Mimi Makes Bath Melts

The first thing I should warn you is that if you are going to make these bath melts as gifts, as I did, and if you are going to present them in a little cellophane bag tied with pink and gold ribbon, then you really need to label them too! One poor lady thought they were some kind of truffle and took a bite! Happily there is nothing in them to hurt your tummy, they just really don't taste good! I made about 60 bath melts, each a bit bigger than a big brussel sprout, but smaller than a golf ball...but the lovely thing about this recipe is that you can pretty much suit yourself (As you will see, as to make these as I made them, you have to make a mistake in the making of them!) Making these is a lovely way to spend a rainy January afternoon, but you will need to plan ahead as you are likely to need to order some provisions. I used www.bathbomb.biz but you may find somewhere else that sells what you need.

Provisions:

4tbsp cocoa butter
2tbsp cream of tartar
4tbsp bicarbonate of soda
2tbsp cornflour
6 drops essential rose oil
dried rose petals

(Note...I bought about 100g of each from the website)

The first thing I did was to misread my directions, even though I read them three times! I thought that I had to measure 4tbsp of cocoa butter into a pan and melt it, then add the rose oil, then add this to the sifted dry ingredients before stirring in the rose petals, then 3tbsp more of cocoa butter. My clue that I had gone wrong was when I did this, and rather than having a stiff dough that I could knead, I had a thick soup!

Upon reading the recipe again, I realised I should have melted 1 tbsp of the 4tbsp of cocoa butter and added the rose oil to that, then added the remaining 3tbsp of cocoa butter. No wonder it was such a soup!

Luckily, I had plenty of ingredients left, and I realised I had more or less doubled the oil that I should have used, so I added in another quantity of all the dry ingredients. It was still far too wet though, so I blended some porridge oats to a fine powder and stirred in enough to make the stiff dough, then rolled the mixture into balls, then rolled the balls in more dried rose petals and then chilled them.

They are are beautifully scented, and you would really only want one in a bath at a time. They fizz and dissolve, then release the rose petals, and leave a sheen of rose oil on the water surface which moisturises the skin. Blissful!

(Just in case you want to follow the actual recipe, not my muddle, sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl. Melt 1tbsp of cocoa butter and stir in the rose oil. Add this to the dry mixture, then stir to mix, then stir in the remaining cocoa butter, and knead lightly. Roll into bowls, rolling in more rose petals is optional. In this version, you don't need porridge oats!)

Of course, the most important thing is to make some extra bath melts, so you have some to, ahem, test drive! If I make these again, as well as labelling them, I may give the with a candle, and perhaps a pretty cup and saucer or a pretty bath hat! Happy making!