hollywood Archives - Mama Plus One

It is not a secret at all that I love cupcakes. After all, I put them center stage at my Hollywood Glam Halloween party last week. And, as promised, I have the recipe for those delicious homestyle chocolate cupcakes and the amazing caramel cream cheese frosting that topped them. I decided to call them Oscar’s Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes. No, not after the little green monster in a trash can. Rather, after that beautiful, golden trophy that goes to award-winners. The frosting on these and the drizzle are strikingly similar, of course.

I’m one of those lazy bakers most of the time. I love the taste of homemade cupcakes from scratch, but, hello… cake mixes are awesome. They don’t take a ton of complicated ingredients and they definitely don’t require too much time.

So, let me just tell you right now… this homestyle cupcake recipe is as easy as using a cake mix, but tastes like a homemade cupcake. It’s amazing. And really, truly deceptive. They’re moist. They’re just… perfect!

Start with your cake mix- in this case, I used a dark chocolate fudge cake mix. Add three room temperature eggs, one cup of buttermilk, and 1/3 cup oil.

What’s that, you say? You don’t keep buttermilk on hand for making cupcakes? Shame on you!

No. I’m totally kidding. I don’t, either. Why? Because there is an incredibly easy substitute using totally normal ingredients. Grab a 1 cup measuring cup and put in 1 tablespoon of either lemon juice or white vinegar. Then, fill to the 1-cup line with milk. Wait for five minutes, give it a stir, and use it!

From there, you just bake as directed on the box, and no one will be the wiser (unless you forget to hide the box at the bottom of the trash can…)

Now, it’s time to whip up the frosting.

Start with a container of Philadelphia Indulgences Caramel Cream Cheese Spread. It’s intended for putting on bagels and fruit and other dippables, but my preferred dippable is a spoon, or, if no one is looking, my fingers.

However, use your willpower and keep your fingers out of this one, because you’ll need the whole thing to frost these yummy cupcakes.

Whip up that cream cheese with 1 stick of room temperature butter, 2 teaspoons vanilla extract, and 3 cups of powdered sugar. If it’s not to the consistency you desire, add some more powdered sugar to thicken it up.

If you’re skilled at filling and frosting cupcakes with a single bag, go for that. I am not, so I opted for two bags. For the first, I just cut the tip off, and for the second, I put a star tip in. Fill both bags.

For the bag with the tip cut off, stick it into the cupcake, squeeze, then pull it out as you release. Use the star tip bag to swirl frosting on gently. Don’t like filling? That’s fine, too- just pipe frosting on top!

Once the cupcakes are frosted, dip a spoon into a jar of caramel ice cream topping, then drizzle that lightly over the cupcakes.

Um. Hello. Wow.

Finally, share them. Or hoard them all to yourself. I won’t tell.

I am notorious for forgetting that a holiday is coming up until just about the last minute. In fact, I can’t remember the last time that I was this on-the-ball when it came to Halloween. I put together this awesome Hollywood Glam party because it takes minimal budget and can be put together in a very short amount of time for a very impressive style.

First off, I started with two tablecloths I purchased on the cheap ($1.99!) from Party City. I purchased a black one to be the base tablecloth of my party, then took a red one and cut it down to create a red carpet table runner. Of course, if you already have a black tablecloth and a red table runner, you can use those, but the party city ones are very affordable and safe to just toss after your party in case of a drip or spill!

I also hung the rest of my red tablecloth that I had trimmed down behind my party scene because it helped add some extra panache to the scene.

I pulled some gold chargers out of my party stash, which I purchased cheaply after Christmas in a 50% off sale. Often, you can find these at stores like Hobby Lobby or Michaels marked down to only $1-2 each! I also decided to grab my mirrors that my mom scored for free on Freecycle, to add dimension to the table.

For food, I chose some low-prep options mixed with no-prep options, so it was easy to pick up the few groceries I didn’t have on hand to whip up these treats. It is a perfect spread for a last-minute party because all of the ingredients are easy to find.

First off, how cute are these adorable popcorn containers I snagged from the $1 section at Target? Love them! I filled them with microwave popcorn straight out of the bag, but you can fill popcorn containers with your favorite kettle popped popcorn or chocolate drizzled popcorn or any gourmet popcorn if you’d prefer. I went easy on this one, and my guests loved the salty-sweet combos of the evening.

These dressed-up hot dogs made conventional movie-goer food glam. I started by stacking a silver napkin on top of a black napkin (napkins purchased for $3.99 for a 50-pack from Party City), wrapping it around my hot dogs, and then tying it closed with gold sparkle garland, purchased in an after-Christmas sale last year for 50% off. I’ve already started seeing this garland pop up at stores like Walmart and Target, so there shouldn’t be trouble finding it to re-create the look.

I arranged the hot dogs on one of my gold chargers and placed an ice cream glass filled with ketchup in the middle. I left a cocktail spoon from Party City in the ketchup so guests could dish the condiment on themselves!

When I go to the movies with money to spend, Nachos are always on my list of things to buy, but I wanted to really glam up the idea of nachos for my Hollywood Glam party, so I revamped them into this Lots of Layers dip. I served the dips in individual cups purchased from Party City, 10 for $3.99. I love serving dips in individual containers because it alleviates the crowding around the dip bowl and allows guests more of a chance to mingle while munching instead of having to stay in one place, and if everyone double-dips, it’s okay, because it’s in their own container. Convenient AND germ-free, I like it!

You can find the recipe for these yummy dips here! Of course, I did have more chips on hand nearby for extra dippers.

I grabbed my mom’s old crystal toasting glasses out of the cabinet– I love how they added such an elegant look to the party! I also borrowed a friend’s SodaStream Genesis (which I love and can’t wait to buy for myself!) to make this awesome fizzy lemonade. If you don’t have a SodaStream at home, you can, of course, make the recipe with club soda or ginger ale, but I love how easy the SodaStream is to make this awesome fizzy drink! I thawed a can of Frozen Lemonade Concentrate completely, then poured it into a pitcher. From there, I carbonated some water using the SodaStream and filled the concentrate can the number of times indicated on the can (mine indicated 3 1/4 times, but double check!), mixed the drink well, and then poured it into these glasses. So easy, so convenient, and it was a fun and delicious twist on regular lemonade.

These awesome I Want S’more Chocolate Mousse spoons were easily the most complimented feature of my party. Everyone, young and… well, slightly less young… alike enjoyed them. They’re delicious, and you will never believe how easy they were to make. Trust me, check here for the tutorial! I served them on these fun plastic mini curved spoons from Party City, which, I might add are hand washable so you can reuse them, are fully recycleable if you don’t want to reuse but want to be green, or, of course, can be tossed in the trash. Plus, they’re only $2.99 for 10 of them.

The centerpiece and true highlight of my party were these Oscar-inspired Caramel Chocolate Cupcakes. The Philadelphia Caramel Cream Cheese icing is truly to die for, so you won’t want to skip the tutorial coming later today on how to make those yummy cupcakes with that frosting.

I took my existing treat stand, a gift I received years ago, and updated it for the party by winding gold star garland, used throughout the party, around the treat stand to make it really shimmer with my golden color scheme. A tower of cupcakes is always fun, while staying elegant, and is a great replacement for a cake at any party. I snagged these awesome black cupcake liners for only $2.50 at Walmart in the Halloween department.

As a finishing touch, I repurposed a red vase I had in my collection by adding gold twigs instead of flowers. I purchased these in an after Christmas sale at Hobby Lobby a few years back, but of course, you can go DIY and use gold metallic Krylon spray paint to make your own.

Like I said, the best part of this party is that it’s so low-key elegant that you can plan it in a matter of hours, but still keep it so impressive your friends will never know it only took you a tiny amount of time. It’s perfect for those times when you go “Oh! Crud! It’s Halloween! I have guests coming over and forgot to plan anything!” Easy. As. Pie.

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Do you ever forget to plan an event until the last minute? What are your solutions for last minute planning? Stay tuned for recipes and tutorials from this Hollywood Glam party!

Check out the recipes from this party here:

1. Lots of Layers Dip recipe.
2. I Need S’more Mousse Spoons tutorial.