somewhere, beyond the sea
I am pretty sure I will not be around LJ much this week, so as I'm still having breakfast, a quick post before running, running away. I had a pleasant, low-key weekend, and I read both Band Geek Love and Magic Under Glass, both of which I will review later. I made a birthday cake for someone I will not name1. I put a picture of it behind the cut, because it is extremely large and I'm running too late to make adjustments right now.
The birthday girl does not like the sides frosted; my family always frosts the sides. This cake was dangerous; I discovered the wonderful modern invention of liquid bandages. Luckily, the injury was nasty but missed any important bits, making this the third time in a year that I've seriously considered the emergency room but discarded the idea as too expensive without insurance.
I also made body butter, and if you want to find out more about that and how to make your own, I'll put that and a couple of big pictures behind the cut.
First, on Saturday night, I played with a recipe I'd seen at http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2010/01/easy-whipped-shea-butter.html -- I had the raw materials and I found this really interesting because I'd been avoiding using shea butter. I tend to not be as big on butters--solids at room temperature--as on oils, generally liquid at room temperature. Shea is notorious for turning grainy, and the generally accepted procedure is to heat it until it melts (in the upper 80s or mid-90s F) and then cool it very quickly. If you've ever had a grainy lotion or lip balm, you'll know that this doesn't always work! It won't hurt you, and just putting on that lotion or lip balm will usually melt the crystals, but it's no fun.
So! I melted the coconut oil (which is obtainable in most grocery stores--and you want the one that's white-ish and solid until it hits 76 degrees, not the fractionated kind that is clear and watery, as much as I really love that stuff), and put 5.1 oz in a big metal bowl. As it happened, I had 16 oz of shea butter, so I put all of it in, hoping that would give this temperature-sensitive mix a little more stability (mine: refined, white, deodorized; I wanted to color it and scent it without interference and I don't really believe that I'm missing out on anything by getting it after processing, though if I liked the scent of shea, I'd definitely just get it in its natural, yellow, nutty-smelling state--I tend to not believe claims about what Natural This or That will do for you beyond skin-softening or scenting or scrubbing or drying out). Anyway, I did *not* melt the shea butter, which was sort of like cold Crisco--actually, I did melt it for about 15 seconds in the microwave just to soften it, because I was having a hard time getting it out of the deep, narrow tub, but I didn't turn it into oil. (I'd probably adjust this recipe if I thought I was going to be somewhere very warm, but for now, this is nice.) Anyway, you might be able to find shea butter at your local natural foods market, or I could give you some recommendations on where to get it mailed to you for not too much. For something like this, you might actually want to have it mailed to you from a company that sells a lot of it, and therefore, has a high product turnover and is probably selling you the freshest stuff possible. It all has a shelf life, and it sucks to end up with something that goes rancid in a few months because it's at the end of its time.
I couldn't get my bottle of a particular kind of preservative open. This doesn't *need* one, though an antioxidant to prevent rancidity would have been nice--I simply forgot! A few drops of rosemary oil or the insides of a capsule or two of Vitamin E would work. Beyond following as much of the FDA good manufacturing guidelines as possible in my own space, I'd want the reassurance of having something to prevent mold, yeast, and bacteria in the mix if I were selling this. It's not a good place to grow bugs, as this mixture doesn't contain any water, but I tend to wash my hands and then grab lotion, so there's a possibility that I could make my own science experiment. For now, I'll just have to wash and dry carefully before using. But, yeah, this isn't a lotion, which is in the range of 70-85% water and the rest other stuff--and notoriously hard to preserve. If you see someone selling a lotion with no preservatives, don't buy it. You wouldn't rub raw meat on yourself; why rub in something that is probably growing nasties, even if you can't see them yet?
So, I fired up the handheld mixer and started creaming the mixture together. I started at medium and used the high setting for just a few minutes, whipping for a total of ten minutes until I was happy with the texture. I ended up with six jars, about 3.5 ounces in each. I bought those jars on clearance, so I can't tell you how big they were supposed to be, but obviously, there was a lot of volume for the weight. My guess is that those were 5-6 oz. jars. You could certainly use tupperware or something for yourself.
Nuts for cake are in the corner; I'd never have stuff like that out if I were going to send anything like this outside my household, btw.
Theoretically, I ought to have mixed in my preservative (if I wanted one), skin-safe fragrance oil or essential oil, and a bit of mica (or FD&C lakes, but I never have those) if I wanted color before putting into jars. That would make everything the best, smoothest, and most consistent.
Instead, I gave all but one to the birthday girl, and we made them all different scents and colors!
The one in the picture is mine; I added a drop of cyclomethicone because I wasn't entirely happy with the feel, and then some fragrance that makes it smell like a pineapple Lifesaver. :)) I also added pinches of gold mica to turn it yellow, though I had to go on and experiment a little and misjudged a shimmery color that was a little too beige, turning it a very boring color instead. :))
Anyway, if you want to make these on your own, let me know where in the world you live (generally; NE U.S. is good enough) and I'll tip you on what to buy and where from (as well as what newbie mistakes you might tend to make with this project, because it's no fun to screw up and be out the money). I have some very favorite places to shop, but sometimes, shipping or other considerations lead me to my third and fourth choices, which are still pretty nice.
1. I started not saying when other people were having birthdays or wishing birthday wishes on the internet a while ago due to privacy concerns, and now with sites like Spokeo matching crap up all over the place, I'm not going to re-start. For fun, wait two weeks and search for yourself on Spokeo again, including ways other than by name, and then try to get yourself taken off--and good luck. :p
The birthday girl does not like the sides frosted; my family always frosts the sides. This cake was dangerous; I discovered the wonderful modern invention of liquid bandages. Luckily, the injury was nasty but missed any important bits, making this the third time in a year that I've seriously considered the emergency room but discarded the idea as too expensive without insurance.
I also made body butter, and if you want to find out more about that and how to make your own, I'll put that and a couple of big pictures behind the cut.
First, on Saturday night, I played with a recipe I'd seen at http://soap-queen.blogspot.com/2010/01/easy-whipped-shea-butter.html -- I had the raw materials and I found this really interesting because I'd been avoiding using shea butter. I tend to not be as big on butters--solids at room temperature--as on oils, generally liquid at room temperature. Shea is notorious for turning grainy, and the generally accepted procedure is to heat it until it melts (in the upper 80s or mid-90s F) and then cool it very quickly. If you've ever had a grainy lotion or lip balm, you'll know that this doesn't always work! It won't hurt you, and just putting on that lotion or lip balm will usually melt the crystals, but it's no fun.
So! I melted the coconut oil (which is obtainable in most grocery stores--and you want the one that's white-ish and solid until it hits 76 degrees, not the fractionated kind that is clear and watery, as much as I really love that stuff), and put 5.1 oz in a big metal bowl. As it happened, I had 16 oz of shea butter, so I put all of it in, hoping that would give this temperature-sensitive mix a little more stability (mine: refined, white, deodorized; I wanted to color it and scent it without interference and I don't really believe that I'm missing out on anything by getting it after processing, though if I liked the scent of shea, I'd definitely just get it in its natural, yellow, nutty-smelling state--I tend to not believe claims about what Natural This or That will do for you beyond skin-softening or scenting or scrubbing or drying out). Anyway, I did *not* melt the shea butter, which was sort of like cold Crisco--actually, I did melt it for about 15 seconds in the microwave just to soften it, because I was having a hard time getting it out of the deep, narrow tub, but I didn't turn it into oil. (I'd probably adjust this recipe if I thought I was going to be somewhere very warm, but for now, this is nice.) Anyway, you might be able to find shea butter at your local natural foods market, or I could give you some recommendations on where to get it mailed to you for not too much. For something like this, you might actually want to have it mailed to you from a company that sells a lot of it, and therefore, has a high product turnover and is probably selling you the freshest stuff possible. It all has a shelf life, and it sucks to end up with something that goes rancid in a few months because it's at the end of its time.
I couldn't get my bottle of a particular kind of preservative open. This doesn't *need* one, though an antioxidant to prevent rancidity would have been nice--I simply forgot! A few drops of rosemary oil or the insides of a capsule or two of Vitamin E would work. Beyond following as much of the FDA good manufacturing guidelines as possible in my own space, I'd want the reassurance of having something to prevent mold, yeast, and bacteria in the mix if I were selling this. It's not a good place to grow bugs, as this mixture doesn't contain any water, but I tend to wash my hands and then grab lotion, so there's a possibility that I could make my own science experiment. For now, I'll just have to wash and dry carefully before using. But, yeah, this isn't a lotion, which is in the range of 70-85% water and the rest other stuff--and notoriously hard to preserve. If you see someone selling a lotion with no preservatives, don't buy it. You wouldn't rub raw meat on yourself; why rub in something that is probably growing nasties, even if you can't see them yet?
So, I fired up the handheld mixer and started creaming the mixture together. I started at medium and used the high setting for just a few minutes, whipping for a total of ten minutes until I was happy with the texture. I ended up with six jars, about 3.5 ounces in each. I bought those jars on clearance, so I can't tell you how big they were supposed to be, but obviously, there was a lot of volume for the weight. My guess is that those were 5-6 oz. jars. You could certainly use tupperware or something for yourself.
Nuts for cake are in the corner; I'd never have stuff like that out if I were going to send anything like this outside my household, btw.
Theoretically, I ought to have mixed in my preservative (if I wanted one), skin-safe fragrance oil or essential oil, and a bit of mica (or FD&C lakes, but I never have those) if I wanted color before putting into jars. That would make everything the best, smoothest, and most consistent.
Instead, I gave all but one to the birthday girl, and we made them all different scents and colors!
The one in the picture is mine; I added a drop of cyclomethicone because I wasn't entirely happy with the feel, and then some fragrance that makes it smell like a pineapple Lifesaver. :)) I also added pinches of gold mica to turn it yellow, though I had to go on and experiment a little and misjudged a shimmery color that was a little too beige, turning it a very boring color instead. :))
Anyway, if you want to make these on your own, let me know where in the world you live (generally; NE U.S. is good enough) and I'll tip you on what to buy and where from (as well as what newbie mistakes you might tend to make with this project, because it's no fun to screw up and be out the money). I have some very favorite places to shop, but sometimes, shipping or other considerations lead me to my third and fourth choices, which are still pretty nice.
1. I started not saying when other people were having birthdays or wishing birthday wishes on the internet a while ago due to privacy concerns, and now with sites like Spokeo matching crap up all over the place, I'm not going to re-start. For fun, wait two weeks and search for yourself on Spokeo again, including ways other than by name, and then try to get yourself taken off--and good luck. :p