How cute are these cupcakes? They are perfect for a summer party. The leaves are made with fondant so are edible in addition to looking spiffy. I love how smiley and happy they are. Happy Wednesday!
Tutorials on soapmaking, bath fizzies, lotions and more
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
How cute are these cupcakes? They are perfect for a summer party. The leaves are made with fondant so are edible in addition to looking spiffy. I love how smiley and happy they are. Happy Wednesday!
Filed Under: Bramble Berry News
I just got a huge order of Pich Posh goodies in the mail from their small store in Canada. The photos don’t show everything I got. I was having trouble staging the photos with all the products in the frame. My bad.
The order came quickly, was packed well and the presentation was excellent. Despite the international shipping, all of the products arrived intact.
This is what I ordered: 1 Bath Milkshake, 2 Cupcakes, 2 Bath Fizzies, 1 Solid Bath Melts, 4 Bath Frappes. Everything is brightly colored and attractively packaged. Despite the fact that it’s summer and there is no Air Conditioning at my house, I’m still excited to go home and take a hot bath, just for an excuse to use these bath delights!
Interesting aside: the founder of Pich Posh started the company a few years back to help pay off his student loans. His degree is in Film Studies and you can even find a few film reviews on their e-commerce site.
Garrett Pich has created a warm and friendly looking store, judging from the photos. Ff you can’t make it to his Canadian store (in Regina, Saskatchewan), be sure to check out their site and get your bath goodies through the Canadian Post.
Look for reviews of the products in the upcoming month.
Filed Under: Bath Fizzies
Jennifer at Creative Wanderings got inspired by my cupcake experimentsand made some very successful bath bomb cupcakes. Her frosting looks amazing! And the sprinkles are a cheery touch. Thanks for sharing!
Filed Under: Bath Fizzies
These glorious frothy white peaks showed great promise. I was borderline euphoric with glee. It was not my original hope of non-Royal Icing but at least I had something to show for my hours of toiling over citric acid. The happiness lasted overnight.
Upon waking, I eagerly stole out into the kitchen, happier than a child on Christmas morning. I was not rewarded for my premature glee. The phrase about chickens, eggs and hatching springs to mind.
My glorious bath cupcakes had flattened out overnight. Sad. Disappointing. And also, foul smelling. In addition to being flat, they smelled vaguely like wet dogs.
I went to work, deflated myself.
None of my staff were the least bit sympathetic.
Filed Under: Bath Fizzies
I made 7 batches of bath cupcakes this week. Count ’em. Seven. It was a long and creative weekend. The photo of the bathcake above is not mine. Mine turned out non-photograph friendly (translation: very pathetic cupcakes).
My batches were:
normal (citric acid/baking soda/witch hazel)
Olive Butter (citric acid/baking soda/olive butter)
SLS (citric acid/baking soda/SLS/witch Hazel)
Kaolin (citric acid/baking soda/Kaolin/Witch Hazel)
SLS/Olive (citric acid/baking soda/SLS/Olive Butter/Witch Hazel)
Olive/Kaolin (citric acid/baking soda/Olive Butter/Kaolin/Witch Hazel)
Potluck! (citric acid/baking soda/SLS/Olive Butter/Witch Hazel/Kaolin)
My recipe was pretty basic. 1/3 Citric Acid, 2/3 Baking Soda with a few extra pinches of whatever additive I was testing thrown into the mix. For more detailed instructions on making bath fizzies, visit Teach Soap.
I attempted to frost all of these with various bath frostings to make a deluxe sassy bath product that melted cleanly away in the tub.
Seven attempts later, I am properly humbled.
The set up (notice the mouth-watering, amazing Salty Carmel Ice Cream fragrance) for making bath fizzy bath cakes.
This is the perfect consistency for making bath fizzies. You want the dry ingredients to stick together just enough to clump but not so much that they are a hard little ball.
SLS is used for foam and bubbles. In its raw state, it is often a soft chunk. You’ll want to break this clump up before adding it to your mixture. I use Sodium Lauryl Sulfate up to about 25% but you could use more or less depending on how much foam you want. Alternately, if you just want fizz, stick with straight citric acid/baking soda and skip the SLS.
First, I lined the cupcake “tin” with a cupcake holders. The cupcake holder helps keep the food grade “tin” reusable again. If there was no liner, the silicone would forever more smell of Salty Carmel Ice Cream fragrance.
The colors I used to achieve the green, orange, yellow and pink were the La Bomb line. The La Bomb Labcolor Colorants are made in a base of food grade glycerin. Because they are in glycerin, the colorant does not start the fizzing reaction in your bath bomb that a water-based colorant would set off.
Then, when the mixture is in that nice pie dough consistency, push it firmly into the cupcake molds. The tighter you pack, the heavier your bomb will be and the longer the fizz will last in the tub. If you pack the bath fizzy loosely, you will get a very short, explosive fizz in the tub. The loosely packed bath fizzy provides a more “Oooh Ahhh” factor than the densely packed fizzy. But, the densely packed fizzy lasts longer. So, how tight you pack the fizzies is a personal preference.
Tomorrow, I’ll blog (with photos) about the various frosting recipes I used and the (6 dismal, 1 partial success) outcomes.
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
Norman, my COO in the photo below, says that the Soap Queen blog is getting too business based and that I should start blogging more on crafts. I promise, next week will be more crafty. I’m making some cool soap projects this weekend (frosted salty caramel ice cream bath cupcakes) and painting my stairwell pistaschio green and brown. So, next week will be all about both projects, I promise. By the way, that’s me and Norm, at the cockpit of a non-functional Fed Ex plane. He still is trying to look like he’s in charge (notice the hands on the steering wheel).
But in the meantime, ack! Did you see that our own Seattle brand, Jone’s Soda is being dumped by Starbucks, another local fave? The official word is that Jone’s Soda is being pulled because Starbucks needs to make more room for refrigerated food on their shelves.
But, when you dig a little deeper, Starbucks is not dumping Izze, the Jone’s competitor. Why not? After all, getting rid of a few Jones Soda bottles doesn’t make room for much more than one more lunch item But, dig down a little deeper and find that surprise, Izze is owned by Pepsi. And guess who sits on Starbucks board? A former Pepsi exec sits on Starbucks board. Additionally, Starbucks has a distribution agreement with Pepsi to distribute the pre-bottled Frappuccino bottles that you see in stores.
So, what does this mean to Jones Soda? With their much ballyhooed deal with Seahawks, they were riding the high buzz wave. And, Starbucks only makes up 1 to 3% of their total sales. But, Starbucks was a buzz builder, with lots of foot traffic. And what’s the instricic value of associating with a successful, do-gooder brand like Starbucks?
The analysts are wobbling a little with one saying that the major sell off after the Starbuck’s news makes Jone’s a good buy. At a 83 Price to Earnings Ratio, it’s an expensive buy. I’m still interested though. The management team appears strong, the company has been in business for 20 years and they have strong street cred, which has proven instrumental to bringing the tipping point of favorable consumer habits.
I tried out the myjones.com site and personalized Cream Soda and Blue Bubblegum soda. Those goodies should be coming next week. I’m excited to see how the photo and printing quality is.
Forbes.com did a great 3 part series on the CEO of Jones Soda. The term “series” is probably giving it more credit than it’s due. Each part is about 3 minutes, but it’s still a very informative 3 minutes. Check it out here.
I’m rooting for the local guy to make it past this setback. After all, who else has Turkey & Gravy soda flavor?
Filed Under: Personal Ramblings
My great friend Jody, over at Verite Coffee just made the most amazing, decadent chocolate cupcake suitable for two! For an ultra amazing Valentine’s Day, never-to-forget, pop on down to one of her three shop locations (Ballard, Madrona and West Seattle) and grab a treat for you and your honey.
I love what Jody has done with cupcakes – she’s elevated them to a fine art, something to be savored and treasured and something that you pay a premium for. I think this is a good lesson for all business people, especially soapmakers. What can you to elevate your craft so that it stands out and is worth $10 per bar of soap?