One Soap, Two Methods

A couple of weeks ago I made a lemon slice soap that I've seen around on the Internet and had a recipe for in one of my soap books. The method seemed to be pretty advanced compared to all the other soaps I'd been making. It involved three difference sized of PVC pipes into which different soaps were poured in different steps of the entire process. Looks for Laura's post detailing the steps to make these PVC fruits.

Here's what my lemons looked like when I used this method. They're not perfect but I think they're pretty cute in an abstract lemon kind of way. =)

Last weekend I came across a new method of making these cute little lemons and decided to give that a try. This method (from www.teachsoap.com) was a little more simple and was easier to control the look of the lemons because you make each slice individually as opposed to making a bunch in a big tube. Here's how it went:
1. Pour your lemon-scented base into a container like a 9 x 9 silicone baking pan or something similar. I used the plastic lid of an aluminum 9 x 9 pan. Pour just enough to only be about 1/4 inch thick. Let this harden and release from mold.
2. Get three different sized round cookie/biscuit cutters -- small, medium and large (relatively). With the largest cutter, cut as many round sections out of the soap as possible. I usually get 4 big circles out of a 9 x 9. From those 4 use the medium cutter to cut a circle out of the center of your big circles. Then, use the smallest cutter to cut a circle from the center of your medium circles. You want to hold on to the largest ring and the smallest circle. Everything else is scrap and can be set aside for later use.
3. Take the small circle and cut it into six pie pieces. To make the lemon slices look more realistic, cut just the tip of the center point of the pieces to account for the center of the lemon.
4. Now it's time to assemble. Place your wedges inside of the large "peel" ring with some space in between each. Then, pour white base all around the wedges inside the ring. Make sure this is on a very flat surface so the base doesn't leak out. You should actually inject (instead of pour) the white base with a syringe or food flavor injector. Be sure to rinse it out in hot water immediately or else the soap will set up inside the injector and render it useless.

After letting these soaps set up, you have a lovely lemon that looks like this one! Cool, huh? These ones definitely turned out more realistic than the others. I had a bit of trouble evenly injecting the white base, but I'm sure that will get easier with practice. Think of all the other fruits you can do like this! Everything from orange to apple to kiwi!

Can't wait to perfect these methods and have lots of great fruit slices to enjoy!