In a right lather

With the honey gleaned by hanging, I decided first of all to try and make some soap. For some reason the idea of honey soap had stuck in my mind and when one of the beekeeping magazines I get sent had a recipe in it for fast-hardening soap I thought I would try that. I even emailed the author, Dr Sara Robb, for more information, which she kindly supplied. I had no idea how long the process would take, so set aside a whole afternoon. I had previously acquired some moulds: honeycombed and a small elephant, as well as a baking tray for the good old square stuff.
Making soap is quite easy, but you need a few ingredients, namely three different types of oil, a mixer, caustic soda and scales, because the weights are important.

Let's make soap!

So, all equipment and ingredients prepared, I set about making soap. I prepared the lye, which is a mix of caustic soda and water, which it is better not to breathe in. While that was being nasty in its little glass jug, I mixed the oils and then mixed all together with the aid of a mixer. As soon as that was done it was simply a case of pouring the resultant custardy fluid (not that I would have wanted to taste it) into the moulds and making sure it was warm.

Wrapping the moulds up to keep them warm

To effect this I wrapped all up in towels and towels and towels. Unfortunately, as I did not know how quickly the saponification (as it is known) would take, I think I may have exposed the solidifying soap too early to the cold air of my kitchen, so that the soap did not congeal as it should have done.
At least that's what Dr Robb said when I somewhat disappointedly sent her the photos of the unevenly coloured bars of soap.

Unevenly coloured soap

Another thing that disappointed me was the fact that the soap did not at all smell of honey, although I had put in a generous helping of Ronian honey. Dr Robb (my agony aunt in this matter) said the honey in the soap recipes (yes, soap making comes in recipes) was mainly for reasons of moisturising and not for fragrance. If I wanted honey fragranced soap I would have to put in honey fragrance, as the amount of honey put in is too little to affect the aroma.

What all that means, I guess, is that I'll have to make another batch of soap. While the first batch was fine - it was all good soap and brought out a nice lather - I do want to make some improvements for the second lot. But the whole venture was exciting and if I continue in this vein I will soon join my local WI branch!