, dark green, yellow green and yellow.

Once they were all mixed I checked temperatures and found I was in the high 80's for oils and low 90's for lye/water, just about ready to start.

I mixed up the FO's - The first time we made this soap we didn't have the Wasabi fragrance that Soap Queen uses, so we improvised and created our own blend using what we had on hand.  We mixed and tested and finally came up with a blend of three different FO's that when combined smell fresh and clean and maybe a little like avocado.  Our customers really like it so we decided to keep our scent and make it our own.


Now with colors mixed, FO's ready, measuring cups marked, and mold lined I am ready to mix.

I added the lye/water to the oils and stick blended to a really light trace, then I added in the mixed avocado.

Next I poured almost 4 cups of batter each into two different measuring cups leaving the balance in the mixing pot.

I added the dark green colorant to the batter in one of the larger measuring cups.  

The green/yellow color combination goes into the other 4 cup measuring cup.  

The plain yellow colorant went into the remaining batter in the mixing pot.

I used the stick blender on low speed to mix the colors, at this point the soap is at a medium trace and I know it will thicken pretty fast once I add the FOs.

The FO's were added very unscientifically, I eyeballed it, hopefully it was evenly distributed in the different colors.  I stirred the FO's in really well and as I did noticed a bit of ricing and definite acceleration.  No way to tell which FO is causing this as they were all mixed together.

Next I poured the darkest green batter into the lined log mold. It was still loose enough to actually pour which was nice.  I tamped it down once all the dark green was added to hopefully rule out air bubbles.

I poured the medium yellow/green batter in next; it was still pourable so I am a happy girl!  Once again I tamped it down and cross my fingers re air bubbles.

The solid yellow batter went on top. I wanted to mound it up so I stirred it a bit longer to help it thicken up.

Once all of the batter was in the mold, and the top of the soap was fluffed enough to make me happy I called it done and put it into the freezer.  This supposedly helps slow the heating of the soap which helps keep the avocado from turning brown. So far it's worked every time we've made this soap.


I finished cleaning the kitchen and called it a day.  I will un-mold the soap tomorrow and have the final shots for you to see.

The soap is all finished, and much to our dismay it looks like the ricing actually left a calling card, we can see spots of "rice" in the bars.

We've done extensive research and the "rice" bits don't do any harm, they aren't as scenic as we would like, but the overall effect is the same, as is the quality of the soap.

Fresh Avocado soap, will be cured July 3.

A Directorial Debut - Sage's Soap

#handmadesoap #coldprocesssoap #lavenderandspearmint

March 31, 2015

Yes, we realize that we are actually posting this blog entry on May 17, 2015, so we admit that we are a little late with sharing the process of this batch of soap.  What we can tell you, though, is that we took this soap to a festival this weekend and it went like hotcakes!  The fragrance of this soap is amazing.

To make it even more special, the fragrance was developed by Kathy's granddaughter, Sage, who was spending part of her spring break with her grandmother.  We let Sage choose the colors, the scents etc. plus she wanted to be the director of the video.  She smelled just about every fragrance we have in the soap room, narrowed it down to 8 essential oils, and then narrowed it down to two.  We just might need her help more often!

We present Sage's soap in video form.  Enjoy!

If you don't want to watch the video, below are some pictures of the finished soap:

Sweet Enough to Eat. But Don't!

#greatcakessoapworkschallenge #dessertsoaps #handmadesoap

Friday, May 15, 2015

1st - Let me warn you that this post is long because we are describing several different creations.  We have also included a TON of pictures.

Enjoy! (We sure did!)

This process actually began a couple of weeks ago when Kathy emailed me to let me know that she had entered us in the next soap challenge - mini desserts.  WHAT?

OK, Alison.  Don't panic.  We both love to cook, and we both love to make soap.  Why shouldn't we combine the two?  We set ourselves one restriction - only HP or CP.  We don't make soaps using melt and pour (M&P) so we didn't use any for this challenge.

Our week went like this:

Monday: make HP cinnamon rolls and small round cake layers

Tuesday: make CP batter and divide. 1/2 for lime pies, 1/2 for baked Alaska.  Left over batter to frost cakes

Wednesday: make CP batter for meringue to cover baked Alaska and to decorate the layer cakes

Thursday: use mica in oil to paint edges of meringue to look baked (they were too soft to paint on Wednesday); take final pictures.
Friday: final edit and decide which picture to submit while getting loaded and organized for tomorrow's Mountain Laurel Festival

When I started brainstorming on Monday, I immediately started thinking of cinnamon rolls.  No idea why.  That's just what popped into my head.  Cold process would be too difficult to handle that way, and hot process has a great rustic look that COULD look like bread, so hot process for the rolls it would be.

I did plan on and even shot some video, but the tripod kept collapsing and it didn't record the interesting part of the rolling of the batter.  I could show you the mixing and stirring and cooking, but that part is pretty mundane and boring without the visual of rolling out the "dough."

This challenge requires us to create 4 mini desserts, we are also required to include at least one real food element in each soap recipe.  We will start this blog with mini cinnamon rolls and finish with the mini cakes, here we go......

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The mini cinnamon rolls:

I used four food additives in this HP soap: goats milk, honey, cocoa (for color) and colloidal oatmeal once it was done.  I rolled the batter out on colloidal oatmeal and sprinkled more on top of the soap before I rolled it up and cut it into mini cinnamon rolls.

The "mini rolls"cooled and hardened for 24 hours.  

The next day, using white batter left over from the other mini dessert soaps (see them below), we added extra oil and water to thin the consistency and "glazed" the mini cinnamon rolls.

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For the remaining mini dessert soaps and the frosting, we created a soap recipe using cocoa butter, coconut oil, lard, olive and castor oils. The batter was so easy to work with, we loved using it.  The food additive in the recipe is goats milk.  

After we added the goats milk we divided the batter in half so we can use it in the other mini desserts, our next endeavor was the mini lime pies.

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Mini Lime Pies:

To create the pies, we used half of a 1 lb batch of batter.   The point of this soap challenge is the art of creating the visual, so fragrance is neither needed nor necessary, but Kathy and I can't leave that out.  If we are going to use ingredients making something, we want it to be used and enjoyed (even if it is just us who uses it!). So, we used fragrances, and we are so glad we did!

I have been wanting to try this new FO, and since it had lime in the title we decided it would be perfect for our mini lime pies.  Da lime in da coconut Fo and the Pistachio Mica are both from +Rustic Escentuals.

Love Love this FO!  It performed perfectly, no discoloring, no ricing and no acceleration.  

We used silicone cupcake molds for our "pie pans"

Pouring a small amount of batter for the "crust"

Then we added the mica directly into a small portion of the batter  which will be our lime filling.

Isn't it gorgeous?!?!

When we got ready to pipe the lattice work on top of the pies we tried using sandwich bags.... immediately the tip plopped right onto the top of the "pie"  OOPSIE!!! 

 Being the polished professionals we are we cleaned it up, smoothed it over and proceeded with our newly donated set of decorator bags and couplings.

Lattice work goes on top of the pies...so much easier without a sandwich bag.

We let them cure overnight.

The mini lime pies popped right out of the molds.

And here are the finished mini pies, on to the next mini dessert...

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Mini Baked Alaska

As we racked our brains for another mini dessert idea we looked around to see what inspired us. This dessert idea popped into Kathy's head when she spotted the small silicone bowls Alison found at a yard sale.   

With mini baked alaska we knew we would need

vanilla, strawberry and chocolate "ice cream" layers. 

  To create vanilla we did not add any color. For the strawberry we added Frosty Rose Petal mica, and for the chocolate we used Aborigine Amber, both are from +Rustic Escentuals. 

We used a new FO from Aztec International called Black Raspberry Vanilla, which interestingly enough was touted as having no vanilla. It did not discolor & we love it.

The fragrance is so wonderful that we had to remind ourselves not to lick the spatula.  No acceleration, no ricing, no discoloration. Of course we don't know how it will do as it cures, but for now it's great!  YAY! 

We mixed the micas directly into the divided soap batter and we instantly had our strawberry and chocolate "ice cream".

Strawberry layer first,

then vanilla....

and finally the chocolate.

We put the soap in the curing box for 24 hours to harden, then we 

removed them from the molds and prepared the "meringue."

We applied the soap batter with the back of a spoon to give it the look of meringue peaks.

We think it worked rather well.

Once we had the meringue spread, it was time to give it that toasted look.  We tried the sprinkle method, sprinkling a little Aborigine Amber mica onto the surface.

That didn't work. The mica just lay there in clumps and specks.

UGH!

So we picked all of the specks out with a skewer tip and then re-sculpted the meringue, peaks and all.

Next we tried the paintbrush method using the Aborigine Amber mica again but this time with a small amount of safflower oil. Using a paintbrush we lightly brushed the color onto the raised surfaces and peaks.

We found out in a hurry that the soap was too soft to apply any pressure, so we let them cure overnight.  

The next day the soap was hard enough, and we carefully applied our "toasty" look to the meringue.

Next we cut a slice of the mini baked Alaska. Honestly, it looked so good! We were so hungry once we finished these mini desserts.....

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And now to the 4th and final mini dessert...

The mini layer cakes:

After the mini cinnamon rolls, there was some HP soap batter left over, so I put it into small circle mold creating 6 small round soaps we will use as the "cake" for our mini layer cakes.

We used uncolored batter as the icing between the layers, then carefully iced the sides and top of the mini cakes.

Once both mini layer cakes were frosted we decided to let them cure overnight.  

We will wait a day and make more soap batter

to create our frosting decorations.

The next day we made another batch of soap which we used for the colored decorations on the mini cakes.

Originally we decided to use purple, pink, and green, but in the end we only used white, pink, and green.  We used the purple and any left over soap batter to make small square guest soaps. All of these colors - Purple Passion mica, Ooh La La mica, and Pistachio mica - are 

from +Rustic Escentuals.

The batter was the perfect consistency to pipe decorations, we used a small #16 tip for the edge of the top.

Looks nice, doesn't it? 

Kathy used the back of a spoon to create a rose.

Then carefully transferred it to the top of the mini cake.  I mean, soap.

Next she added some leaves and small rose buds to complete the top.

We just needed to add the final touches around the base of the mini cake and then decorate the second cake.

We are cutting into the mini cake so show what the inside looks like.

What an adventure this challenge has been, once again we have pushed ourselves to try new techniques and stretch our imaginations.....what fun we had.

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Table is set for tea time:

Honestly if you didn't know it was soap wouldn't you want to take a bite???

 Here is your plate!

A few more gratuitous shots just because we are rather proud of our creations: