Tips for Detailed Silicone Molds?

[BrewerGeorge]

Everything I've done so far as been in a loaf, but I've got some silicone molds arriving (hopefully tomorrow!) and I'm wondering if there is anything I need to do differently to help them mold well and keep the detail.

I've soaped around 125F and poured at medium trace so far, except for one time that an FO accelerated on me and I had to glop the mold full. My loaf mold is wood and wrapping in towels has enabled gel each time. But with the silicone, it seems logical that the molds might prefer being poured at a lighter trace to fill detail and avoid bubbles, right? And I'm assuming I'll need to oven-process if I want them to gel? Anything else I should be aware of?

 

[dixiedragon]

Silicone molds tend to be floppy, so you might want to put them on a cookie sheet or something. Trace doesn't have to be very thin - I like it to be pudding like, not mashed potatoes. tap the cookie sheet with the filled molds on the counter to help the soap settle into the tiny details. After the soap has hardened, if unmolding is not very very easy - as in the soap easily falls from the mold - I put the mold in the freezer. It is very easy for those little details to break off. The frozen soap is harder, plus then you run some hot water over the bottom of the mold to help it release. For teensy, delicate details - like flower petals - I grease my mold with a bit of mineral oil.

 

[CTAnton]

Bg I'd soap warm..110 F or so, possibly pre warm the molds ...prewarm the oven and let it drop to 120 F or so...then put your soap in...I've got a thermometer with a remote sensor that's proven invaluable for CPOP...while I'm cleaning up my mess I monitor the temperature in the oven...when it drops to the low 90's I run the oven again to bring it up to 120 or so...which means while the oven is on and the temperature is reading 115 or so and climbing then turn it off...the temperature rises quite a few degrees on my oven before it stabilizes ...as has been recently stated on another thread, you're nudging the soap into gel, not cooking it...

 

[songwind]

I have had some issues with really intricate detail while using a soap with a significant percentage (35%) of olive oil. It just never wanted to solidify enough to come out clean. The same mold with a lard/coconut/castor formula released beautifully.

I think thin trace is useful because it allows the details to fill and any trapped air bubbles to be shaken out, but how important that is will depend a lot on how intricate your mold is.

 

[CTAnton]

BG I should have mentioned that on Milky Way Molds website they have a sample recipe of one they recommend with their molds....probably a good starting point for anything intricate...a lot of hard oils as I recall and I can attest with some gentle persuasion in the oven they came out beautifully...

 

[navigator9]

My suggestion is to pour thin. If your mold has a lot of very fine detail, you'll lose it if you pour too thick. If you're good at identifying emulsion, I'd pour as soon as you feel the batter has reached that point. With individual molds, if they don't gel, make sure you wait long enough, I'd suggest several days, before trying to unmold. Then, just pull the sides away, to see if they release cleanly, and if they do, turn the mold upside down and push gently, and the soap should fall out. If it came out cleanly, go ahead and try the rest, if not........wait. If they gel, however, you can unmold the following day! Be sure to post pics. :smile: