Ok, campers - rise and shine!
I’ve liked Groundhog Day since I was a small thing. I loved the crafts we would make in school, like turning a paper cup over and cutting the top so a paper groundhog on a popsicle stick could come out. I always thought the rest of America outside of Punxsutawney could go a little harder for such a cute holiday, tbh. When I was in college I watched the movie for the first time on a Groundhog’s Day and have kept the tradition of making a big deal of the little holiday going every year since.
It’s always a dark, random day in February when that title song comes on with the credits, and all the cute one-liners and life lessons start rolling. It’s esoteric, it’s dry, it’s heartwarming and nostalgic - a February thing.
I always like to have sticky buns around on Groundhog Day (“These sticky buns are just Heaven!”), and since the big day is on a Sunday this year, I wanted to do something extra-special and made these groundhog cupcakes that I found in a cupcake book I bought as a newlywed.
These are SO easy to make and turn out so cute, I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to make them again!
Groundhog Cupcakes
First, I make my chocolate cupcake recipe (I sub 1:1 gluten free flour so everyone can have one). The trick on the cupcake seems to be using an ice cream scoop like this for putting the batter in the liners, as it makes it cupcake top very even and smooth.
Add some chocolate buttercream to a piping bag and ice the top of the cupcake. When that’s done, place the cupcake face down in a bowl of chocolate sprinkles, then pull it out and put it back upright on the surface.
Take your chocolate piping bag and add one more circle, smaller and along the edge of the cupcake. Add two eyeball sprinkles, a chocolate chip face down into the buttercream and two blanched and slivered almonds into the bottom of the smaller buttercream circle to be the teeth.
Get the group together to sing by the fire and do the Pennsylvania Polka, and they will be sure to be a hit.
As for the day itself, I hope it’s like this:
When Chekhov saw the long winter, he saw a winter bleak and dark and bereft of hope. Yet we know that winter is just another step in the cycle of life. But standing here among the people of Punxsutawney and basking in the warmth of their hearths and hearts, I couldn't imagine a better fate than a long and lustrous winter. From Punxsutawney, it's Phil Connors.
Do you do anything to welcome the groundhog? Whether it’s an early spring or six more weeks to get there, I know we’ve got this!