Bubble Bubble, Toil and Trouble

 Ever seen the Netflix show Nailed It!? Well if you have, you know which direction this post is heading. If you haven't, first, do yourself a favor and go giggle at a few episodes... after you're done reading, of course. Second, the premise is simple: Home bakers who have a poor track record in the kitchen compete to see who can make the least cringe-worthy recreation of a edible masterpiece. While this particular craft is not edible, I had some Nailed It worthy moments. It started with a simple Pinterest idea... And then there was trouble.

Fizzy surprise pumpkins... because Middle loves pumpkins. Simple ingredients: baking soda, water, food coloring, dish soap, Halloween rings, and vinegar.

The pin was a quick video showing the process, but with very little detail. As we know, the devil's in the details. The pumpkins, once made, have to sit and dry for 24 hours before you can fizz them so I waited until Middle was busy with Papa R after dinner to sneak into the kitchen and prep them. I figured I'd surprise him in the coming afternoon.

I had to go digging through the comments to find the amount of each ingredient I'd need. 2 cups baking soda, exactly what I had left in the box, and 2/3 cup of water, with the note that I may not need the entire amount. I threw my baking soda in the bowl and dropped in some red and yellow food coloring. The video makes this part look easy, but what it doesn't show is that the food coloring drops form little colored pebbles in the baking soda that you must now grind like you're the giant at the top of the beanstalk in order to release the color. It also made it appear as though a few drops would be enough to get a bright orange color. A half a bottle and arm cramps later, I finally got a color resembling a pumpkin.

Next step, slowly add the water to the baking soda and stir until it forms a packable consistency. I cannot emphasize slowly enough. I had nearly the consistency I needed one second and the next was a swampy mess of orange goo. I dug in with my hands to attempt to salvage what was in the bowl. Had I had additional baking soda on hand, the simplest answer would have been to add more. But I didn't. I'm the queen of starting recipes and realizing halfway through that I'm missing ingredients and needing to improvise on the fly.

I started working the mixture with my hands after I noticed that the water was separating out if it was left sitting. I hoped that if I worked with a glob at a time, it would slowly seep out. No such luck with this technique, however I did manage to dye my hands a lovely shade of deep pink. Pink, like I'd just murdered a unicorn pink. 

At this point I was frustrated, but I wasn't going to rock pink hands with nothing to show for it. My hands were covered in goo so grabbing my phone was a no-go. I called Papa R into the kitchen to have him google if flour would interfere with my intended reaction between the baking soda and the vinegar. Google was of little help, mostly providing directions on making salt dough volcanos. I figured I'd perform my own little test run. I plopped a small amount of goo down into a container, sprinkled in some flour to thicken the mixture and poured on the vinegar.

It fizzed and started to dissolve, so I went ahead with mixing flour into the rest of my goo. Once I finally got to a consistency that was moldable, I started rolling my "pumpkins." They looked absolutely nothing like pumpkins, but they're orange and well, Middle is 2...he can use his imagination. Inside each "pumpkin" I folded in a Halloween ring.

To help them hold a semi-spherical shape, I borrowed Papa R's deviled egg holder. I ended up with 9 blobs of varying consistency.

Next, the waiting. They're supposed to sit for 24 hours. I figured my moisture packed balls would need slightly longer so the fizzing got bumped back a day. I checked in on them the following morning and it didn't look promising, but again...pink hands. 

About those hands...

Once I washed the goo off, my next Google search was "How to remove food coloring from skin."  Google's sage advice was to coat a washcloth with vinegar and scrub vigorously, noting that if it began to burn, I could dilute with a little water.....Ok Google. I didn't really have much to loose, so scrub I did. Perhaps my technique wasn't vigorous enough, I definitely didn't feel the burn, but I only managed to lighten the shade of pink. I'd moved from unicorn homicide to "playing in the snow a little too long" pink. But now I had the added bonus of my hands smelling like rotten eggs.

I will add though, this technique does work on countertops. I used the washcloth on a couple spots that I has goo splashed on them and it removed the orange stain easily.

Fast forward to this afternoon. It's another gloomy, rainy fall day so it was a good time to test out this concoction with Middle. I grabbed the bottle of vinegar, my tray of blobs, a foil half pan and a glass. Middle and I sat down at his table and I placed one of the balls in the middle of the pan and poured a small amount of the vinegar in a glass for him. I told him to pour it on top, but he was so excited that he just flung it into the pan. The outsides of the ball began to fizz and I swished it around to get more contact. 

I decided to pour a second glass and guide his hand. With direct contact on top, the tray filled up with bubbles, much to Middle's delight. The ball was still mostly intact, however. At this point I dumped vinegar from the bottle in until it disappeared, finally revealing the ring surprise. Using a fork, we fished out the ring and dried it off. 

We repeated with a second, third, and fourth ball. It was fairly obvious that the flour was holding the baking soda together tighter than it should because the amount of vinegar required per attempt, even when poured directly on top, was astronomical. But Middle giggled every time the bubbles appeared and enjoyed fishing out the little surprise each time.

 

Low on vinegar, we decided to call it quits after four and to save the remaining five for this weekend when Big would be joining us. It would also give me the opportunity to purchase the Costco sized bottle of vinegar.

For those curious and brave souls who may want to attempt this particular activity, I'll include the link the original pin. Happy crafting and may I recommend adding gloves to your materials list!

Fizzy Pumpkins