Creamy Coconut Soap



I made this coconut soap recipe to add to the Christmas hampers I prepared for the festive season.  It was the first time I had attempted to make soap and I’m pleased to say it worked out rather well for a first attempt.   Here is what I did -

Items needed
680g Coconut Oil
227g Cocoa Butter
454g Spring Water
163g Caustic Soda/Lye otherwise known as Sodium Hydroxide
10g Essential Oil I used Rosewood*
Large Bucket or Enamel Pot
Stainless steel pan to melt the oil
Moulds
Whisk or Spoon
Rubber Gloves
Protective Eye Equipment
Kitchen Thermometer or 2

* Please note I naively didn't understand the ethical implication of using Rosewood Oil and have since found out that this is now an endangered tree, so I would advise to use another oil such as howood or holeaf.

Step 1
Grease the mould/moulds you have chosen to use

Step 2
Put the Coconut Oil and Cocoa Butter into the stainless steel pot and melt over a low heat until melted then remove from the heat.

Step 3
Pour the water into the bucket or enamel pot and wearing the gloves and eye protection add the caustic soda and stir until dissolved.  This will create heat and steam so it’s a good idea to either do this outside or in a well ventilated area as it can be really toxic and can easily catch the back of your throat which doesn’t make you feel good.

Step 4
Now you need to wait until the temperature in both pots/pans become equal and range between 120f and 140f.   I found this the most difficult step as the oil takes a while to drop in heat but the caustic soda reaches a high temperature quickly but decreases quickly so I ended up remaking the water/caustic soda mix to balance the temperatures well.  I only had one thermometer too which meant using it in both pots.  If you want to fork out on two it will make life easier but with patience you can make do with one.

Step 5
Once both pots have an equal temperature you need to add the oil to caustic soda mix and stir occasionally until the mixture reaches trace, which should happen at about 30 minutes. 

Trace is a stage in the soap making process where the mixture suddenly thickens and is ready to place within the moulds.   This is the point where a drizzle of mixture leaves a line on the surface.

Step 6
Once the mixture has reached trace, before you pour it into the moulds you now need to add the essential oil you have chosen.

Step 7
It is now time to pour it into the mould whilst leaving a half an inch gap at the top off the mould to allow for movement.  I used a rubber mould as it was much easier to carefully pull this back when the soap had solidified.

Step 8
Cover with a blanket and leave to solidify for 24 hours before turning out the soap onto a hard surface and cutting into bars.  Remember that the soap is still not ready for use yet so you should use gloves at this stage too.

Step 9
Leave the soap for 4 weeks to cure before use by covering with a blanket again.  

Step 10
If you are selling or giving your soap as gifts you can now wrap and decorate them.  I used brown paper and cream ribbon as I felt it kept within the homemade soap theme.  I also made these small tags on the computer and printed them out on photo paper.   There is so much you could do when decorating, I really enjoyed this part.

I would love to know if anyone makes this recipe, how it turns out, please comment on the post so we could share tips.

Steph x

Vintage Christmas Garland.

After all the hard work of making the Christmas hampers for my friends and family I thought I was due to make myself a Christmas craft which I can use each year.   So I made this Garland after seeing it made on a craft programme.   I had all the materials already so I only needed to but some curtain rope which I found for 59p a metre - Bargain!   This is what I did....

I cut out 10 hearts with a stencil I had kept from the Christmas Tree Button hearts.   Here are the five materials I chose, so I cut out two each.

I then used these three scented pomanders (which are no longer scented) and cut off the ribbons to use amongst the stuffed hearts.  I then got 'the machine' out, I love sewing on the machine, I mean I cannot do it very well but it gives me that self-sufficiency and homely feeling. 

And sew around the heart leaving gap big enough to put the stuffing in (about 1-1.5in.)

Then you need to stuff the bad boys......

Once stuffed you need to either hand sew them closed or pop them back under the machine like I did, its a bit tricky but it can be done. You should them have enough hearts to make your Garland.  If you are only using hearts you made yourself make around eight all together and this makes approx a 2 metre Garland.

Finally just before you tie them to the Garland you need to get some craft wire and roll it around something a few time to make it strong enough to tie the cord around, I used a prit stick.  Then sew the wire onto the top of the heart with a few stitches.

Once all eight hearts are completed you are ready to tie them all onto your cord, I used just over 2 metres to allow room for the knots and then measured the hearts evenly across tieing each into place with a overhand knot. 

And there it is my Christmas Garland - Merry Christmas x

Christmas Tree Button Hearts.



So finally I have started a hamper project which doesn't involve jam.  I was a little worried these looked quite, how shall I say it,  beginner! but I think they look quite  nice.  Especially as a first attempt hopefully my sewing skills will greatly improve as time goes on.

So to start you need to cut out 2 hearts for each decoration, approx 4x4" big.  I used a piece of 18" by 18" white felt which gave me 20 hearts, (making 10 decorations in total.)

Next you need to find as many red buttons as you can possibly find, I used about 6 buttons on each heart and I thought it looked best to try and put as many different shapes and sizes on each heart as possible.

Now you need to sew these in place with some red cotton, remember to only fill 10 or half of the hearts as the backs will be plain.   Note... You could always use different colour combinations for these but I saw these in white and red and thought it gave that Christmas wonderland feel to them.

Once you have sewn all the hearts on you need to blanket stitch around the heart all the way leaving a gap to put your stuffing in.  This is usually done to about three quarters of the way around.  Once you have used your polyester filling to stuff the heart stitch it up and your almost done.

Note... A good tip I have been told is if you need to use polyester filling for anything, instead of paying for a bag in crafts shops where it is usually expensive you could buy either a cushion insert or a cushion which you find on sale.   If you end up buying a cushion like I did you can use the material on the cover for your next craft project.

Once you have completed the heart all that is left to do is buy a length (approx 2m of thin red ribbon, 6mm) and sew bows and loops on the the top of each heart to allow them to be suspended from that luscious green Christmas tree.

I really enjoyed this project, I think there was something about being able to complete most of this while sitting in front of the television.   On to the next project now which is soap, Creamy Coconut soap to be exact!
Ttfn x

Raspberry Jam for those Christmas Hampers.

So I decided to make raspberry jam to add to the hampers, I decided on raspberry because it is so tart and delicious and we needed some here in the house too.  The recipe I will put here is for a fridge jam, now I have not made a fridge jam before but my little book of preserves states that if you sterilise the jars correctly and store the jam while it is still above 90 degrees it should preserve like other jams.   Stay tuned for this confirmation.

Firstly you need 1500g of raspberries, I strongly recommend going to a fruit farm to save yourself some money as I had these on offer and I still spent £12.  You also need 750g of sugar with added pectin.

It is a good idea at this stage to wash the jars and then dry off in a low oven until bone dry, it is best to try and time the removal of the jars from the oven to match the time the jams finished.

So to start the jam you need to put half the raspberries in first and mash with a potato masher to crush it to get the juice flowing.  Once this process starts you can add the rest of the fruit and sugar .



Stir over a low heat to dissolve the sugar and bring to a rolling boil as you can see above for exactly 5 minutes or a few minutes longer if you want a firmer jam like I did.  Once this has finished remove from the heat and stir to remove the frothy bits.  (Be careful as the jam spat at me at this stage and considering the heat on the produce this could cause serious injury!

Because this jam is a low sugar jam it is important to bottle it quickly, so leave it to cool for 5 minuets to avoid the pips separating from the jelly and then get it in those hot jars and cap straight away. 

We used some of this jam in our Sunday lunch trifle, which was delicious by the way.  I think I may make some idea cards to add to the hampers which gives people ideas on what to do with jam other than to use on toast.  Although this was pretty delicious on toast with a mug of fresh Colombian coffee please see below.  Note.. for best results spread over fresh white farmhouse crusty bread.   I think I have said it all now.



Hello people out there.   Haven't posted in a while as I have been busy planning and buying my items for these hampers.   My main item which I am extremely excited about is this rather shiny, sexy and very sturdy maslin pan.  

I decided to buy this after ..............  Wait for this I won some money on my works lottery bingo!!!  Something that never happens, me winning anything that is.   I decided to treat myself and managed to grab a bargain from a rather well know Internet site which sells many things (mainly books.)  Instead of paying £49.99 rrp I paid £27.99, fantastic.    I haven't used it yet but I am planning on making raspberry jam tomorrow so will be posting this recipe soon.

I am also finally underway with my first sewing project for my Christmas hamper, white felt pillow hearts with cute buttons.   I will post these this week too. 

I am still wondering if I have any readers, but I am enjoying writing this blog and will continue to do so.  If you are out there please drop me a line.   Its nice to know what people think.

Merry meet, merry part and merry meet again.

x

My dab at Oil Painting.

I painted this picture about three years ago now.  It was the first painting I had ever attempted as a project and I only did one more after this.  I must point out I had great help from a professional who I co-facilitated a group with during my work with mental health patients.  My parents saw the picture and decided they wanted it so here all this time later and it is finally in a frame up on the wall.

I found the frame waiting for the rubbish collectors at work.  So in my car it went and here it is some time later.  You just need to be creative with a pile of unwanted goods lol.  So I suggested my father paint the frame cream and put the picture inside.  This is the finished product!  When I have some free time, after my masters, when I can breath again, I would love to take a course in painting as I really enjoyed this but for now all creative activities will have to be self-taught.

See you soon

x

Cherry Jam

Well hello people here is my first recipe I have tried, tested and enjoyed.   I decided I wanted to do something which made me feel like a 'homemaker.'   So I made Jam, whats more homely than that?  So this is what I did.

I bought 800g of cherries and washed them and de-stalked them and then pitted them.   OMG, I don't want to put you off but pitting 800g of cherries takes a while so brace yourself.  It tool around 40 minutes of hard slog until I was left with this.....

At this point you can really smell the fresh cherries and you need to start to get everything else ready.  So next you need 200g of granulated sugar and about a third of the cherries and put them in a maslin/jam pan.  I just used a  large pan because it was easy to get to and would create a large amount of heat to the mixture.

So here it is the first amount in the pan.  Now you need to get a potato masher and mush the mixture while it is heating.  You need to continue this for a while until it starts bubbling and then leave to simmer for 5 or 6 minutes, this will allow the juice to form which will help the rest of the mixture develop later on.

Next you need to add everything else, that is the rest of the cherries, another 200g of granulated sugar, 420g of jam sugar (with added pectin) and 130ml of fresh lemon juice to make the jam 'tart'.  I insisted that everything was fresh and more importantly 'authentic' so I squeezed 4 lemons which gave me about 130ml of jam.   Anything between 120ml and 140ml of jam will do depending on what you prefer. 

So your well on your way now you have added all the ingredients.  Next I took the masher again and started to squeeze all the ingredients into the heat of the bottom of the pan.  Once I has done this for a while I left the pan for 35-40minutes to cook, occasionally stirring for optimum feelings of 'homemaker baking.'

I started to panic throughout that it looks really juicy and wouldn't thinken but this was my first attempt at jam and I have to say it did work out perfectly.  In fact it was quite thick when cooled so if you prefer a more looser jam, take 5 mins or so off the cooking time and add the maximum amount of lemon juice 140ml.  As it starts to cook it will simmer and start to froth.

I used this time to sterilise my jars, it made 3 average jars ( not very helpful I know but I don't know what size they were think they were 300ml.)    I just washed them in soapy water, rinsed them and then boiled and poured the kettle to fill each on.  Just leave them for 5minutes them pour them out, this did the job for me.

Once the mixture has cooked you need to leave it for a few mins to cool, I left it about 10minutes.  Then very carefully pour the mixture into the jars.  It may be safer and easier to use a funnel or a lipped pan for this.  Then cover and leave for a further few minutes to get most of the steam out.

You can now put the lids on and pop down the tops, it worked for me but I'm not sure why so give it a go.  Then leave to cool for an hour to reach room temperature and then I popped them in the fridge while I made my labels.

So I made these labels on the computer -  it took ages and I used some printed paper for the tops as I couldn't find any suitable material and there they are my delish cherry jam pots.


I could not get all labels to line up but hey it adds to authenticity doesn't it.  This jam is Delicious if I say so myself and I have had many compliments.  Best on fresh cut bread/toast or croissants mmm.

So good luck people and see you soon.

Steph x

Merry Meet!

Hello there and thank you for visiting this blog.  I have recently been exhausting myself by making handmade hampers for my family and friends for Christmas.  I have really enjoyed preparing for the festive season and have been motivating myself to do all these crafts for this purpose so have decided to share all this with you. 

I have written blogs before, but I have not kept up with them, not thought well enough about what sort of blog I want it to be and therefore they have failed to gain followers and then lost all motivation.   This time I feel things are different.  I love the name I have given the blog - Gingerbread & Willow which I have chosen for two reasons.  Gingerbread because I love them, and love the cuteness and that 'cottage chic' type feel to gingerbread houses and gingerbread men you see.  And Willow because it is one of the most magical sacred trees you can find, the sound of the word Willow takes me back to feeling peaceful and enchanted.  

So here it is my new blog, I have decided to transfer some posts from my previous blogs across to this one so I have a good record of everything I have done and I hope that I get some more followers who will enjoying posting what they think of the projects.  So for now, have a great Christmas and I will see you soon.

Steph x