On the Curing Rack: Pumpkin Pie Soap

August 10, 2011 by | 11 Comments
Pumpkin Pie soap by Great Cakes Soapworks
Pumpkin Pie soap by Great Cakes Soapworks

This is the fourth year in a row that I have offered this yummy goat’s milk soap! I decided to try one more of the really great suggestions I had for mixing up the goat’s milk lye solution. My usual method is to pour the lye over the goat’s milk after it has been frozen in ice cube trays. Elisha C recommended crushing up the frozen milk in the blender before adding the lye. The logic was that “the milk would be completely melted a lot sooner making it easier to stir and allowing the lye to come into contact with more of the milk (since there would be less milk tied up in frozen form).”

I had a couple problems with this method. One was that my blender didn’t want to crush up frozen cubes of goat’s milk without adding more liquid, even though it is a very nice powerful blender made to crush ice and create frozen drinks. I was able to blend up about half the cubes, and after that it seemed like the blades were just whizzing around the bottom making goat’s milk butter!

The second problem came after I added the lye to this half-blended frozen milk (and pumpkin puree). The solution actually started heating up faster than with just the cubes. By the time all the cubes had melted, the milk was starting to smell like it was starting to scorch and the temperature was up to almost 120 degrees. I went ahead and dumped it into the oils which were about 90 degrees.

Everything worked out pretty much according to plan, even with the hotter lye solution. I had decided that I would pull out a couple cups of the soap before adding the discoloring fragrance and swirl them back into the pot. You can see some of the lighter colored soap, but the effect is not as dramatic as I was hoping. The pumpkin stamp still looks great though! The color of the fresh soap out of the mold is a very dark orange. However, it will turn more of a dark brown as it cures, and should be available for purchase at Greatcakessoapworks.com around Tuesday, September 6th.

Posted in:
Tags:

Page with Comments

  1. It looks gorgeous! Fall is nearing! What happened to our 74 degree day though? It was 86!

    My good friend adds her lye to frozen goat milk and it always works very well for her. She uses more like frozen flats of goat milk though. Check out her video if you like: http://www.youtube.com/user/loriadkins#p/u/32/OHeSjBKvf4c

    Do you add any additional liquid to the goat milk or do you use full goat milk? Lori’s advice to me was that it’s critical that it be all goats milk and no added water.

  2. I would never know you had been sweating it a bit with the goat’s milk-they are beautiful. I love the color they are now but darker is good too.

  4. Love these! I’ve done the ice cube thing too but I never seem to get any colour other than a shade of orange .. no matter how slowly I pour the lye in.

    Love the stamp.. is that mica in there too? How do you get it so neat??

  5. @Holly – I will check out the video – thanks! And yes, I do use full goat’s milk.

    @Michele – Thanks! I’m glad they turned out too!

    @Erin – Thank you! Hope you are doing well with your wedding plans!

    @Celine – The key to keeping your lye solution cool is to pour all the lye over the frozen cubes at once, and stir until the cubes are fully dissolved. The
    temp of the solution is usually about 65-70 degrees (fahrenheit) at that point. That’s why I had undissolved lye in the first Red Rock Canyon soap – it was too cold when I poured it into the oils. As for the stamp, it’s just a regular rubber stamp. Tap it in the mica, then into the soap. It’s not indented very far, so it washes off pretty quickly. It’s fun though! 🙂

  8. It looks truly beautiful Amy, I love the color, a shame it doesn’t stay that way. Can’t wait to see what it looks like at the final colour stage. The pumpkin stamp is so cute and puts the final finishing touch to a gorgeous soap, I bet it smells yummy too:)

Comments are closed.