Our April Fool’s Day Dinner with the Kids

April fools day dinner

Oh sure…it LOOKS like a regular kid dinner of grilled cheese sandwich with fruits and vegetables. Yeah, it’s not. But the gag was good enough to fool my kids until they actually picked their sandwiches up and took a bite.

It all started the morning of April Fool’s Day when Thing Two came bounding in to tell me it was the first day of April and we were supposed to play funny tricks on people. It was early, we had to get ready for church and I was not at my most creative, so the best I could do was put purple food coloring in their oatmeal.

They thought it was a riot.

They’re young. The stakes are going to get higher when they get old, so I celebrate these small victories.

Of course this got them talking about how much fun April Fool’s Day was going to be and whether or not I’d do something funny later.

So guess who got online and started hunting down ideas that afternoon?

Exactly.

I ran across quite a few ideas we’d already done for kicks…mashed potatoes disguised as ice cream, meatloaf “cupcakes” with mashed potato frosting, funny colored foods, and so on. Then I found a post somewhere that mentioned making grilled cheese sandwiches out of pound cake and frosting. Then I ran across a post on Taste of Home that shared a recipe for a pizza sandwich “cake.”

And I was off and running.

The fake grilled cheese was wonderful. Super easy and absolutely realistic looking. I simply swung into Walmart and picked up a bar style loaf of angel food cake and a jar of cream cheese frosting.

I sliced the cake in half, then turned it on it’s side and got three slices from each side.

Angel food cake for bread

Then I mixed up a little yellow and red food coloring into some of the frosting while I lightly toasted the slices of angel food cake.

making frosting to look like cheese

Then I spread some frosting on the cooled slices of cake. (Warning…make sure you let them cool down…otherwise all your frosting will melt and run out.)

frosting the cake

Then I topped it off with another toasted slice of cake to make  sandwich…

looks just like a sandwich

I made sure to put a bit of extra frosting so it would squeeze out a bit when I pushed the top slice down. Much like cheese oozes out the edges after you grill it.

Then I sliced them on the diagonal like I always do with grilled cheese for the kids.

diagonal sliced sandwiches

I have to admit, this came out far better than I’d even hoped it would. They simply looked like grilled cheese sandwiches with the crust cut off.  In fact, when the kids sat down to eat, Thing One gleeful said “Mommy! Thank YOU for cutting the crusts off my grilled cheese!”

I just smiled.

It clearly didn’t take them long to figure it out. A bit of “cheese” had leaked out of Thing One’s sandwich and when she scooped it up and tasted it, she made a face. About the same time, Thing Two took his first bite and said “wait…is this frosting? what’s going on?”

Of course Thing Three was simply munching away, not giving the fact that he’d been presented with cake for dinner a second thought.

thing three chows down on the cake sandwich

So we all laughed at the joke and ate what may be the tastiest grilled cheese sandwiches in existence. Of course they’d seen me taking a cake out of the oven, so they were extremely confused on why they were going to get a second dessert that night.

At the same time, they all kept their mouths shut on that one, probably not wanting to tempt fate and accidentally remind me I’d gone off the deep end and was about to put them into sugar overload.

So when everyone had finished their dinner,  I went and got the “cake” I’d made us for dessert and brought it out.

pizza bread bundt cake

Of course the “cake” was actually a pizza bread sandwich made in a bundt cake pan and topped with melted cheese disguised as frosting.

But that wasn’t really obvious until I started slicing it and serving it up with sides of marinara sauce…

pizza bread with marinara

Of course they gobbled this up too, laughing that I’d pulled one over on them.

Mr W and I weren’t quite so keen on the pizza bread, but that’s mostly because it was made with Bisquick, which I find to be way too dry for my tastes. I think the next time around I’d simply make bread dough and do a homemade pepperoni and cheese bread in the pan. Same effect, but lighter meal and tastier for the adults.

On the other hand, it’s not like fake cake entrees are really a regular occurrence in our house…so I probably don’t need to have a “next time” plan in place.

If you want to give the cake a try, here’s the recipe.

April Fool’s Day Dinner Cake

  • 6 oz pizza sauce
  • 1/4 pound cooked and crumbled sausage
  • 4 oz sliced pepperoni
  • 3 cups Hearth Healthy Bisquick
  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons butter, melted
  • 1 teaspoon garlic salt
  • 5 to 6 slices mozzarella or provolone cheese

Mix the pizza sauce, sausage and pepperoni in a bowl, set aside. Mix the Bisquick, milk, eggs, butter and garlic salt. Pour half into a very well greased bundt pan. Top with pepperoni filling, then add the rest of the biscuit dough. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes. Remove from oven, allow to cool for five minutes. Invert onto an oven safe serving dish and top with cheese. Return to oven for five minutes or until cheese has melted.

Serve with marinara sauce.

 

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2 replies
  1. Julie
    Julie says:

    Super cute idea! My 5 year old daughter is having a “funny party” tonight (her idea) and I found your post on pinterest. We’ll be having this cake as our funny snack. 🙂

    Reply

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