ENTRY THREAD for the April 2024 Challenge - Cake!

[KiwiMoose]

As a reminder, this entry thread is for challenge entries only. Please post any and all comments to the general challenge thread, here.
The first photo in your entry thread post will be used as the entry photo for the voting survey. The entry photo can include as many bars of soap as you wish. Please refer to the competition rules in the intro post here if you have any questions in general about the challenge requirements.
Your entry post may also include additional photos and information about your design, process, fragrance or inspiration.

Special note: We love to see your soap photos, but please keep photo dimensions in mind when posting. Photos that appear full screen size on a laptop or desktop screen may exceed the dimensions of an iPad or tablet screen by 2x or more, which makes it harder for some of us to enjoy your entry soap photo the way you intended.

Please note:
* The entry thread will close on April 28 at 11:59 PM GMT.
* The voting survey link and password will be emailed to all registered participants shortly thereafter.
* The voting survey will remain open until April 29 at 11:59 PM GMT, or until all registrants have voted, whichever is sooner.
* The winner will be announced by April 30 by 11:59 PM GMT.

 

[AliOop]

Ok, ok, I'll go. Here is my Ciaglia Funfetti cake soap. I'm calling it Birthday Cake in honor of KiwiMoose's birthday month.

Complete with piped pink (soap) frosting, this is scented with (what else but) Vanilla Cupcake FO, toned down with a bit of Mochalata to balance out that bakery sweetness. This was a good opportunity to use up some of my vanilla stabilizer!

The first of the two smaller pictures is the same as the large one. Thought I'd post in both sizes just in case the first one is too large.

I had a lot of fun making the main soap, but was reminded during piping why I don't pipe frosting, be it buttercream or soap. Let's just say that improper and unladylike words may have been spoken.

Good luck to all, and thank you @KiwiMoose for being born and for hosting this fun challenge.

 

[dmcgee5034]

I made an itty bitty batch of GM soap to try out the teeny tiny guest loaf mold I bought on sale from WSP - it only holds 300g of batter. I already eluded to the wacky soaping session I had, but if you missed it…. I drew a design, did the math on %s and grams of batter for each part, then made my soap batter and got to a lovely stable emulsion when it hit me that I didn’t have a FO picked out or my micas prepped. Ay caramba, face palm! Run back and forth, look up FO usage rate, forget micas and have to run back yet again - sound familiar anyone?
Luckily I was using a lard heavy recipe that gave me lots of time to scramble around and get back on track. I used NS Blackberry Ambrosia for the FO. My design plan was to recreate a family favorite - homemade yellow cake with chocolate frosting, decorated for a birthday with little piped pink flower buds and green leaves.
Hope it was a great birthday, @KiwiMoose - here is the cake I made in your honor!

Here is the full batch of 3 little bars, just for fun.

 

[Firefly24]

As a former cake baker & instructor, I decided to literally make a cake. I made a batch of CP soap and poured into 2 silicone molds. I used Queen of the night from MWFC. I wanted to try layering a little mica and see how it looked, however, the soap was setting up fast so I really had to hurry. I then unmolded the layers and contemplated for weeks how I would "Decorate" them. I decided to use soap dough with an extruder and make confetti and loopy loops. The soap dough recipe did not have an FO in it. Then off to finding a recipe for "frosting." I used one from Brambleberry. It took me 2 hours holding a hand mixer for it to set up to the proper consistency. I almost gave up thinking it was a flop. I will share the recipe if anyone wants it but surely use a stand-up mixer. I may have to eventually buy one. I used Fruit Loops as the FO from Hive & Honey Candle Co. It smells so sweet & yummy! That FO behaved awesomely. I made this for all of us celebrating a Birthday in April. Cheers!

 

[basti]

decided to hop in the challenge since i haven't been making much soap lately (those oil prices ?!)

this month i made a coffee cake soap with piped frosting. the base is ciaglia made from brown/tan/white scraps, the dark specks are coffee grounds, and i used coffee as the liquid. probably one of the grossest smelling lye waters i've ever had

FO is a mixture of WSP's Vanilla Chai Latte and Doop's Ube Cake. i also used some natural cocoa butter since it's been sitting around my supply cabinet for ages, but i don't think much of the scent survived. the color is a mix of cocoa powder and dark fragrance discoloration from the Vanilla Chai Latte. frosting is a dash of Honey Blush mica with no added FO.

i've never piped frosting (soap or otherwise) and this is only my second time using my piping bags (previously i made flowers). i definitely don't see a future where i make a bunch of frosted soaps but it's good to try new things.

happy birthday to all the april folks. most of my family are march/april babies so we've been in a non-stop birthday queue recently.

 

[Tammyfarms]

My inspiration this month was a combination of a Bundt cake and a swirl cake. The last picture is my inspiration. I used three colors, 40% natural, 50% cocoa powder and 10% a blend of sparkle gold mica mixed with bronze brown. Fragrance is BB Dark Chocolate mixed with Mocha from a local supplier. The FO discolors so it is only in the dark batter.

 

[Zuleika]

Abandoned my first 2 attempts in favor of cupcakes.

Tea for 2.

 

[CLMP]

Hi everyone so for @KiwiMoose 's B-Day, I made a Banana Cream Chocolate Mousse birthday cake! . I made a oatmeal, cocoa soap and it turned out really nice! So I used half and half Banana Cream Pie F/O from Suds n' Scents and Chocolate Mousse F/O from Candora Soap and boy oh boy does it smell delicious it's a really good combination! For color I used my usual main ingredient extra virgin olive oil with TD to make my off white or cream color, for my chocolate color I used one tsp of Coffee Mica from Suds n' Scents with one tsp of cocoa and 1/4 tsp of charcoal per pound. Then I just made layers and used my banana embeds with Stars instead of candles.

Happy Birthday Kiwi I hope you had a good one!

 

[Cindy D.]

Happy birthday @KiwiMoose! And everyone else with an April birthday! This is lemon blueberry cheese cake.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Thank you everyone. The entry thread is now closed - pending admin assistance to move Sudds' challenge entry over from the other thread.
As it is the middle of my work day here in NZ, I will put together all the voting stuff this evening after work.

 

[AliOop]

I am copying and pasting Sudds' entry over to this Entry thread, so KiwiMoose can close the challenge.

SUDDS SAYS: Finally, I finished my cake! It took a lot longer than I thought it would and looks a lot worse than I thought it would! I am just going to describe it as if you were going to eat it at my house...much easier!

I would call this a Neapolitan cake with a twist. The lower cake is a raspberry cake with a layer of lightly flavored raspberry cream covering the top, the middle layer is a vanilla layer with a layer of raspberry seedless slightly sweet jelly on top of it, and the top layer is a moist chocolate cake that enhances the characteristics of the raspberries. The entire cake is covered in a light covering of Italian Meringue Buttercream. Enjoy your April Birthdays, I quite enjoyed mine! I guess photo #4 looks most like a cake.

 

[KiwiMoose]

Congratulations winners!
1st Place: @Cindy D.
2nd Place: @Firefly24
3rd Place: @Sudds

It looks the voters went for the actual 'cake' submissions. But they were all fantastic and I had many comments about how wonderful they were and how hungry everybody was!

 

[AliOop]

Congrats to the winners and all entrants- I get cravings each time I look at the entry pics!

And thank you @KiwiMoose for a great challenge. My soap cart thanks you for getting me to use up all those shreds, too!

 

[Tammyfarms]

Congratulations everyone! Beautiful soaps.

 

[Shelley D]

Congratulations to all of you! I love all of the submissions ~ especially the ones with chocolate! So if anyone wants to send a slice of their chocolate creations this way, I will not complain!
Happy birthday to everyone who shares the greatest birth month of the year with me
And Happy Soaping!

 

[MomInWA]

I am continuously amazed by the talent and creativity on this board! Congratulations to the winners! Must’ve been so hard to choose. Well done, everyone!

 

[basti]

it's a piece of cakecakecakecakecake

congrats to the winners!

 

[dibbles]

Congratulations to the winners! I truly loved all the entries and I think everyone did an outstanding job. Happy birthday to the April babies, and happy un-birthday to the rest of us (my grandma would celebrate siblings un-birthdays along with the birthday kid).

 

[dmcgee5034]

What a fun challenge, @KiwiMoose - thank you for being our host!

Congrats everyone - all the entries were creative, fun and yummy looking.