The Oscar takes the Cake!

Sunday night will be the 83^rd annual Academy Awards presentation. Oscar Night has long been an occasion for friends and families to gather and cheer for their favorite films and stars. So roll out the red carpet and enjoy the entertainment with these festive cupcakes and have an Academy Award winning party right at home.

Red Carpet, Red Velvet Cupcakes

Yield: about 24 cupcakes

Ingredients:

For the cupcakes:

2½ cups cake flour
1½ cups sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 tsp. salt
2 large eggs
1½ cups vegetable oil
1 cup buttermilk
2 tbsp. (1 oz.) liquid red food coloring or 2 tsp of red gel frosting tint
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tsp. distilled white vinegar

For the frosting:

8 oz. cream cheese
5 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Pinch of salt
2 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar, sifted

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350° F.  Line cupcake pans with paper liners.  In a medium bowl, sift the cake flour, sugar, baking soda, cocoa powder and salt to combine.  In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine the eggs, vegetable oil, buttermilk, food coloring, vanilla and vinegar.  Beat on medium speed until well blended.  Mix in the dry ingredients on low speed and beat until smooth, about 2 minutes. Don’t over mix or your cupcakes won’t be tender and light.

Fill the prepared liners (gold foil liners are perfect) about half to 2/3 full.  Place in the oven to bake and rotate the cupcake pans halfway through baking. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-22 minutes.  Let cool in the pans 5-10 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

Frosting:

To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butter in the bowl of an electric mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until well combined and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Mix in the vanilla extract.  Gradually beat in the confectioners’ sugar until totally incorporated, increase the speed and then beat until smooth.  

How to frost and decorate:

Use a pastry or plastic storage bag fitted with a large plain or star piping tip. Place the tip in the bottom of the bag (snip off one corner if using storage bag). Twist the bag at the tip and stuff into the tip to keep frosting from running out while you fill bag. Use a rubber spatula to fill bag about half full with frosting and gently push the icing down into the bag and twist the top shut. When you are ready to pipe the frosting, squeeze the bag gently to pop the bag out of the tip and allow a little frosting to come out onto a piece of wax paper. This will get the air out of the initial frosting flow.

 Place the cupcake on a flat surface and, starting at the outer edge, keeping the tip relatively close to the top of the cupcake, begin piping out the frosting by squeezing the bag from the top while using your other hand to stabilize the bag.  Always squeeze from the top and control the direction from the end of the bag close to the tip. The bag should be straight up and down.

Slowly pipe a circle around the cake, coiling the frosting in a circle until you reach the center. Once you’ve reached the center, push down slightly on the pastry bag in the middle of the cupcake. Then, as you stop squeezing the pastry bag, gently pull the pastry bag directly upwards from the cupcake twisting your wrist as you do. This will give the frosting a perfect center swirl. 

Sprinkle with gold edible stars or balls, chocolate stars, or stars on sticks. Be creative. This is your artistic statement for the Oscar Night event!