Saturday, April 2, 2011

The 1st of April goes a-somethin like this

We had a busy day yesterday.  We had 4 families over for dinner.  Most of them had no idea we were setting them up for an April Fools Dinner.  Good times.  Here is what was on the menu:

It was embarassing, really.  Everyone got here and dinner was still in the oven and looked like it needed more time.  SO we started with dessert. It was April Fools Day after all…

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Probably my worst decorated meatloaf and mashed potato cake ever as it was having some issues. You can see I did the same thing in a cupcake version in the background.  Those were more popular with the kids.  Here is a better looking cake from a few years ago. People kept asking me what kind of cake it was (still had no clue) and I just had to smile and grin and say that it is a very special recipe that we only do once a year!

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Served with our signature punch.  Raspberry, Cherry, or Strawberry Banana Jell-O.  This one really got people.  Even when you carry it you don’t notice it right off.  I’ve read some where people will put just a tiny bit of juice on top after it has solidified to make it look more liquidy but it worked fine without.  We also served rolls and corn but I didn’t do anything weird special to them. Oh and Mac N Cheese for the kids, just in case they didn’t like the cake.

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The kids loved eating the Jell-O with their straws.  They managed to keep their dessert conversation overflowing with jokes such as, “Hey, you have a monkey on your face…. APRIL FOOLS!”  I had to remind them to eat their dessert so they can have dinner….

… and I had to remind the adults to save room for dinner.  Because it was awesome.  We had roast turkey.

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This is a turkey cake, complete with white and dark “meat” (vanilla cake and applesauce spice cake) and rice krispie drums and wings.  I put it in the oven before guests arrived so I could pull it out later.  I’m going to have to do a separate post for how I constructed this beast.  There weren’t a whole lot of helpful tutes online so my contribution to society will be a set of my own with tips on what I will do differently next time :) so look for the tutorial soon. BTW I found most people that made turkey cakes make them for Thanksgiving. It was insane cutting into the cake, I felt like I was carving a turkey.

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And thanks to a fun idea from a friend we served peas and carrots on the side.  I got lazy and just made excess rice krispies into cupcakes and frosted them, topped with quartered orange Starbursts and green Sixlets. 

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And the mashed potatoes, gravy and butter was a nice compliment to the cake.  Vanilla ice cream, yellow Starbursts, and caramel sauce.

Hope your April the 1st was just as silly!

9 comments:

  1. Melanie TuckerApril 02, 2011

    You are super fun and creative--just like I remember!

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  2. Jackie, you are so amazing!!! I love the cake(s), turkey, ice cream, well, I just love everything you did. I never thought of having company over, I will have to try that next year. I love the sixlets idea for the peas, they look a lot more real than the m&m's did.

    Clarissa talks about going to visit Aedan again almost every day. So, hopefully we can see you guys again soon.

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  3. You are amazing, Jackie! Beautiful work :) What a fun time!

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  4. You have singelhandedly made my April Fool's Day silliness look tame. Thank you! No more complainging from Greg! =)

    Truly amazing!

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  5. You always do such fun things...will you just start emailing all your ideas a few days in advance so I can steal them and my family will think I do fun things too1

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