April fools day isn’t a real holiday by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a really fun day – especially for foodies like me. We’ve done April fools day pranks for as long as I can remember, often messing around with the food that we eat, as that’s always a fun prank. In my family, it was always important to my dad that these types of pranks be funny and not mean or picking on each other, so I find that food-related ones are always the best. Many of the ones on this list are ones that our children have spoken about year on year, wondering what will happen next. We do not very often repeat these pranks, so have had to get more creative as time has gone on.
Not Really Mash Potatoes
Our latest April Fools prank is cheese cake mash. This might sound really silly, because it sort of is. We took some double cream, whipped it with sugar and vanilla, and then added in a bunch of cream cheese. You could probably take the filling out of a pre-made cheese cake too, if I am honest. We put this in a bowl and folded in a crushed chocolate cookie, to look like seasoning, and then served it in our normal serving bowl. It’s a lot creamier than our mash generally is, so I did tell everyone that we got the new, extra creamy mash from Costco, when serving it with some marinated Costco steaks that we often get. Everyone was convinced with that, until they tried it and said it was clearly a trick! You could probably server this with some room temperature caramel on top, to act as gravy, however we are very particular with gravy and they would have known.
Fake Chicken Pot Pie
Sometimes, hiding something goes a long way! This was one of our earliest pranks and one that Robin often calls back to as her favorite. I took our pot pie dishes and filled each one with a can of rice pudding. I added in some skittles and dried fruit to give a bit more color, in case they looked in the shell after they spooned the first bite out, and then put a pie crust (puff pastry) on top of the tin like I normally do. I served these as pot pie and most of the children (a part from Kai) took a bite without even looking inside, declaring it very sweet and clearly a prank! It was very silly and we did have a normal chicken pot pie on the side to replace after everyone had their clearly dessert.
Not Breaded Chicken in Lemon Sauce
Both Kai and Amelia have declared this dinner the best April Fools prank that we have ever had, but it is one that is maximum effort, if I am honest. You must bake an entire cake, then carve it to be a giant chicken breast by creating a tear-drop shape. I then iced it, and put breadcrumbs on the outside of it. We served this pre-plated with a salad on the side and a gravy boat that had lemon sauce in it (which was warm lemon custard, to really sell it). Everyone was very much fooled and found this to be super funny as a concept – it’s talked about literally every year but there is no way I am carving a cake like this again.
Jelly or Juice?!
This was Dann’s idea for a April Fools prank – where he simply took a bunch of jelly and made it up in the kid’s juice cups. The next morning, they couldn’t drink their juice as it was set jelly! The year after, Dann poured a thin layer of juice in each of the cups, so that they had a sips worth before realizing it was jelly. We’ve also died Kai’s orange juice green one year, which surprised him as he poured it out. These are simple pranks but fun ones.
Frozen Cereal
I feel like frozen cereal is the classic April Fools prank that I even heard about as a kid. We aren’t really a big cereal family, but this one is pretty easy. You just need to remember to put cereal, with milk and a spoon, into a bowl into the freezer. This one does feel slightly wasteful, as the cereal when defrosted is a soggy mess, but it’s a funny little April fools prank that can be done with just a bit of forward thinking.