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Feed and fool your friends and family this April! These April Fools’ Day Food Pranks – our Candy Burgers and TV Dinner Cupcakes are easy to make, fun to serve, and taste so yummy!
There’s nothing we love more than a good April Fools’ prank, and these food tricks are a silly and fun way to “fool” your family members and friends. Serve one of these treats up for a good joke on April 1st. It’s a joke in the best of taste, and you’ll be the favorite Mom or Dad on the block. We have TV dinner cupcakes, mini candy hamburgers, a giant hamburger cake, and ice cream cone cupcakes. We have some of the best food fake-outs for you right here! And the best part is, they actually taste really yummy!
Scroll down to see the recipes for our Mini Candy Burgers and TV Dinner Cupcakes. Click on the links below for our Hamburger Cake and Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes.
- Hamburger Cake: This Hamburger Cake is such a fun dessert for summer barbecues, birthday parties or picnics. Layers of yellow cake with bright frostings in the middle make it look just like a giant hamburger!
- Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes: The cupcake cooks directly inside the cone to make a fun ice cream illusion—without all the melting mess of scoops of ice cream.
- Chocolate Mice: Chocolate mice are the cutest little Christmas candies! You will love the tasty combination of a milk chocolate Hershey’s Kiss and chocolate-covered cherry. Kids love the adorable mouse face that is fun to make and eat.
April Fools’ Mini Candy Burgers
The idea for these darling Candy Burgers came from a friend I used to work with back in the day. This is a great April Fools recipe for kids. No baking involved, just assembling (see the recipe below). Kids love tricking their friends with these. Cut up little apple slices to look like mini-fries and you have a full-on “Happy Meal”! What are you waiting for?
Suggestions for Mini Hamburgers
- Make sure your peppermint patties aren’t too big. The mini York patties work great or any kind that are just bigger than a quarter.
- To get that “lettuce” look toss a little shredded coconut with a drop of green food coloring in a bag.
- Use a little bit of honey on the top of the ‘Nilla wafer to get the sesame seeds to stick, making it look like a hamburger bun.
- These are fun to serve with some apples cut into matchstick size, for a mini burger and fries “meal”.
More Fun Treats
How to Make April Fools’ Day Mini Hamburgers
April Fools’ Mini Hamburgers
Ingredients
- 24 Nilla Wafers
- 12 Peppermint patties not the huge York ones, the ones that are a little bigger than a quarter
- 1/2 cup Coconut shreds or flakes combine with green coloring in a plastic bag and shake until coconut turns green
- 1 cup frosting divided, red and yellow
- 1 Tablespoon honey
- 1 Tablespoon sesame seeds
Instructions
- To assemble the burgers, choose two Nilla wafers.
- Spread icing “ketchup or mustard” on the bottom bun, add a peppermint patty, and sprinkle with coconut lettuce. Add a squirt of icing ketchup or mustard to hold the top bun in place.
- Spread a little tiny bit of honey on the top of the bun and sprinkle on a few sesame seeds (they should stick in place because of the honey).
- Arrange the hamburgers on a plate or wrap in foil.
Nutrition Information
April Fools’ TV Dinner Cupcakes
We got the idea for April Fools’ TV Dinner Cupcakes from “Hello, Cupcake!” There are so many cool ideas in this cookbook. It’s incredible how much the cupcakes look like an actual TV dinner! Here is a few tips for making these fun cupcakes:
- Use boxed cake mix to speed along the process. The best part is decorating so save some time and effort by using your favorite cake mix for the cupcakes.
- From start to finish, a dozen cupcakes took us a little under an hour (including baking time). So these really aren’t time consuming and they look like you spent hours decorating!
- Check out the recipe card below for ideas on candies to use for the cake decorations. For the peas and carrots we love using lime Runts and orange Starbursts, Skittles can also be used. They look just like real veggies!
- For the drumstick cupcakes, either crushed Corn Flakes cereal or graham crackers work perfectly, so use whatever you have on hand.
- Mashed potatoes and gravy never looked more realistic when you use store bought caramel sauce. Drizzle it over the top of fluffy vanilla frosting and your eyes will deceive you! These are so much fun to make and eat.
How to Make April Fools’ TV Dinner Cupcakes
April Fools’ TV Dinner Cupcakes
Ingredients
- 6 vanilla cupcakes baked in silver foil liners
FOR THE DRUMSTICKS:
- pretzel rods
- 1 cup vanilla frosting
- 3 plain store-bought doughnut holes
- 1 cup cornflake crumbs or graham cracker crumbs
FOR THE MASHED POTATOES:
- 1 yellow fruit chew such as Laffy Taffys or Starbursts, cut into a 1-inch square
- 3 tablespoons vanilla frosting
- 1/2 tablespoon caramel ice cream topping heated
FOR THE PEAS AND CARROTS:
- 3 orange Starbursts cut into 1/4-inch cubes
- 2 tablespoons vanilla frosting
- green food coloring
- 2 tablespoons hard green candies Runts work the best
Instructions
To make the drumsticks:
- Break off about 3 inches of a pretzel rod and place the broken end into a donut hole.
- Frost the donut hole and about ½ inch of the pretzel rod giving it a drumstick shape.
- Place cornflake crumbs in a medium bowl. Roll the “drumstick” in the cornflake crumbs making it look like a fried piece of chicken.
- Gently press frosted cupcakes in crumbs to cover completely then place a drumstick on top of each cupcake.
- Place cupcakes in a 6-cup disposable aluminum cupcake baking tray.
To make the mashed potatoes:
- Spread vanilla frosting on 1 cupcake, mounding it slightly. Use a small spoon to create a well in the center of the frosting. Place cupcake in aluminum baking tray.
- Place yellow fruit chew (smoosh it around the sides so it flattens and looks more like it is melting) in the well at an angle.
- Drizzle caramel sauce on top of cupcake so that it fills the well and spills over like gravy.
To make the peas and carrots:
- Color vanilla frosting with green food coloring and spread on top of 1 cupcake.
- Arrange orange fruit chews and green candies on top of cupcake, pressing them into the frosting. Place cupcake in aluminum baking tray.
I had intentions of adapting a basic one-bowl chocolate recipe into a two tone batter, but then I remembered that the PBS show, Everyday Baking, had a recipe for chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with butter cream frosting.
I the Hello Cupcake book too and love it. It’s good to know that it didn’t take you 5 hours to decorate, even though it looks like it could have! Beautiful job.
Wow, these turned out awesome. The mashed “potatoes” are my favorite – they look soo real. I’m going to have to save this for next year!
I love these! I have the Hello Cupcake book too and love it. Your cupcakes look as good, if not better, than the ones pictured in the book. Impressive!