And the Oscar goes to...

It's a wonderful night for Oscar...Oscar, Oscar, who will win?

Well, the answer is: At the Ruby Slippers Wedding, EVERYONE.

Back in January or February when we first decided to do a bit of a film theme, one of the first ideas that we had (actually I think this might have been Best-Friend-Ruby-Slippers' idea, to be honest) was to use an Oscar statuette somehow. I love the Oscars. I think they're totally fixed, and half the winners are undeserving, but there's just something fabulous about them. I love that they're so glitzy and full of stars...ok, I don't even know why I love 'em, I just do. And, as a side note, I can totally remember Oscar stats and facts. Ask me what film won Best Picture in any year, ever, and I can tell you. It's my party trick.

So at first we toyed with the idea of an Oscar-themed invitation, but it semed a little bit too "theme-party"-ish, so we scrapped that, and went with the Golden Tickets, which, you know, aren't themed at all. :-) But I did picture them being designed by Mr Ruby Slippers - after all, he did paint this backdrop for a musical show we did a few years ago:


Ahem. We now return to the scheduled Oscar blog post, after that shameless bit of boasting about Mr Slippers' artistic talents.

So at this point Best Friend-RS had the brilliant idea of Oscar chocolate favours. One little statuette for everybody! I loved it. So I bought three Oscar moulds from the local chocolate shop, and set to work.

What I discovered on this chocolatey journey was this: No matter how many hollow Easter Eggs you've made in your life, the intricate pattern of an Oscar mould is not conducive to being made hollow. That's right, folks - I bought eighteen little bulldog clips and wasted over thirty chocolates before I figured that one out. Well, not wasted; I remelted them. The ones I didn't eat in frustration, that is.

So then I decided to make two solid sides and "glue" them together with melted chocolate - and this, I must say, went swimmingly. Over the month it took to make seventy of them. Boy, am I glad I don't have a big family. But the biggest problem was still ahead: how to paint them gold? I wanted this:

But all I could find was gold dusting powder, and a vaguely unhelpful shop assistant who said I should just rub it on with my fingers. Um...I think not. Enter a nice old lady who eavesdropped on my conversation with a colleague last week. She apparently makes cake decorations for a living, and she recommended that I mix the powder with a drop or two of brandy, and paint it on that way. Maybe this technique is common knowledge, but it wasn't to me. Mr RS had a wee bottle of brandy, so I tried her advice out yesterday, and by golly, it worked! Those little bald boys gilded up like no man's business. Here they are in their naked chocolateyness:


And here's the very first one I tried:

Isn't he SWEET? Here are a bunch more. My camera died right after this, but I was on such a roll that I painted all eighty-something last night. (We only need 70, but I'm a great believer in spares in case of accidents).


Skreee! I'm sooo excited about how cute they turned out, you have no idea! Each one is going to be in his own cellophane bag, with our signature black satin ribbon around the top, with a note that doubles as a placecard attached to the ribbon, reading:

"And the Oscar goes to.....NAME"

These will be sitting on the tables in each person's designated spot, so once they've found out which table they're at, these will help them find their seats and be favours. Oh, the cleverness of me. And BFF-RS, she admitted grudgingly.