Week 5 of the Great Cakes Soapworks Challenge was to create our own new scent. Well, last week I attempted to blend my own essential oils, and it turned out not-so-great. So my first attempt this week was to try adding an essential oil to a fragrance oil that I love. I’m a sucker for bakery scents, so I chose a vanilla cupcake fragrance as my basic scent, then added a lemon twist to it. I also wanted to keep practicing my piping skills, so Lemon Frosted Cupcakes were born!
The prettiest of the Lemon Frosted Cupcakes!
I used 2 parts of the cupcake scent with 1 part lemon essential oil. Because the cupcake fragrance will discolor a bit, I only used it in the base of the cupcake with some lemon. Then I added only lemon essential oil to the “icing” along with yellow oxide. I measured carefully so it would all equal out to be 2 parts cupcake to 1 part lemon. I piped a few regular-sized cupcakes, a few mini cupcakes, and a few sample-size flowers using a fun new silicone mold.
I loved the way the cupcakes looked before popping them into the oven! Yes, I used the CPOP method for these, so my house even smelled like lemon cupcakes! Delicious! My daughters have tried to eat these several times already.
Notice the deep yellow of the cupcakes before baking. Yum!
I did, however, forget to set the timer and left the oven on too long. Who knew I could overbake soap just like I often overbake cookies, bread, real cupcakes…?! The small flowers swelled and stuck to the mold. I’m thinking that I may have baked the glycerin out to the edges of them. The same thing happened to the mini cupcakes, but only on their bases. Very odd. Since I’m so new at this, it’s another first for me! The outer edges have a soft, transparent soap on them. It still lathers and actually leaves my hands feeling super moisturized, but it sure looks ugly! I guess I’ll have to try another first: rebatching.
On the left is a flower from my second batch, the way they should look! On the right is the odd first batch that was overcooked. Weird, right?
The final yellow came out much more muted than I hoped it would. I used 2 different tips to ice the cupcakes, and these tops ended up looking like a pile of dijon mustard mudpies.
The ugly dijon dung cupcakes!
Definitely not appealing. Must try to rebatch those along with the crazy flowers. And I most certainly need to find a brighter yellow to use!
After having fun with the cupcakes, I wanted to try my hand at blending only essential oils again. I was still feeling in a lemony mood, so I chose to blend all citrus scents. I used 3 parts grapefruit, 2 parts sweet orange, and 2 parts lemon essential oils. I realize that there’s not much differentiation here, but it sure smells great! So refreshing! I also wanted to practice for the upcoming week’s faux funnel pouring, so I used 3 different colors to represent each of the fruits: yellow, orange, and pink. It doesn’t follow the contrasting opposites on the color wheel, but I had to go with the colors to match the scents. Just didn’t make sense otherwise! I used a round silicone mold to practice different swirls in each space. I also wanted to attempt using the flower molds again. There was still a small bit of soft, transparent soap on the final flowers, but I could easily trim it off. Unfortunately, my soap reached a heavy trace really quickly, so I ended up with some air pockets in the soaps. Does that always happen with citrus essential oils? Or is it the oxides that I’m using as colorants? So much to learn! Overall, I’m happy with the fun swirls that I got, and these smell great!
Lots of fun swirls!
Creating new scents really wasn’t scary at all! I used the paper towel method that Amy suggested to decide on how many parts and scents to use. I’ll definitely be stepping out further to try new combinations in the future! Check out what the other challengers created here! I’m so looking forward to seeing what everyone creates for this week’s challenge as well! I’ve already made one batch, and I can’t wait to cut into it tomorrow!
Great job, Katy! I really love the orange, yellow and pink ones! You got some great swirls on the round ones! Cupcakes are getting better too. 🙂 I bet they smell fabulous!!
Thanks! They do smell great, and the cupcakes are getting better! The swirls in the round soaps were good practice for this week’s challenge. I just cut into the loaf I made yesterday, and it turned out great!
Nice experimentation. You are so brave I don’t think I could bear to put those cupcakes in the oven. Have you taken a tallish cardboard box and lined the inside with bubble wrap and then put it over your cupcakes with a towel to insulate the soap? It might work and not cook out all the ruffles! I love the citrus swirlies and the scent sounds very nice too.
Haha! Thanks! I didn’t actually cook the ruffles out of those ugly “mudpie” cupcakes! I tried using a different piping tip that didn’t work out so well, and they set up too quickly to scrape them off and try again! I tried the oven process method because I’m so impatient that I don’t want to wait several weeks for them to cure. I like to use my soap as soon as possible. I should try the insulation instead next time! The citrus soaps were also oven processed, and they did turn out very nice. So refreshing!
Thanks for visiting my blog, Katy! I am located in Belgium:)
Wow, I really like the swirls !I bet they smell fabulous.
And I love your kids , they are so sweet 🙂
Natalia
Thanks so much, Natalia! I think my kids are pretty cute! 😉 And always messy!
Oh, Belgium! I’ve never visited Belgium YET, but I studied for a summer in Angers, France when I was in college. I just haven’t had much time to travel lately (as you can imagine)! I love the French language, but I don’t have much opportunity to speak it. Are you in the French speaking part of Belgium? I’m so happy to have joined in with the Soap Challenge and meet people like you from all around the world!
Katy
I live in Flanders, but very near Brussels:)
Yes, I am also content to have joined this challenge and to know nice people 🙂
Bisous à tes enfants 🙂
Natalia