Thursday, March 08, 2007

Homemade Chocolate Cupcake Soap - Easy



Yesterday I made soap by rebatching Ivory soap. Although I could have made my own soap with lye, I thought I'd try working with Ivory soap first. Commercial soap is very drying because glycerin is removed to make lotions. Rebatching soap lets you add moisture back, and it's fun to add your own ingredients and shapes. I used this link for the soap recipe, but ended up combining recipes and making my own.

Chocolate Cupcake Soap:

Three bars of Ivory Soap
3/4 Cup water
5 Tablespoons olive oil
3 Tablespoons glycerin
3 Tablespoon cocoa powder
3 Tablespoon honey
1/2 cup powdered milk
3 Tablespoon cinnamon

Cut soap up into smaller pieces, place in a glass Pyrex measuring bowl, add water and cook in microwave for about 2 minutes at a time, watch closely for puffing up, stop when it does this and stir, repeat until it is creamy. Add more water and a little of the oil if too dry*.

Once it's nice and creamy, add oil and remaining ingredients, stir well, adding more water and oil if too dry. I heat it up more if it's still chunky, and stir.




Grease cupcake tins with olive oil, fill and allow to dry overnight. If they don't pop out, try to push them out by hand, or freeze them for a little bit. Mine popped out well after I spun them around in the muffin tin with my finger.

For Icing:

Cook one bar of cut up Ivory soap in a clean glass bowl in the microwave with about 1/4 cup water and 1 tablespoon of glycerin. Repeat muffin cooking instructions above. When it gets nice and creamy it's ready to frost. The frosting dries pretty quickly. I waited a few hours and it was ready for use.

I sprinked sugar on a few of the cupcakes before adding the frosting. I'm experimenting with a garden soap. The sugar adds a little abrasive for extra cleaning.

I used thrift store purchased older tins and other items for this project. I won't be cooking food with them, and I'd suggest the same.

I added the frosting today. I have the cupcake soap next to the kitchen sink, and it cleans well, but is A LOT easier on my hands than regular soap. There was no greasy residue. I like it!

Next project: liquid soap. I may get brave enough to make bar soap from scratch with lye, not just rebatch Ivory soap.

*If the soap is too dry, add more water, oil or glycerin than is stated in the recipe.

Update: Some of the natural ingredients did mold after a few months in storage. I'd not store this soap for long periods of time.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

This looks like a neat idea can't wait to try it.

Alexandra said...

Alice, these were so much fun...I want to try a pink and white cake with cherries. I'll use regular cake pans as soap molds.

Stephanie Appleton said...

Those look to good to wash with!

Heather @ Marine Corps Nomads said...

Those are so nice. Wow!!

Celeste said...

Great one! I checked outthe link and I do believe I will be trying this!

Anonymous said...

Wow....so glad I found this. I am going to give it a try today with the children for christmas gifts. I found your blog searching for rebatching soap, but I see we have a lot in common so you might find me around here reading again. Thanks for sharing you recipe.

Alexandra said...

Thanks for your comment Embejo. Come back to visit. :)

Anonymous said...

Frankly speaking your soap making instructions are very informative.I'd like to add them to my collection of soap recipes here. thank you, Alexandra! Please keep up posting new recipes. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Thanks you for the recipe. If you do not have a microwave can you just put the chocolate cupcake soap in the oven for 2 minutes?

Chele

Alexandra said...

Chele,

Thanks for visiting. :) I've never tried the oven for melting soap, but it's worth a try. Maybe a double boiler might be faster?

Anonymous said...

Hi there! This sure looks like it would be fun to make and give too. I linked this to my soap post too, I just might want to try this!