Terry’s Chocolate Oranges have been a Christmas constant to me for most of my life. The square little box filled with an orange foil-wrapped globe of orange-scented chocolate was usually found near the toe of my stocking, and was quickly rapped on a nearby hard surface and devoured, slice by chocolatey slice. This soap is my chocolatey tribute to Terry’s oranges and Christmas mornings.
I’ve made chocolatey soap before, relying on cocoa absolute for my chocolatey scent. I thought I’d try something different here, and work in some fragrant cocoa butter (USA / Canada) since cocoa absolute is fairly pricey, and didn’t prove all that effective.
The orange scent comes from ever-reliable 5-fold orange essential oil. The 5-fold essential oils have been concentrated so they last longer in soap—they’re definitely the best choice for citrus scented soaps. You could also blend in a bit of litsea cubeba to anchor the scent. I’ve made the whole bar brown with some cocoa powder.
These dark and fragrant bars make fantastic stocking stuffers. If you happen to have a spherical soap mould, they’d also make great mock Terry’s Chocolate Oranges, though you’d want to be sure to warn recipients not to whack ‘em and take a bite 😉
Chocolate Orange Christmas Soap
40% olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
28% cocoa butter (USA / Canada) (dark or light, but be sure it’s super fragrant)
25% refined coconut oil (USA / Canada)
7% castor oil (USA / Canada)Per 500g (1.1lbs) of oils:
- ½ tsp silk
- 1 tsp sodium lactate (USA / Canada) (optional—it hardens the bars)
- 15g | 0.53oz 5-fold orange essential oil
- 1 tbsp clay—either white kaolin or your chocolatey-est coloured smooth clay
- 4 tsp cocoa powder (or more to get the colour you want, it will become paler after saponification)
Calculate to a 5% superfat
Use SoapCalc to calculate your final amounts of oils, lye, and water based on the size of batch you want to make.
Follow my standard soap making instructions. Add the silk to the lye water, stirring to encourage it to dissolve. If using, add the sodium lactate (USA / Canada) to the lye water after it has cooled and stir to combine. If you’re using the sodium lactate (USA / Canada) I strongly encourage you let your fats and lye water come to room temperate before combining. I haven’t tried using the sodium lactate (USA / Canada) above room temperature, but I do notice a much, much faster trace than I would usually get at room temperature, and it’ll only get faster at higher temperatures.
Once your soap batter has reached trace, blend in the clay, essential oil, and cocoa powder. If you’re familiar with my All-in-One soap recipe (which tends to be the base of most of my soap recipes), you’ll find that this soap takes longer to reach trace, and longer to thicken up. Just be diligent with your stick blender (I have one from Braun that’s still going strong after five years), it’ll happen. Also, be sure you are using a stick blender to bust up and blend in all the clay and cocoa powder so you have a lovely, smooth final bar that’s free of dry clods of powder.
When your batter is relatively thick (think cake batter, not brownie batter), chocolate coloured, and orange scented, pour it into your prepared mould. Leave it to saponify for 24 hours before removing it from the mould, slicing (if required), and leaving it to age for at least 3–4 weeks.
Just a thought. If we used black clay wouldn’t it make the final bar even more like chocolate? Maybe like dark chocolate.
Hi Jennifer! I probably wouldn’t use black clay as an alternative to kaolin as it’s not really a “real” clay, and doesn’t do the same things as proper clays do (black clay is fully magnetic… weird, no?). It would also be WAY too much blackness! You could add some black clay in addition to the kaolin, or use some black iron oxide for a darker colour. Terry’s Chocolate Oranges are pretty milky, so that’s what I was aiming for.
Thanks! I have kaolin clay and black oxide powder. I must have had a deprived childhood. I’ve never eaten the candy you mentioned. I have to look for it now!
Oooh they are soo amazing!!! I am loving the idea of this soap! I think I may have to try it.
Enjoy it! 😀
Definitely keep an eye out, our shops here are swarmed with them around the holidays 🙂
Your soaps are so lovely. One of my favorite candies are the orange chocolate logs, too! So I’m very excited to make the chocolate orange soap.
What I like to do is print the recipe so I can take it to my kitchen and begin making soap. When I print your recipes often half of one page gets printed on one page and the other half of that page is printed on another page. It happens no matter what printer I use (I have a brand new one now) and this strange phenomenon only occurs on Humble Bee and Me. Is there something I could do to get all of one page printed on that page and not half of it on the next.? I appreciate any suggestions you might have for me.
I love your soap and your elegant website; it is phenomenally creative and even if this problem cannot be solved I will always be a fan of yours.
Sincerely,
Amber Noel
Thanks so much, Amber! I’m so glad you love my blog 🙂 I’ve just added a “Print Friendly” button at the bottom of every blog, along with the social shares. You can now click on that and it’ll generate a version of the page where you can remove elements (like photos) before printing. Hopefully that helps!
Ugh I just wrote out a whole blurb and then entered the wrong Captcha code and lost it all!
I Cannot WAIT to make this soap in the next couple days!! I LOVE Terry’s Chocolate Orange. I just finished and have the Blizzard soap aging in my basement (My whole house smells fantastic when I walk in!)
Everyone is getting homemade baskets this year thanks to your blog; bar soaps, hand soap, lotion, lip balm and I even made homemade jam in the summer, and homemade Bailey’s along with some other sort of baked goodies!
Figure I should put all my financial investment in this fun to good use and what better addition than some yummy chocolate orange soap!
Thanks Thanks Thanks!!
Your holiday baskets sound fantastic! It probably won’t surprise you to hear I do something similar 😉 I love handmade gifts, especially when the quality is there and you’re proud of the things you’ve made 🙂
Happy holiday making and thanks for DIYing with me! Enjoy this lovely soap 🙂
Thank you, I clicked on the Printer Friendly button and my problem got solved. Thanks for your quick response, too.
Sincerely,
Amber Noel
No worries, happy to help! Thanks for reading 🙂
Sounds so delicious! I’ve used real dark chocolate in my facial soaps, and I like them a lot that way.
OOoh, I love this idea! I think I may have to try real chocolate soap some time 🙂 Thanks!
Love this recipe, it’s very close to one I made yesterday but I used raspberry instead of the orange. Only thing I did wrong was I didn’t add enough chocolate and it came out like a light mug of hot chocolate with raspberry on top. But…..I’m gonna make this one today cause it sounds YUMMY!!!!! Thanks, I love reading your posts. Your a doll.
Thanks, Alison! Your chocolate raspberry soap still sounds lovely, even if it isn’t as cocoa-y as you’d hoped 🙂 Happy holiday soaping!
OMG! ME TOO. I love those chocolate orange balls. My girls get me one every Christmas too. I haven’t started making bar soap yet. But I wonder if we could make a liquid soap that smells that good.
Hi Sharon! I find it so funny that you make liquid soap but not bar soap because liquid soap is quite a bit harder and WAY more work. Seriously, if you can make liquid soap, you’ll find CP bar soap laughably easy! That said, you could, but I’d just add cocoa absolute and orange EO to your liquid soap base—I don’t think you’d want to use so much brittle cocoa butter in a final product that is supposed to be liquid 🙂
I first saw your website a couple of weeks ago and want to tell you how much I like it. The content you’ve developed and shared is excellent. Your writing style is clear and enjoyable. The DIY recipes and accompanying instructions are great, as are your reference articles. All in all — simply outstanding.
Thank you for sharing your expertise.
P.S. The photo of you with a teacup is lovely.
Thank you so much for your kind words, Patricia 🙂 Support from my readers means the world to me! Be sure to reach out if you ever have any questions 🙂
Your soaps are always so beautiful! I also love the stories behind them!
Omg! Terry’s chocolate oranges were a staple stocking stuffers at my house too! Love them!
They fit perfectly right in the toe 😀
I made it with sweet orange essential orange and gelled it and it turned out with such a rich chocolate brown I had to post a pic on the natural soap facebook page to show it off I was so proud. Thank you Marie. You’re such an inspiration!
Oh yay! I’m so glad you ended up with something you love 🙂
Maybe you can see it here: https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/12227122_10206934177864834_2928482962675027260_n.jpg?oh=f4b9855e63dfa8d1e54c0f036109cb58&oe=56F6BC6D
OOh, beautiful! You should share this on the Humblebee & Me Facebook page, too!
Wow! This soap looks really good! I wish I could smell it. By the way, I saw on the pictures that you use a really big water jug for your lye solution, is that for safety concerns? I really like to make my own soap, but I’m a bit concerned about working with the lye.
Hi Nyn! Thanks for reading 🙂 I use that jug ’cause I got all my soaping stuff at Value Village, and that’s what they had 😛 You’ll want something dishwasher safe, and I do find a pouring spout is very useful so you always know where your lye solution is going to go, but there’s really no great reason to get as big of a jug as I have. In fact, it’s kind of annoying to stir up an average sized solution (for my batches of soap, of course) as I have to stick my hand all the way down to the bottom with the spoon, and that definitely makes spills more likely.
All that said, though… really, lye is not that scary. If you’ve done the reading I did before I started soaping I totally understand why you’re concerned, but lye is no more dangerous than a hot stove top, a sharp chopping knife, or bleach. Treat it with respect, don’t do anything dumb, and don’t soap with a 5th birthday party happening in your house. It’ll be fine 🙂
Thanks for your reply!!
I just made cinnamon soap, but I altered the recipe a bit: 15% coconut oil, 15% Ghee, 35% olive oil, 24% shea butter, 10% castor oil and 1% beeswax. And cinnamon of course. I didn’t add any EO, but it smells really good like cinnamon and beeswax! I felt like eating it, because it really looks like cake! (-:
Ooooh, lovely! I haven’t tried beeswax in soap since my early days, when it really didn’t work. You’re inspiring me to give it another go!
Hi Marie,
Dumb question, but before I buy the wrong thing, do you use liquid or powdered sodium lactate? I’ve seen both, but what do you use in your recipes?
Thanks so much!
Hi Susan! I use liquid sodium lactate 🙂
Thanks, Marie. Starting my Christmas soaping today!
Have fun! 😀
Marie, so does the cocoa butter scent come through orange? I mean does the soap smells actually chocolate orange or just orange? I never tried to make soap before with so high percent of cocoa butter 🙂 Looks yummy! 😉
So far so good on the chocolatey front, though the orange is definitely the primary note. You could use less orange EO to try and get more cocoa scent 🙂
Hi Marie! I loved your recipe for body butter bars and I have been making a chocolate orange version(my fav!) so I am super excited to try this soap!
I did have a question about the orange eo. I am having trouble finding 5 fold orange oil! Is it possible to use regular sweet orange eo but maybe add a tad more? How long does the scent typically last in cp bars? I have yet to try making cp soap so I don’t know what to expect as far as scent longevity. Thanks for the great recipe!
Hi April! You should be able to use regular sweet orange EO, but I’d really recommend “fixing” it with some litsea cubeba EO—which is a citrus-like essential oil that helps regular citrus EOs stick around for longer 🙂 With the two of them you should be able to use the same amount of EOs and get about a year of scentsiness.
Hi I just attempted to make this soap and made a very bad mistake when trying to get the temperatures equal. I looked at the hot oil temp reading as 100 degrees F and it was in C° ! But the lye was at 100 F. As soon as the blending began the mixture started to trace. I still have the batch in the moulds but what are some of the issues with the soap being too hot? Will ut still be usable?
Oops! Oh no 🙁 I do prefer soaping at room temperature as it makes problems like this very hard to have, so perhaps consider that in the future? If you think your soap thoroughly traced before you got it into the mould, and that it was well mixed (so there won’t be any caustic lye pockets in the soap), it might be ok. Do a “zap” test and check. Fingers crossed!
Yum… you always come up with good ideas for soap scents/designs. Those blue snow soap balls were brilliant, i never would have thought to cut it early before it was firm and ball it up!
anyway, the actual question, do you ever do hot process? I myself have not yet tried it. I’m afraid it won’t be runny enough to go into my mold right (frog/bee/turtle squares.) What are your thoughts?
Thanks, Emily! I’ve never done hot process as it just seems like way too much work compared to CP. I never NEED soap to be ready ASAP, I’ve got a basement full of the stuff haha, and that’s the only reason I can really think to hot process. All the photos I’ve seen of it end up looking like trying to stuff stiff mashed potatoes in a mould, and I love my silky smooth CP batter.
That sounds amazing and I really want to make it right now 🙂
Well… why not? 😉
Hi, just made this. I almost put my finger in it to taste it, this SERIOUSLY looks like brownie batter! I hope I did everything right and the soap turns out as good as it looked pouring it into the mould. Thanks for sharing the recipe, will be used for stocking stuffers, if all goes well.
I know, right?! I very nearly did the same thing 😛 I’m sure it’ll turn out beautifully, I can’t wait to hear about it!
You’ve changed your Captcha, amazing!
Thanks for the recipe, I made your soap & it turned out really lovely – the last of my Christmas soaps. I made it the same as your recipe, apart from colouring one half with buriti oil & creating some vertical layers 🙂
Here’s a picture: http://s7.postimg.org/b19tv51wb/IMG_0307.jpg
Yeah, this new captcha does not work as well as the old one… we’ll see :/ Spam bots suck!
Your soap is stunning, I love it! I’m so thrilled that so many people have been making this soap and sharing photos with me 😀 Yay holiday soaping!
Hi, can I use parchment paper for the soap mould?
Definitely, I use it every time 🙂
This is what did it. I finally took the leap and got an immersion blender, some lye, and a bunnnnnch of stuff from Saffire Blue. This soap has been saponifying overnight in my kitchen and I can barely resist the urge to unmold it right now. This will be a fun stocking addition for my family next to real chocolate oranges.
Thanks so much, Marie, for all of the advice, encouragement, and DIY brilliance you pour into this website. I feel like it’s graduation day now that I moved from lip balm to soap, and I never would have done it without this site.
(For others who make this, take Marie’s advice and add more cocoa powder- mine faded from brownie batter colored to a light tan during saponification. It still smells like a dream, though!).
Yay! Welcome to the soaping world 😀 It’s wonderfully sudsy over here 😉 Enjoy all your homemade soap and have fun gifting it 😀
Could this bar be used as a shampoo bar too??
Yup—it would be especially good for those with darker hair 🙂
Hi! Doing my valentines soaps now. Want to make just a chocolate one. If I leave out the orange oil and use cocoa absolute will that come through as pretty chocolaty smelling? I noticed you said that when you used the absolute before that it didn’t do much. Also, thinking of using dark cocoa and a little more to get it darker. Stupid question, does this leave any darkness on the skin?
Thank you so much for the great recipes and all the hard work you do. Hope you are staying warm.
Hi Melody! Check out this soap, too 🙂 I find that this soap, made with lots of fragrant cocoa butter, smells more chocolatey than the one I linked to, which uses the absolute. Neither soap stains skin (I think you would need to add an awful lot of cocoa powder to make that happen), but I wouldn’t use them to wash your whites with 😛 Thanks for reading!
Hi Marie,
I used this recipe, omitted the orange oil,used part dark cocoa butter,some dark coffee powder and 2tlbs dark coco powder. Bars are really dark and have some chocolate smell. Can’t wait to give them in my roses, chocolate and silk valentine’s baskets. Thanks again for all you do.
Those sound divine! I’m currently using this bar in my upstairs bathroom and I love it 🙂
Hi Marie, I like the recipe and can imagine the wonderfully rich smell! Was wondering if cocoa powder discolor with time? Would you please let me know. Thank you.
Hi Iryna! I’ve found the outside of the bars might get a bit ashy as they age, but once you start using them that washes off and they’re quite lovely and chocolatey 🙂
Hi Marie :-D,
Absolutely love your blog!♡ Thank you so much for sharing your recipes and soap knowledge. It really helps and great information for new soapers (like me :-D) lol! I will definitely make the orange chocolate soap! I have a lot of friends who are chocoholics! Lol!! 😀
Blessings
Thanks so much, Chandice! Happy DIYing 🙂
Thanks for this wonderful idea for a soap! I just made a batch and am anxiously awaiting the unmolding and cutting. It smelt and looked so much like a brownie/cake batter, I got chocolate urges after making it. 🙂 You are so creative!
You’re very welcome! Enjoy it 😀
Thankyou for all your lovely recipes and tutorials! These bars are the first thing I’ve tried from your website. I used roughly the same recipe with cocoa powder, and I added a little charcoal to darken the colour – after a couple weeks curing it is still the colour of dark chocolate. I ended up with a few little glycerin rivers but it smells so amazing, I don’t mind. 🙂 Thanks again!
OOoh, lovely! Thank you so much for reading and DIYing with me 😀 Enjoy the soap!
Hey Marie! Thanks for sharing your lovely ideas & recipes & knowledge with us.
I made this recipe last weekend as a Christmas gift for my chocolate-loving friends. By chance, I found a very very dark cocoa butter in our local store, so the universe basically chose this recipe for me. My soap is incredibly dark, it looks like a very black chocolate, and it smells divine!
I have one question though. I cut the bar after about 36h, and it’s still very soft. Whenever I hold it, it seems to melt on my hands. Did I do something wrong? I did not use sodium lactate as I could not find it (and I was impatient to make the bar).
Hmm… are you sure it was cocoa butter, and not super dark chocolate? Any chance the bulk bins at the store got mixed up or something? Did everything seem normal as you were soaping?
Hey Marie!
As this was the first time soap making, I didn’t know what to expect really, neither while soaping or cutting (except second-hand knowledge from reading many blogs & websites)
I bought the raw cocoa butter from a shop that does not sell food, so an accidental mix-up seems unlikely 🙂 Though upon first reading your comment, I was a little worrier for a second!
I’ve since made another soap bar with lighter-colored oils (your lots of clay bar), which made it easier to see if I was getting trace. Based on this experience, I think I can safely answer everything seemed normal while soaping 🙂
After about the week, the bars have hardened quite a lot, so I think my initial worry came from not knowing what to expect (and choosing a dark colored butter, which made it harder for me to compare to what I’d seen online).
Thank you for your help!
Ok, phew! Glad everything seems good now, and I’m glad you’ve got lots of time until Christmas to let the bars age up as it sounds like they may need it 🙂