Mandi made the post today.  Her comments are in red, mine are in black.

As many of you know, February 2^nd was Groundhog’s Day.  I can’t even remember when my love of this rather odd holiday began.  Maybe it was how they waddled all over my nanny’s yard when I was little.  I don’t think she liked them very much cause they dug tunnels all over, but I did.  And I still do.  Three years ago Dan and I lived in Boston with our friend Richie.  We decided to throw a little party in honor of the holiday.  I did some searching online for some fun recipes to make the party special.  I wish I could take credit for these adorable little guys, but that wouldn’t be nice.  I got the idea from familyfun.go.com  But you can find this recipe all over the web so I’m not really sure who the originator was.  So this was the third year I’ve made these groundhog’s day cupcakes…

 But before we start, let me caution you right now.  These are EXTREMELY time consuming.  Maybe start off just making half a dozen groundhogs and the rest regular cupcakes.  Cause the amount that I did takes hours.  But it is worth.  Oh man is it worth it.  Just look at these little guys...

Here I am prepping the ingredients.  Some of these are replacement candies which deviated from the original recipe because well let’s face it, in Bermuda finding what you want in the grocery store is usually a challenge.

I used a little brown icing as glue to hold on candy pieces.  The first step is cutting off the tips of the white jelly beans to use as the eyeball

I watched some Ace of Cakes while working to get a little artistic motivation…

Next step is the mini mms for the ears and cheeks… I had to go to FOUR grocery stores to find these.  I was getting pretty upset near the end because of course it was the night before I needed them and I think they are the only ones of the candies that wouldn’t swap out too easily…  but I found them at the very last store which made me very happy and also Dan very happy cause I probably wouldn’t have been very nice if I had failed my mission… luckily in the U.S. I highly doubt finding them will be a problem for anyone.

The first batch comes together…

The cutest little groundhog army ever…

Dan is always such a big help with the cupcakes

When did I get knocked up?

My brand new, beautiful kitchen aid :)  yayyy

Just so you know, I am not a good baker… these are boxed cupcakes…

I know you probably can’t see the time on the stove but it’s 4: 22 AM…. I have issues…

Groundhogs made and waiting… cupcakes baked and cooling… finally time for bed.

I dug a hole in every cupcake so that after I put the icing and Oreos on Phil would slide in nice and easy

Dan insisted upon taking one of them outside so you could see him properly in the picture… he is a little cutie.

Who me??   thanks

The army is ready for battle!

Ok apologies for the sudden gross unexpected raw chicken.  this is me prepping some wings for the party.  The party was actually a superbowl party, but to mandi it was all about the groundhogs.

Atmosphere shots.  Looks like people are having fun.  right?

Ya know you want some!  I may blog about this some other time but it is pretty much the recipe from thepioneerwomancooks.com/  Note the wetness on the shirt, I was playing beer pong just before making these.  that is my trademark pongstain.

MMMM  Blurry wings

She liked the cupcakes!

Mandi also liked the cupcakes!

I liked the wings

The Food in My Beard
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