While my kids were growing up in our house, we had a lot of fun finding ways to harmlessly prank on April Fool’s Day. Of course my favorite ways would revolve around cooking!
Chocolate-covered (cotton ball) bonbons, veggie (dried fruit and candy) stir fry, and frosted cupcakes (meatloaf and mashed potatoes) were the most memorable. Oh, and a kitty litter box cake! Quite a yummy dessert, if you can get past the visual.
These white and dark-chocolate covered bonbons look tasty enough. The year I made these, I had many opportunities to offer them to friends and family on April 1st. Some popped the whole thing in their mouth and immediately found a chocolatey, soggy piece of cotton. Others were a little more cautious and took a tiny bite to find that they were being pranked. Too much fun!
Check out my post on dipping into chocolate, although the cotton balls present a whole new challenge with their fuzzy texture.
Foodie Fun with April Fool’s Meals
Cupcakes? Or Meat Loaves?
Depending on personalities and how people view food, these can be a real hit or cause some genuine concern. Tiny meat loaves baked in foil muffin liners and topped with tinted mashed potatoes make a cute cupcake, but some might not be able to get past the “sweet” visual and be able to partake in the “savory” food. This old scrapbook page shows exactly how my two kiddos reacted!
Cashew Chicken? Or an afternoon snack of fruit and nuts?
A little less invasive to the brain/taste bud acceptance is presenting cashew chicken with a variety of crafty creations:
- dried pineapple and dried apples cut to resemble chicken
- pea pods cut from green fruit leather and filled with little balls of green Starburst candies
- red fruit leather cut into strips like red pepper
- orange Starburst squares cut into fourths or sixths to resemble carrots
- yellow Starbursts cut slightly smaller and squeezed on one end to give a tapered “corn” look
- more green Starbursts for peas
- cashews or peanuts, playing the role as themselves
This is a snack mix appealing to most!
Fake Cake
At the craft store, get a square or rectangle of firm foam and frost it for a laugh. Your guests will feel a bit of a let down that there isn’t actually cake to eat, but it’s a fun time. Actually, might I recommend having a back-up cake after this one is revealed as a fake?
Several years ago I pulled this prank. Anticipating what looked like a yummy frosted pound cake, our guest of honor had difficulty cutting into it. I could see a touch of panic on his face as the spongy cake bounced back at him and he wasn’t sure how to let me know I had made a flop. Indeed, a flop it was: I had some scraps of foam after covering a window seat pad, and this one made a beautiful mock cake.
The bummer of the evening: Nobody wanted to settle for the chocolate-chip cookies I had really made for dessert.
Whatever you do for April Fool’s Day, have fun with it and make sure your friends and family are laughing along with you!
I remember these fun food tricks. The sponge cake is one of my favorites, used more than once!!! 😜