I love April Fool’s Day. We pulled all sorts of shenanigans when I was growing up.

Saran wrap under the toilet seat (my mom haaaaated that one). Firework poppers under the toilet seat. A rubber band around the kitchen sink sprayer. Hollowed out oreos filled with mustard… We like a prank at our house.

Last year, I posted my husband’s number on Facebook (my husband doesn’t do social media), asking everyone I know to send him a GIF of Rick Astley.

His phone exploded with Never Gonna Give You Up all day and I pulled off the acting of my career pretending I couldn’t possibly know why it was happening.

A couple of years ago, I posted an ad on Craiglist that my brother had free tickets to a very big event going on, and he got endless calls for the tickets.

So yeah, I like pranks! I prefer them to be on the harmless side. I don’t want anyone to be too humiliated, definitely no one gets hurt, all just in good fun.

April Fool’s Day Dinner

When I was growing up, my mom and her friends put together an April Fool’s Day dinner for all of their kids.

We all sat down at the table for a dinner of juice, grilled cheese and a cupcake.

Discovering that that “grilled cheese” was really pound cake and frosting was an unexpected but pleasant surprise. And I will never forget that first bite into “cupcake”, anticipating more sugary goodness, and instead tasting meatloaf and potatoes. After my brain and tastebuds switched gears, it was still tasty, but that first bite was so disorienting. And when I tried to wash it down with a sip of juice, I was even more confusing when I couldn’t get a single drop through the straw!

All of these years later, I still remember how delighted all of the moms were at confusing and tricking their children. We all laughed and enjoyed our strange dinner.

I was so excited to serve Nate this tricky dinner, and his reaction did not disappoint! He was so confused about why nothing tasted the way it was supposed to.

He was very delighted to discover that his “grilled cheese” was really cake with frosting, but he was less than pleased about his meatloaf cupcake.

But at the end of the day, we had dinner and dessert and I loved laughing at Nate’s confusion.

The How- To

The jello drink and angel food cake “grilled cheese” are pretty self explanatory. Make sure you buy the angel food cake or pound cake in loaf form so it looks like slices of bread. And be sure to cook the sandwiches in melted butter, to get that signature grilled cheese golden brown crust.

For the meatloaf cupcakes, feel free to use any meatloaf recipe you like. I am not really a meatloaf fan (but if you think you have the recipe that will convert me- send it my way!!). This recipe is fine, and we all ate the cupcakes happily, but it’s nothing I’m obsessed with.

Instant mashed potatoes are not something I ever buy, but they really are great for this recipe. You need the potatoes to be smooth enough to go through a piping tip, and that can be really hard to achieve with homemade mashed potatoes without making them totally gummy and gross. So you might as well just go easy peasy and do the instant ones.

Plate it all up and enjoy the confusion. April Fool’s Day tricks with hopefully no tears, no getting mad, and no wasted food! Just harmless and tasty fun!