I had some girlfriends over on Sunday night to watch the Oscars and thought it would be fun to blog about a few of the details. Before diving in though, I have to say, searching for “Oscar party” on Pinterest pulls pretty intimidating displays of popcorn in apothecary vessels, gorgeous paper invitations and elaborate cocktails that call for heels. What if you want to do something simplified and still special? Below are three elements that really up-leveled my Oscar viewing this year – none broke the bank and all can be enjoyed in the comfort of sweatpants.
- Fashion Ballots: The #AskHerMore movement spurred on Twitter is something I can totally get behind, but I’ll never stop looking forward to guessing who the stars are wearing. It’s as big of a night for fashion as it is for the movies, so instead of an Oscar prediction ballot I whipped up designer prediction cards in Microsoft Office Publisher – love how lines of white squares so easily created the look of film strips along the sides.
- Gourmet Popcorn Bar: Sure, you could pop your own corn on the stovetop… or, you could buy a bunch of old-fashioned style Pop Secret to fill a bowl in less than five minutes without any clean up. What can make the popcorn “gourmet” is a selection of fancy toppings from a specialty grocer (again, no cooking). I leveraged my ramekins – a great investment – to display two types of salt (sea and garlic), two types of cheese (parmesan and white cheddar), and two types of herbs (ground sage and toasted rosemary). Tasty olive oils would also be a nice touch. Have striped popcorn bags handy, or ziplocks even, and let your guests shake together the flavor combinations of their choice.
- Red Carpet Cupcakes: Such a cute rebrand for red velvet cupcakes and an essential, sweet complement to the popcorn bar. I’ve personally never mastered the red velvet cupcake… mine end up dry and dense. Luckily Sally’s Baking Addition has a killer, fluffy recipe (think the secret is adding egg whites last and folding them gently into the near-final batter). To make them Oscar worthy, I topped with edible gold stars from Michael’s and miniature cutouts of the Oscar statue, which I just traced and cut from metallic scrapbook paper. Also have to caveat that I made my frosting super gooey because I like it that way, but if you follow Sally’s recipe exactly, yours won’t drip like this.
Just some ideas to consider for next year and a new tradition I’ll definitely keep going.
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