Sunday 27 November 2011

Bah humbug!

I am definitely not a Scrooge when it comes to Christmas, and this afternoon I have been getting into the festive mood making a batch of Bah Humbug lip-balms.

I decorated the pots with some black straight line peel-offs, and am going to make some humbug/scrooge themed labels for the top.
The recipe I used was:
Melt 12g beeswax, 12g cocoa butter and 18g shea butter in a bowl/jug over a pan of hot water.Add 42g sweet almond oil and 12g honey and stir gently.
Take off the heat and add essential oils (I added 14 drops, which smells good and minty but has a slight tingle when you use it).
Keep stirring with a spoon or a milk-frother until it cools (otherwise the honey will separate), and when it starts to thicken pour it into little jars or tins.
This makes 6 x 15g jars, with a bit left in the jar. If the mixture sets in the jar, just heat it up again.

I also made some orange lip-balms, but I tried to add orange colouring and discovered that was not oil-soluble and started to separate :-S I had to remix each pot, so now it doesn't have a smooth surface :-(

I feel like I'm making good progress so far, and its not even December. I have ideas on how I am going to label and wrap my gifts as well, which is almost more exiting than making them!

Gift list 2011
Dad - knitted hot water bottle cover, fingerless gloves
Stepmum - scarf, lip-balm, bath bombs
Brother - travelcard case, ???
Future sister-in-law - scarf, lip-balm
Cousin - knitted hat, lip-balm
Cousin - travelcard case, edible something?
Aunts - lip-balm, bath bombs etc in a bag
Uncle - edible something?
Grandparents - edible somethings?

I'm unsure what I can make for my grandparents that would be appreciated - they are all in care homes with various levels of memory and physical problems so not sure what they would actually use apart from something edible. Does anyone have any sweet/biscuit recipes that stay fresh a long time (at least a week)?

2 comments:

  1. There's a great Rachel Allen recipe for ginger and chocolate biscuits, you could probably find it on the BBC food website, they're really yummy! Usually make mine with crystallized ginger.

    Where do you get your ingredients for the lip balms? Really like the stripy jars!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I made Snickerdoodles for a Thanksgiving party last Saturday (I live in the UK, so the 4th Thursday of November is still a work day!). I just ate a leftover one and it still tastes great. You might try one of recipes for these on allrecipes.com. I used my granny's recipe but, having had a little tidy since making them I cannot find the little recipe card!

    ReplyDelete