Strawberry Cream Bubble Rolls Tutorial

My first attempt at trying to roll bubble mixture to resemble a swiss roll did not turn out well. However, I tried again with a different recipe and I have to say being quick is really the key here! I waited too long and the mixture became a little dry and crumbly on me although it still managed to hold together in the end.

Ingredients:

First, you will need your favourite bubble recipe. I used this recipe although I had to substitute it with other ingredients as I didn't have Cocamide DEA or Glycerine handy. I suggest you follow the recipe as is posted by Bath and Body Supply because the pictures provided of the mixture sure look good! Basically, you want a good dough-like bubble mixture.

For these cream rolls, you will also need a red colouring agent and strawberry fragrance oil approved for cosmetic use. I used red food colouring although any safe, water soluble colour will do. Optionally, you can decorate with small candy flowers, sprinkles or hundreds and thousands.

Instructions:

First, mix up your batch of bubble mixture INCLUDING the fragrance oil but MINUS the colouring and divide equally into two bowls (Bowl A & Bowl B). Get a damp (make sure it isn't dripping wet) washcloth and lay it over Bowl A to prevent the mixture from getting too dry. Drop a couple of drops of your red colouring into Bowl B to achieve a lovely pastel pink and knead it in well until the mixture is uniformly coloured.

Lay a sheet of wax paper over your work surface, a good one to use is a large, heavy wooden chopping board. Quickly spread the pink mixture out on the wax paper and push outwards with your fingers until you have a rough rectangle that is about a centimetre thick. Still working quickly, spread the uncoloured mixture on top of the pink mixture until you have a rectangle of equal size and thickness. You may need to knead it again a few times or add just a couple of drops of glycerine to get it pliable again.

Now, here's the fun part. If you have ever rolled sushi with a sushi mat, you are going to do the exact same thing here with your bubble mixture and wax paper. Now this is a little hard to explain so I have included this link on how to roll sushi. The steps you want to pay attention to are step 4 and 5. If you have any questions, I will gladly try and answer them.

After you have rolled it up into a tight swiss roll, you are ready to cut immediately with a sharp knife and dip the top of each swiss roll in hundreds and thousands. Leave it on the wax paper to dry for a couple of days before wrapping it up and keeping it in a cool, dry place. Crumble one or two under hot running water and enjoy oodles and oodles of sweet smelling bubbles!

I hope this tutorial was helpful and that you make beautiful strawberry cream bubble rolls!

Winner!

First of all, I would like to say thank you very, very, very, very, very, very, VERY much to all who commented on my previous post. I really do appreciate the fact that you still visit my blog and I wish I could send all of you a package! However, I will have more giveaways in the future, definitely. Tomorrow, I will post a tutorial of the little candy strawberry rolls and I hope you will find some inspiration from it.

Using Random.org, the number 2 was generated. So, the winner of one fudgey soap and two strawberry cream rolls is Elizabeth Gassner!!

Congratulations! Please email me the address you would like the package to be sent to at michellecheahpeili[at]gmail[dot]com.

Thank you once again to everyone who left a comment on the previous post. Goodnight, everyone!

Chocolate Fudge and Strawberry Cream Rolls

Hello everyone! I've been gone a long, long time and my blog has been on the back burner for far too long. The past few months have been a whirlwind of activity for me. However, lately, I have been a little down in the dumps thanks to the recession. Unemployment here in Australia is rising steadily which does not bode well for a fresh graduate like me. I have been applying for work for the past few months and still nothing :(.

Oh well, enough of me whining! I actually am sorry that I have not been keeping up with my blog. I know how great it is to read a blog that is updated daily. Now by way of apology to all my loyal readers who still visit my blog, I am holding a giveaway which include some yummy goodies that I have been working on lately.



Delicious, rich, creamy chocolate fudge soap! Would you believe I ran out of coconut oil? I know, it's embarrassing. Thankfully, I still had some palm kernel oil left over.



Ingredients: Olive oil, Palm kernel oil, Castor oil, Cocoa powder, Fragrance, Tussah silk.

Next on the menu, we have Strawberry Cream Bubble Rolls!! This was an experiment on bubble bars and the mixture was a little crumbly at the end. It didn't hold together very well and was supposed to come together like dough. However, I am still pleased with the end result. I ran a few bits and pieces under the tap and there were instant bubbles! It smells really yummy as well.



Ingredients: Sodium Bicarbonate, Sodium Lauryl Sulfoacetate, Tartaric Acid, Glyceryl Cocoate, PBS Base (Aussiesoapsupplies blend), Cocamidropropyl Betaine, Fragrance, Food Colouring, Candy Sprinkles.



To enter the giveaway, all you have to do is leave a comment on this post and you will be in the running to win 1 chocolate fudge soap and 2 strawberry rolls! The last day to enter will be next Friday. Have fun!

Merry Christmas!

I'm spending my first christmas away from my family this year. Instead, I'm here in Australia spending it with Dan's family which is all well and good but I still can't help feeling I should be somewhere else.

Anyway, I came online quickly to wish everyone a Merry Christmas! I hope that everyone will have a wonderfully joyous celebration today ;)

I leave you with a picture that my dad sent me of my grandfather and my sister titled "Mandy and the Christmas Gnome".



I laughed out loud. He's the cutest grandfather in the world!

See you all very soon!

Make Your Own Solid Body Butter

My most popular blog post of all was the Make Your Own Bath Bomb post way back in November of last year. I have yet to post anymore tutorials like that and decided it was certainly time to bring back a "make your own..." tutorial.

This tutorial teaches you how to make your own exfoliating, solid body butter much like another most wanted Lush product called Buffy.



Ingredients
Fair Trade Cocoa Butter (Theobroma cacao), Shea Butter (Butyrospermum parkii), Ground Rice (Oryza sativa), Ground Almonds (Prunus dulcis), Ground Aduki Beans (Phaseolus), Perfume, Lavender Oil (Lavandula hybrida), Lemon Oil (Citrus limonum), *Citral, *Limonene, *Linalool.

Description
Scrub-a-dub-dub, get this body butter in the tub (or shower) and buff away the day's worries. Stress disappears as our lavender-scented body butter melts into your skin, making it way beyond silky. Ground rice, almonds and aduki beans exfoliate to velvety perfection as the natural butters provide maximum miniaturization. So put down your loofah, grab your Buffy, and smooth your cares away.

Buffy (Lush replica)

Makes: Two 100g bars
Difficulty: Easy

78 g refined cocoa butter (39%)
78 g refined shea butter (39%)
14 g ground rice (7%)
14 g ground almonds (7%)
12 g ground adzuki or red beans (6%)
*4 g fragrance/essential oils (2%)
mould for individual 100 g rectangular shaped bars

1. Melt the butters gently over a double boiler or in short 10-15 second bursts in the microwave.
2. Add in ground exfoliants and stir well.
3. When the mixture is warm to the touch, around 45C/115F, add in your fragrance/essential oils.
4. Allow to cool in the fridge until the mixture becomes opaque and has thickened slightly. This helps keep the exfoliants suspended in the mixture instead of sinking to the bottom when placed in the mould. Stir well.
5. Spoon the mixture into your mould and bang it down gently on the counter to get an even surface and release trapped air bubbles.
6. Put the mould back into the fridge and wait. Check back after 20 minutes and it should have hardened nicely. Pop it out of the mould and enjoy!

*the amount of each essential oil to add really depends on what you like. Lush uses lavender and lemon oil; play around with them to come up with a blend that you are happy with.

The recipe uses 80% butters (including fragrance/essential oils) and 20% exfoliants. You may adjust the percentages of butters and exfoliants to come up with a scrubbier bar or one that is less scrubby. However, I recommend not reducing the percentage of your butters to any less than 70% or it might not hold together very well. 70% butters and 30% exfoliants makes for a very scrubby bar!

This makes a very hard bar and the high content of cocoa butter will ensure your bar doesn't melt at room temperature.You should still store it in a cool, dry place when not in use especially on hot days or if you live in a tropical country. You may have difficulty rubbing it into your skin but the bar is designed to be used in a hot shower and should melt nicely.



A picture of the solid body butters I made. I used 70% unrefined butters, 30% exfoliants and omitted the use of fragrance or essential oils. You can tell it's a bit more speckly :)

The above recipe is NOT the actual Lush recipe (I wish!) but a result of experimentation by me. If you choose to republish the recipe on your site or through any other medium, a heads-up and credit back to my original recipe would be greatly appreciated!

That being said, I hope you have enjoyed the recipe and stay tuned for more Lush "Make Your Own" recipes!

Tip: If you don't have adzuki beans you can use ground coffee beans instead. Caffeine applied topically is apparently supposed to help with cellulite.

Ingredients, description and picture of Lush's Buffy were taken from Lush USA.