Soap Piping Won't Stick

by Liz
(New Zealand)

I made 2 soap cakes yesterday. I cut them today. They had set up beautifully and look spectacular but as I was cutting some of the piping lifted. It didn't shatter or anything horrible like that, it just lifted clean off the top of the cake.

I spritzed the top with isopropyl alcohol before piping and there wasn't too much time delay between the cake making and piping, probably about 1/2 an hour.

The same soap recipe was used to pipe as what I used for the cake.

My batters were made at the same temp, just the time delay was involved.

Because it had TD in it I did what I had been told to do and popped it in the fridge for a couple of hours then back inside covered and left overnight on the bench.

They look gorgeous and smell divine, just a bit of the top has separated from the main body.

What have I done wrong for this to happen??

I don't want to attempt another one till I understand what I did wrong.

Is there anyway of sticking the bit back on?

I did joke with my hubby that I would use the hot glue gun or araldite but I won't so don't panic!

Thanks for any help you can give an guide me on the way to making even better soap cakes.

liz

Answer:

I'm afraid that I haven't played around with soap frosting!

You would think that after all these years I would have but for some reason I've not done so.

Because of this I don't really know what you could do to fix it or to avoid the soap from pulling off.

I did a bit of searching but couldn't find anything other than making the frosting and nothing about stopping it from lifting off the cake.

I do wonder if putting the soap in the fridge might have been part of the problem. The heat generated by the saponification process would, I think, help the soap parts bond better...I could be wrong of course.

I'm posting this question as a page in hopes that one of our readers will have some suggestions for you. I'm quite curious now myself.

Cathy