Saturday Fun in the Soap Kitchen

Logs of Kitchen Soap

I have the day to play around in the soap room.  First off I needed to cut bars out of the logs of Kitchen soap that were made the other night to make room for more soapy creations in the works for today.  This batch turned out much darker this time because I increased the amount of coffee used and it was a darker roast than I have used in the past.  To achieve that dark coffee color in the soap I mix the fresh coffee grounds into the lye water when I mix it together which in turn "brews" the coffee and turns the lye water a very dark brown, almost black color.  When the coffee/lye water is mixed with the oils the color becomes a more muted brown color.   

In the lot of soap making supplies that I purchased last weekend, there was a soap cutter  guide which I was delighted to put to use.  The old method of cutting soap was to pull out the tape measure, mark, then cut the bars.  Often the bars were uneven in size, and harder to keep my cutter from going down straight. With this nifty gadget I ended up with a bit more even size bars, and it was so much easier to cut the bars.  I would have never considered purchasing a cutting guide had it not been included in the purchase, but now I wouldn't cut the bars without it.  I ended up with less waste and one more bar of soap compared to cutting them by hand. 

Cut bars of Kitchen Soap

The bars are now cut and on the rack curing.  Now that I have made room for more molds to be put to use, it's time to head back into the soap kitchen and be creative!