Such Treasures

This is a Pampered Chef flower bread loaf tube (called Valtrompia). I got it at Goodwill for $1.99. I found another flower loaf tube on the same day at another thrift store, only that one had 5 petals (called merely Flower). They were brand new. I tried to sell them twice on ebay without success. Then I saw one being used as a soap mold in my Glorybee catalog, so I gave up on trying to sell them and decided to use this one for soap.

A couple weeks ago I made soap and put half the batch in this tube. I oiled the tube before putting the soap in. It hardened, but I couldn’t get it out. Following a comment tip, I put the whole thing — tube and soap — in the freezer to see if the soap would shrink back enough to push it out. Nope. It needed more time. (Please don’t think this tip doesn’t work, though — it has helped tremendously when I get bars out of my oval molds.)

Last night, I was ready to either scoop the soap out with a spoon or throw the whole thing in the trash. (I really wouldn’t have thrown it away; I hate to waste.) But I was that frustrated. Before doing either, though, I gave it one last push. Oh, my! The soap slid right out! All it needed was time.

I sliced the bars. They are so pretty. (Although not perfect on the edges.) I think I might make these little flower shaped soaps for Christmas gifts. If I did a coffee castile soap and a green tea soap, along with these (plain castile soap), I’d end up with 3 nice earthy colored soaps. I could stack 3 bars of alternating colors and tie them up in a bit of mesh or see-through plastic with a pretty ribbon.

One thing I’d do differently is that I’d use the silicone mold release spray I recently purchased from Glorybee. I have been using that spray in conjunction with the freezer tip, and those 2 things have made getting bars out of my oval molds a complete breeze.

Note: In order to avoid warping a plastic mold, I also let my hot process soap cool off below 180 degrees before filling any plastic mold.