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Holy mold! Cupcake bombs and icing!


ah-soy

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Very surprised to find out that when I ice my cupcake bathbombs mold starts growing between the top of the cake and the icing.

I've made bath bombs for years and have never had mold issues. I just started making them in cupcake shapes and tinkering with icing recipes.

I made the regular old royal icing recipe...yep mold grew. Whipped up some melt and pour with foaming bath butter and those molded also.

What they heck can be going on? The cupcakes were bone dry before I iced them. In fact a couple of weeks of curing time. The only thing I can think of is the water in the icing is not getting along with the oils in the bomb recipe.

Anyone else have this happen?

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Wish I could post a pic but I tossed them all when I found the mold :(

The mold was growing just on the top of the cupcakes, below the icing, but not on the icing. It must be the water in the icing because I've never had mold occur with my tried and true bathbomb recipe.

I used two icing recipes that I found specifically for cupcake bombs and neither one called for a preservative.

The first was just the regular old royal icing recipe...powdered sugar, meringue powder, and yeppers...water. The other was the WSP recipe for cupcake icing with melt and pour, foaming bath whip and glycerine...probably glycerine overload there.

I was wondering if anyone else who makes iced cupcake bombs has ever found mold?

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Nope cuz even if it doesn't say to add a preservative, I still add it.

I even add preservative to body butters made with all butters and oils.

I know what NOT to do... but once it leaves my hands, I have no control over how it is handled.

same here. I have a preservative in my whipped shea, and in my lotion abrs and balms. Only thing I havent added a preservative to are my roll on perfumes and bubble bars, but before I put them online I may. Up until now I've only sold locally and really didnt have to worry about humidity.. but say I send a bubble bar to someone in the PNW, it could grow mold in that different humidity, and I know you (Ah-Soy) said you had some bubble bars in the past that molded). So better safe than sorry.

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There is bacteria in one of your oils. They should not mold. You should not need a preservative either if they dry completely. But it doesnt hurt.. Test your oils. There isnt enough water in those to grow bacteria. Unless you used green water. I test all my new oils and I had some Shea butter that was bad.. Not good

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I do the petri dish.. with agar.. But I play mad scienist... LOL I think that the snowdrift would work for oils also. Email him and ask...

I have also a lot of people asking how I got the blood out of the emu oils.. I think I should ask any of you that got that oil form Land of milk and Honey to please do this step.

( You are making lotion with blood if you dont)

Maybe if enough people did this.. they could email them and complain.. because it is just not up to pharmacy grade, really.

Ok, Take a pot and dump the emu oil in , then add that much water. Equal amounts. Then bring it to a med boil for 5 mintues. Then remove it from the heat. Let it rest for about an hour. Then pop it into the freezer for two days. Then take a knive and cut it up. The water will be at the bottom, with the impurities. You can see the proteins and floaties.. yuck.. right, But this way it will clean up the oil.

I have done this process for about 11 years now. Amazing what you will find. EPIC called me and Cheryal ask me what did you do to your oil.. and I said why. She said that my oil I sent to them was purer than the process in which they did. All I did is just render it .. the process above.

Of course veg oils wont have blood in them.. but it will take out the immpurties some. With the naked eye you wont see them either.. but they are there.

Edited by van_yulay
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I'd be interested in where you get the petri dishes with the agar stuff...

I've bought them from here before..

http://www.xump.com/science/PetriDishesWithAgar.cfm?SID=25

its like a kids toy kit, but it works! I send my finished stuff off the sagescript but I can test my oils here this way.

Edited by LuminousBoutique
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I have also a lot of people asking how I got the blood out of the emu oils.. I think I should ask any of you that got that oil form Land of milk and Honey to please do this step.

( You are making lotion with blood if you dont)

Can you explain this statement please ??

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Hmmmm....I wonder if that was it? Come to think of it, all of my test cupcakes were scented with vanilla scents, but I just left the icing unscented. Maybe the same problem but in reverse. It was brown just under the icing and nowhere else. I thought it had to be mold due to the water in the royal icing....perhaps just browning due to vanilla.

I am experimenting now with foaming bath butter with some meringue and kaolin in it...tests are looking good, but have some more tweaking to do. I tried several recipes with th FBB and melt and pour and both were awful, rubbery soap!

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I tried that horrible FBB/MP frosting recipe too! :angry2: It seems to be making it's rounds on the web. The best public service I can do for people is to spread the word--don't bother! That recipe is such an expensive waste of ingredients!! Best of luck on the latest try--that frosting is a bugger, isn't it?

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You are so right about a waste of expensive ingredients! What a crock the recipes are...IMO from all 3 major suppliers. Guess they are trying to sell as much product as they can, but those recipes won't help.

Oh yeah...so right also about the icing being a royal PITA!

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  • 4 weeks later...

I have finally mastered the cupcake frosting technique, but each and every time that I've checked the icing, mold has started to grow in between where the bomb and icing meet. I have iced the bombs as soon as I packed them, allowed them to dry 24 hours before icing them, ensured that ALL my utensils (only used for b&B) are sterilized, worn gloves, etc...I can't for the life of me figure out why they keep molding. I have tried Optiphen Plus in my icing, but the oily consistency in the preservative makes for a horrible icing....Do you know what I could possibly be doing wrong?? I've already spent tons of $$ on cupcakes alone, just to have them mold in a few days...Are there any dry, powder preservatives that would be fit for this recipe? Thanks for your help and suggestions. Here is a pic attached of the finished, dried cupcakes that eventually molded...I didn't take a pic of the mold but have some drying and will take one should they mold too....

post-11882-13945846652_thumb.jpg

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Ashee Beans posted what might be happening (page two of this thread). She had trouble with vanilla scents browning in between the icing and cupcake. Sure enough, all my cupcakes had a lot of vanilla notes in them and they all browned...I thought it was mold at first also.

I made another batch of cupcakes and icing with an FO with no vanilla notes and guess what...no browning! It's been weeks now and cakes are fine. LouLou Girl has had some luck using WSP Vanilla Neutralizer in her vanilla scented bubble bars so I am going to order some and try it with my vanilla fo's and cupcakes.

I want to use some bakery scents in these and almost all of those have vanilla in them.

Edited by ah-soy
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