Groundhog Day Cupcakes Recipe 395

Steps:

• To make the faces, first separate the peanut butter cups from the wrappers, but leave on so you can move them around without getting chocolate on your fingers. Use a toothpick dipped in some melted chocolate coating to act as glue and attach the candies. Place two Hershey's Drops in the middle. Then dot on more coating and attach the nose, and two candy eyes. For the teeth, take the marshmallow bits, press them together flat for teeth and attach them with melted coating. Draw on eyes using a black edible ink pen and let dry. If they cups started to warm up from your touch, place them in the fridge for a few minutes while you frost the cupcakes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Fill cupcake tray with 18 cupcake liners. In a large bowl, mix dry ingredients together with a wire whisk. Add eggs, oil, vanilla and milk and mix until combined. Add hot water and mix. It will be very liquid. Fill cupcake liners about 2/3 full. Pour into liner with a large spouted measuring cup for ease. Bake for 15 minutes or until done. For chocolate frosting, beat 1 cup butter until creamy. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla and mix. Slowly add confectioner's sugar and cocoa and mix until combined. Add 1-2 Tablespoons milk and mix until creamy and smooth. Frost the cupcakes using an offset spatula. Apply the frosting around the sides of the cupcake with a downward motion using the offset spatula, leaving a "well" in the center. Roll or press the frosted sides of the cupcake into chocolate wafer cookie crumbs for the soil. Place a groundhog face gently in the center until secure. You can coerce the crumb coated frosting around the base to help hold it in place if necessary. Then attach two M&M's in position for ears with more melted chocolate as glue and let dry. Finally, take two more Hershey's drops and place on each side of the groundhog's face for paws.

Steps:

• Remove a piece of cake the width of an Almond Joy candy from the center of a baked cupcake.
• Set the candy upright in the hole, then spread a layer of white frosting on the cupcake.
• For the groundhog's eyes, trim the ends from a white jelly bean, stick them in place with frosting, then dot them with black decorators' gel.
• Add a tiny triangle cut from a watermelon slice candy for a nose, brown M&M's Minis for ears and cheeks, and a tiny rectangular piece of white jelly bean for teeth.
• Sprinkle chocolate cookie crumbs around the partially emerged groundhog, and he's ready to greet his fans.