wilkinsonquints: practical joke

After my failure at being the green-pancake-making-mom on St. Patrick's Day, I knew I had to make it up to my family on the next superfluous holiday, which just happened to be April Fool's Day. I've always loved a good practical joke, so I always look forward to April 1st. I often do the lunch box switch-a-roo on my kids, where I take something from their lunch, carefully open it, replace the contents with something else and then glue the package back together. They have come to expect that little surprise, so I knew I had to step it up to the next level. This year I decided to do an entire April Fools Dinner. Coincidentally, we signed up to feed the missionaries on April 1st, which just gave me a few more victims for my devious plan.

Thanks to Kristen Duke who posted this link on Facebook, I came up with a great dinner plan. The April Fools Menu included spaghetti with meatballs, cupcakes, bundt cake and red punch to drink....or at least that is what everyone thought they were getting...

"Spaghetti and Meatballs"

The "spaghetti" was actually tinted frosting piped through a plastic bag and made to look like noodles. The "meatballs" were actually cake balls, and the sauce was strawberry jam. Kaiya was pretty concerned when I brought this out. Even after I told her it was cake, she asked if she could take the noodles off before eating the cake.

"Cupcakes"

If dinner is actually dessert, it follows that dessert should actually be dinner. These cupcakes were actually mini-meatloaves, baked in cupcake liners and topped with mashed potatoes which had been piped through a plastic bag to look like frosting. The "sprinkles" were chopped red peppers. I really got everyone good on this one. Even the missionaries were surprised to bite into them and find that there was no cake or frosting involved in these cupcakes! (Riley loved them though, and asked me to make them for dinner again just like that. He said he doesn't normally like meatloaf, but having them topped with the potatoes made it super-yum.)

"Bundt Cake"

This bundt cake is actually a pizza roll. The bread base is filled with pepperoni and meat sauce and the "frosting" is melted mozzarella cheese.

"Red Punch"

To wash it all down, I served red punch...not really! I made Jello in cups with straws to make it appear like a drink. Rustin was especially confused by this one---he kept getting so frustrated that he couldn't get anything to come up his straw.

Kaydence

Kyndall

Clockwise: Jayson, Kaydence, Ryder, Kyndall, Rustin, Kassidy,the missionaries, Kaiya and Riley (after everyone figured out they were being duped, I did pull out a salad to go with the cupcakes and whipped cream for the Jello)