alchemy_cake
Active Member
I have to admit, the moment I put the goggles on I began to feel like a bit of a mad scientist. :twisted:
First off, thank you all for your kind advice! It made it possible to do this feeling safe and informed.
I found the process interesting - and not nearly so intimidating once I was actually doing it. I sometimes make custard and hollandaise from scratch, and the stages of trace are nearly identical, with the bonus that it won't form a nasty skin if you look away for one second. The batter had a unique sort of texture - plastic-y, almost. I guess that's the oils?
For the scent, I used litsea and sweet orange, added at thin trace, and then when it reached medium trace I poured half aside with a little bit of titanium dioxide pre-mixed with some water (taken from the main, pre-measured water). At that point the batter thickened quite a lot, but remained at that stage, and was pretty easy to work with. I swirled the regular and whitened batter, with probably moderate success, I hope? The top of the loaf is all TD batter, as I wanted to go for a 'creamsicle' look to match the citrus scent. Boy howdy, was I bad at doing the top. I think I'd better learn some actual techniques before the next time.
As you can see below, it all ended up looking the same colour, so I'm hoping that if I manage to achieve gel the parts with TD will look more distinct. I covered the silicone molds with a cloth-lined wicker basket and draped a towel over top, so I guess I'll see tomorrow if it worked to help them gel. The two small bee mold soaps I left out so that I could compare them to the gelled soaps. Honestly, I want to un-mold them nowwww!
Also, I am apparently a very messy soaper! I hope I'll get neater with practice.
Thanks again, everyone! I will let you all know how they turn out!
(Forgive the bad photos, I had only my phone, which needless to say wasn't bought for the camera.)
First off, thank you all for your kind advice! It made it possible to do this feeling safe and informed.
I found the process interesting - and not nearly so intimidating once I was actually doing it. I sometimes make custard and hollandaise from scratch, and the stages of trace are nearly identical, with the bonus that it won't form a nasty skin if you look away for one second. The batter had a unique sort of texture - plastic-y, almost. I guess that's the oils?
For the scent, I used litsea and sweet orange, added at thin trace, and then when it reached medium trace I poured half aside with a little bit of titanium dioxide pre-mixed with some water (taken from the main, pre-measured water). At that point the batter thickened quite a lot, but remained at that stage, and was pretty easy to work with. I swirled the regular and whitened batter, with probably moderate success, I hope? The top of the loaf is all TD batter, as I wanted to go for a 'creamsicle' look to match the citrus scent. Boy howdy, was I bad at doing the top. I think I'd better learn some actual techniques before the next time.
As you can see below, it all ended up looking the same colour, so I'm hoping that if I manage to achieve gel the parts with TD will look more distinct. I covered the silicone molds with a cloth-lined wicker basket and draped a towel over top, so I guess I'll see tomorrow if it worked to help them gel. The two small bee mold soaps I left out so that I could compare them to the gelled soaps. Honestly, I want to un-mold them nowwww!
Also, I am apparently a very messy soaper! I hope I'll get neater with practice.
Thanks again, everyone! I will let you all know how they turn out!
(Forgive the bad photos, I had only my phone, which needless to say wasn't bought for the camera.)
Word of advice, you can separate your soap for coloring sooner than med trace, that way you won't risk it getting too thick while you color.
