Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Valentine Truffles

Finished Soap Truffles
This year for valentines I decided that the perfect valentines soap would be truffles.  I think that the perfect gift is something that won't require a diet after enjoying.   ;)
Formed centers

I started by making a 3 lb batch of soap and split it in 6 parts.  Each part was about 12 ounces each.  I scented and colored each part differently.

I chose a variety of scents.  I went with mocha, espresso,  raspberry, peppermint, hazelnut toffee, and vanilla.  This gives a nice variety for people to choose from.  I plan to sell these in a pack of four or six.

Ready to coat   
After getting all of the centers ready and giving them two days to make sure that they are good and solid before handling further.  I wanted to be sure that they did not get crushed accidentally.  After getting the centers laid out for the first two scents I realized that the paper liners were not going to work.  The paper liner would stick to the sides of the truffle and make them look unattractive.

The soap for coating ready to mix.  I use cocoa for colorant.
Once I got the batch of coating made, not a simple task, I started trying to coat the centers.  The task was made more difficult because I had taken the coconut oil into the house so that I could start doing inventory and I had fits trying to remember where it had gotten put.  On top of that, my space is only heated with space heaters, and it takes a while to get the area warmed up.

Anyway, after the soap thickened up enough to actually coat the soap centers, I started covering the centers.  I used two spoons to completely cover the centers.  This allowed me to get the centers completely covered without ending up with excess soap on the truffles.  This ensures a neat and finished appearance.  Unfortunately if you try to use the soap before it is thick enough, you can see the color of the soap center right through the soap coating, as you can see below.
When the soap is too thin you can see
the color of the center through the
coating soap.  

Mocha truffles
I went through the centers on scent at a time and put the topping to identify each one separately.  For the mocha truffles, I went with simple cocoa powder.  For the espresso, I went with a finely ground coffee.  For the peppermint, I used a green mica sprinkled on top.  For the raspberry, I sprinkled the top with a dark pink cupcake sugar.  For the vanilla I used a gold mica sprinkled over the top.  Last but not least I added gold mica to a little bit of the brown soap while it was still thin and drizzled it over the top.  Since the outside scent is the same, this will allow me to get the correct scents without having any confusion.
Truffles