URGENT! Help making bathbombs please...

[Katherine]

Help! I'm having a crisis. I'm meant to be making tiny christmas tree bathbombs for the school fair. I'm up to my eyes in citric acid and bicarb and its all going wrong.

I added the food colouring and instead of going a lovely purple its some of it is brownish and some is grey. As I added the colouring it kept fizzing so I decided to chuck it into the blender to mix, but then I cut my finger on the blade and now with the citric acid I am hovering around the cieling.

I've got the stuff in the ice cube tray but it keeps rising. Every time I look its bigger. Looks like its going to take over the kitchen. Have I blown it. Do I need to chuck this load away or will it still fizz (despite its unattractive colour).

What do I need to do differently for the next batch?

Also will it go harder as it sets? The bombs I buy are like rock but even though I keep squashing this down it doesn't feel hard enough.

Ouch Ouch Ouch my finger.
Help please!

have a look here

Thanks Corrina - its not as easy as they make it sound although I have now made another batch and they have turned out much better. Green trees this time with sparly stars in them.

Lessons I have learned for anyone else who fancies having a go:

1. Make sure your ice cude tray or mold is completely dry before use. Sounds obvious but the moisure stays in the nooks and crannies!
2. I am using food colouring as I have it in the cupboard. I found this was enough to bind the mix - didn't need any more water.
3. If you are mixing colours (like my blue and red to make purple) do it before you add them, they don't mix otherwise.
4. NEVER NEVER try to do this with a cut on your finger. Its just too painful!

All that said my little sparkly green trees look fab and its not hard once you know how. I got the ingredients from the chemist as it was cheaper to buy the larger amounts needed. This is great fun to do with kids and washing up afterwards is exciting too!

are they quite easy to make otherwise, when i read the link thought we could make them for ds1 teacher at school, and are they cost efficient (sorry that the accountant in my talking)

Pretty much. I used citric acid from the chemist which was £5 for 500g. The bicard I already had but you can buy it the same way.

I made a small amount - enough to fill one ice cube tray which was:
150g bicarb
50g citric acid
colouring
glitter
lavander oil
tiny spray of water if needed.
Basically you mix it all together and squash it into the molds. Just be careful not to add too much fluid or else it fizzes up.
I found green food colouring looks best - but then it is trees!

All that said my mix this time seems very crumbly so I've still not quite cracked it. Not sure why. I wonder if the other recipe on that page which uses a bit of oil might help it bind togther a bit more

The other thing I've made which was even easier was festive fat balls. Using the same christmas tree ice cude tray I melted a bit of lard and suet and then added a load of bird seed. 10 minutes in the fridge and they have set enough to push out. They look really dinky. I might thread them on strings to hang up but they could just be popped on the bird table.

Just letting you know. The last batch I made looked really crumbly again so I put them on the windowsill in disgust and vowed not to make any more. But when I looked again a few hours later they had hardened off and popped out beautifully. So my gripes about getting the mix right where just me being impatient - you just need to leave them a few hours to set. I am really pleased with them in the end.