Deceptively Delicious April Fool's Food Pranks

Happy April Fool’s Day!  My sister-in-law, Dawn, is the queen of April Fool’s food pranks in the family.  Every year, she tricks her kids with meals and desserts that look like the real thing!  I can not wait until the day that I can fool my little guy but for the time being, I thought it would be fun to try it out on my parents and brother.  My mom came home from work starving so the “grilled cheese” I served her looked very appetizing. You should have seen her face when she bit into that sandwich and realized it was cake! I was literally on the floor laughing! 

Since my parents were home to see me make the meatloaf cupcakes, I couldn’t fool them but I had my next victim in mind, my brother!  I set the stage by sending him a text while he was in school to let him know I made cupcakes.  With his sweet tooth, I can only image how he looked forward to getting home, pouring himself a nice glass of cold milk and biting into what he thought to be a cupcake.  Unfortunately, I was not home to witness his facial expression as he bit into that “cupcake” but I received sweet satisfaction in the form of a text he sent later in the evening saying “lol u got me xD”.  That’s all I needed to hear!  My early April Fool’s Prank was a success.  Here is how I pulled it off:

Meatloaf and Mashed Potato Cupcakes

What you will need for 12 cupcakes:

Turkey Meatloaf:

• 1 envelope of Lipton Recipe Secrets Onion Soup and Dip Mix
• I lb. of ground turkey
• 1/4 cup of an onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup of bread crumbs
• 3/4 cup of water
• 1/3 cup of ketchup
• 1 egg

Mashed Potatoes:

• 8 oz packet of Idahoan Original Mashed Potatoes
• 2 2/3 cups of water
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 4 tablespoon of butter or butter substitute
• 1 cup of milk

Garnish:

• Orange Bell Pepper

Hardware:

• 12 muffin tin
• 12 foil cupcake liners
• Large bowl
• Small plastic bag
• Vegetable peeler

Directions:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

• Insert the cupcake liners into the muffin pan slots.

• Combine the meat, onion, onion mix, bread crumbs, egg, water and ketchup in a large bowl.

• Take small handful of the meat mixture and shape it into 12 balls.

• Place the meat “balls” into each into the 12 cupcake liners and gently press down so that the mixture fills the liner.

• Bake for about an hour.  

Prepare Mashed potatoes according to packet:

• Bring the 2 2/3 cups of water, 1 teaspoon of salt and 4 tablespoon of butter to a boil. Remove from heat.
• Add one cup of cold milk and stir in potatoes gently. To achieve a smooth consistency, add more milk.

Frosting the cupcakes:

• Scoop the mashed potatoes into a small plastic bag and cut a small corner off. 

• Squeeze the “frosting” onto the cupcakes in a spiral motion to completely cover them.

Prepare the garnish:

• Peel the skin of the pepper with the vegetable peeler and slice the peel into long thin strips.

• Curl the strips with your finger.

• Garnish the cupcake with the curled orange pepper skin.

Pound Cake Grilled Cheese

What you will need:

• Pound cake, thinly sliced
• 1 cup of your favorite frosting
• Yellow and red food coloring
• 16 oz container of your favorite white frosting
• 1/2 teaspoon of whipped butter or butter substitute

Hardware:

• Frying pan
• Small bowl

Directions:

Color the frosting orange:

• Scoop out half of the container of frosting into a small bowl.

• According to my box of food coloring, I squeezed 6 drops of yellow food coloring and 2 drops of red coloring to make orange. Stir and continue adding drops of the appropriate color to obtain the shade of orange that resembles American cheese.

Grill the pound cake:

• Heat up the frying pan.

• If the pound cake is not precut, cut it into thin slices.

• Take two slices and butter one side of each slice.

• Place the buttered side down on the frying pan.

• Once the pound cake is nicely browned, spread the colored frosting on the other side.

• Lay the other slice down on top of the frosting, browned-side up. 

• Gently press down on the sandwich to make the frosting ooze out to look like melted cheese and cut it in half. 

• Serve and enjoy the reaction!

You can find more fun pranks like these at Family Fun.  What are some of the food pranks you played on someone? I would love to hear your April Fool’s food prank stories!