Saturday Saunter ~ Bet Y'all Were Curirous

Just in case y'all caught my post yesterday, I thought I'd show you the results of our Friday Fun.

Adventures in soap making...

No this isn't chocolate cake mix

Once the soap came to a thick trace, we scooped it into the muffin pans. If I had to do it over again, I'd go with a light trace for more time, but with five hands it went quick. We scooped out sixteen "cupcakes."

Wait a minute, Jo. Five hands? Jenn's two, my grandson Grant's two, and my one equals five hands. It was his time with grandma day after school. His brother was too busy with Angry Birds and only seven years old...too young for strong active lye in the soap making process. Although he thought the Playtex gloves and protective eye wear were kinda cool.

Next we piped on the white, vanilla whipped cream "frosting." Neat trick one handed but nothing a rubber band and a big chip clip couldn't handle. See I gave a lot of thought prior to starting on the mechanics. I actually practiced a couple of days before with real cupcakes much to my husband's enjoyment. He's still a kid at heart and loves to lick the frosting bowl and beaters. :)

Then Jenn, my fabulous in house pastry chef, put the final touches to prettify them. Now mind you, soap at this stage is almost 100 degrees and hardening fast unlike regular frosting that warms and thins with the heat of your hand. She also took a toothpick and made cracks in the cupcake like real cupcakes.
The end results...

TA-DA!

Then the "cherries," Grant rolled the red colored soap into little balls. I do mean little. They are 1/4 inch balls. For the mini "cupcakes" the were the size of Red Hots. A bit og vegetable glycerine adds the shine. Jenn brain stormed with left over chocolate soap, we had to reheat it. The sprinkles are regular confectionery sprinkles. They'll melt in hot water.

I can picture them in cellophane bags with curling ribbon and a label. What would be on the label besides the required info? "Your skin needs to eat too. Nourish it. The soap contains Olive, Coca Butter, and Jojoba oils, milk, whipped cream, Vitamin E, and superfatted with Shea Butter. All the essential oils and nutrient rich  elements your skin needs to replenish it. Decadent as chocolate is for the soul. What's not to love?

Like I commented to Shannon, the Warrior Muse, yesterday, good enough to eat. The house is filled with a heavenly chocolate/vanilla scent even this morning. Now the hard part...waiting the four weeks for the soap to cure before we try them out.

What do you think?

Friday Fun~ The Decadence of Bathing with Milk Chocolate

This week I've been contemplating reopening my herbal products company. Herbal Renaissance was the dream of my husband and myself a decade and a half ago before he became ill. He was in charge of sales and promotion while I was the product designer and creator. Having degrees in herbatology and aromatherapy helped. It was a family business with two daughters handling production and a son-in-law handling shipping. It was fun. I still have doctors and people calling me for items from our product line.

I've spent a lot of time on youtube, facebook, and the web this week researching the market and innovative ideas. The one thing I absolutely loved was making bath soaps and custom fragrance oils. Even though our business closed due to my husband's illness, I still make our own bath and beauty products here at home for personal use. These also included cleaning supplies like scrubbing powder (comet), laundry soap, and dish soap. Of course now, I need help lifting pots of hot processed soap and releasing soaps from the molds being only one handed.

Credit

I saw a video on making cupcake soap. Now almost everyone loves chocolate. Imagine bathing in it with emollient rich coca butter and milk soap. Sounds decadent doesn't it? My youngest being a pastry chef sure doesn't hurt either. We decided to give it a whirl today. I'll have to let you know how it turns out and maybe post a pic or two of my own.

I talked to her yesterday about it and her mind went into overdrive...apple pie, lemon meringue, carrot cake and all sorts of yummies. Can't you just just see little pie tins filled with soap, smelling yummy enough to eat? I imagine her mind was still going with ideas for at least an hour after I hung up the phone. Whether or not we renergize our former company will take some more research. But until then, it's just fun especially now that I have a tub to bathe in again.