Tags
bath bomb, bath cakes, bath fizzy, bath treats, bubble bars, floating soap, handmade soap, soap cupcakes, soap frosting, tub treats, whipped soap
Soap makers often enjoy making whimsical variations of soap and bath bomb cupcakes. Customers seem to enjoy these little bath treats for bathroom décor and they make fantastic gifts. As soap makers, we are often in a dilemma of how to ice the cupcakes. Most use a royal icing (literally, a whole lot of powdered sugar) which I find kind of gross to imagine floating in my tub. Many soapers share my reservations and therefore simply don’t make bath cupcakes.
I’ve pondered the problem for some time. We’ve all heard of bubble bars. Lush sells them like crazy. Many soap makers have worked toward making the product. You simply break off a piece of the bar and drop under warm running water for a bubble bath. If you are interested in a great Bubble Bar tutorial, Sarah Milroy has a YouTube video and recipe that you might find helpful.
In the Lavender Martini Bath Cakes pictured above, I’ve modified a bubble bar recipe to make it less sticky and having a better texture for piping. The resulting treat has a Bath Bomb base with a Bubble Frosting. The end customer can take the two pieces apart for two separate baths, or even cut the base and frosting in half and get as many as four uses out of it. For the soap maker, one great benefit of the bubble frosting is that it is ready to use after a few days, just giving it time to harden up.
Another option would be to frost the Bath Cake with a whipped soap. Many soapers have never heard of whipped soap or soap frosting (recipe developed some years back by Terry Nisbet, a retired pastry chef in Australia) which can be piped like icing and actually floats in the tub. No more lost soap! In this picture, I have taken a Pineapple Fizzing Bath Cake and topped with a Coconut fragranced whipped frosting. The base is intended for a single use and the soap will last for as long as soap lasts.
The drawback to soap frosting is that like any cold processed soap, it needs a good long cure, four weeks minimum. Six to eight weeks would be better.
A third option which I have not tried yet is a shipped soap frosting using a combination of melt & pour soap and foaming bath whip. Debbie May of Wholesale Supplies Plus offers a frosting recipe that I may try as a third alternative.
So for the many soapers who, like me, were reluctant to make royal icing to frost bath bombs, I hope you’ll enjoy the other options. To learn more about bath bomb recipes and other tub treat tutorials, visit my Pinterst Board.
If you are new to making bath bombs, my friend Ariane Arsenault from La Fille de La Mer has a great YouTube video that you’ll find helpful.
