April Fool's Dinner

March 28, 2009 9:42 AM

I'm looking to make an April Fool's day dinner, where dinner looks like dessert. We already have the idea of a meatloaf "cake" with mashed potato icing. Do you have any ideas for side dishes that also look like dessert?
posted by nalyd to food & drink (18 comments total)

You could used mashed sweet potatoes/purple peruvian potatoes to make little icing flowers/stars on top of the mashed white potatoes, if you want fancy up the cake. As for side dishes, I got nothing.
posted by sickinthehead at 9:50 AM on March 28, 2009

You could have a Chocochop Cake for dessert. It's a cake shaped like a porkchop.
posted by amethysts at 10:05 AM on March 28, 2009

There's a whole list of stuff here.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:09 AM on March 28, 2009

On non-preview: The list is just general April Fool's food switch recipes and ideas, but a couple are what you're looking for, though most are in the other direction (looks like dinner, but really dessert). But hopefully it helps.
posted by cmgonzalez at 10:11 AM on March 28, 2009

You could bake some mac-n-cheese in little Crème brûlée cups. They'd be sort of the same color.
posted by nitsuj at 10:11 AM on March 28, 2009

Mashed cauliflower with melted cheese and a bit of garlic mixed in served in scoops might look like ice cream next to the cake.. not mention it's delicious ( I serve it all the time and have gotten lots of yummy comments)!
posted by Weaslegirl at 10:38 AM on March 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Try "cannoli" filled with herbed goat cheese rather than sweetened marscapone. Or, if you can't find cannoli shells but really like complicated baking recipes, make a batch of pâte à choux, pipe it into little eclairs or cream puffs, and fill with the herbed goat cheese.

Savory turnovers look exactly like sweet turnovers, especially if you decorate the crust all pretty (use scrap dough cut with cookie cutters), brush them with beaten egg before cooking (gives the dough that shiny yellow glazed look), and sprinkle with kosher salt (looks like sugar).
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:40 AM on March 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

Doesn't look too easy, but Burger Cupcakes.
posted by shinynewnick at 11:27 AM on March 28, 2009

I am pretty sure that for dessert, you are absolutely required to make kitty litter cake.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:28 AM on March 28, 2009 [2 favorites]

Tomato aspic is like tomato-flavored jello.

Cranberry sauce from a can looks like jello. Technically a fruit, but not really used as a dessert.

You could also make plain gelatin, color it bright with food coloring, and flavor it with something other than sugar. Maybe boil some herbs, strain the water and use that and some salt to make the jello. Even better if you make it in some cute little molds.

Cookies that you make with salt instead of sugar (but not much). My friend's sister did that once accidentally, poor girl. Instead of raisins, capers! Instead of chocolate chips, diced black olives.

Make donut holes without sugar and dust them with some kind of savory five-spice something.

A little pudding cup that's really a thick queso dip, maybe refrigerated for a while to firm up. Grape tomato on top with a basil leaf instead of a cherry and mint leaf. Maybe a crisp breadstick or two sticking out of it instead of a Pirouline.

Dessert:

Choco Taco!

Sweet grits with butter
posted by Askr at 11:34 AM on March 28, 2009

I bet you could get creative with phyllo dough.
posted by Askr at 11:39 AM on March 28, 2009

Meat Cupcakes
Tomato Soup Cupcakes
Deluxe Tomato Soup Cupcakes
Corned Beef and Cabbage Cupcakes
posted by nooneyouknow at 12:45 PM on March 28, 2009

Pot pies? If you wanted it to be a side dish, you could make a vegetable pot pie.
posted by corey flood at 2:19 PM on March 28, 2009

Oh, and you could probably layer things in parfait glasses--vegetables (creamed or pureed, maybe), sauces, sour cream, salsa, guacamole, etc.
posted by corey flood at 3:25 PM on March 28, 2009

Mac and cheese in creme brulee cups would be nice, but it would be really cute to make something sweet-savory and actually do the burned-sugar tops on them. Maybe sweet potatoes? Applesauce?

Even more labor-intensive (but really damn tasty; I've had this one) would be horseradish ice cream to go with the meatloaf.
posted by nebulawindphone at 3:41 PM on March 28, 2009

You could make a quiche, but put a traditional pie lattice on top. Then, after it bakes, fill in the holes between the lattice with something red and shiny, like red pepper jelly. It will look like cherry pie.

I really like the parfait idea, too. Imagine a bruschetta parfait: get a parfait glass, and find metal cookie cutters that are about the same circumference. Get crusty bread and mozzerella, and tomatoes that are also the same circumference as the glass. Crumble the bead up- it's cookie crumbs now! Slice the tomatoes and cheese fairly thickly, and use the cookie cutters to cut circular wedges of cheese. Layer the bread, cheese and tomato in the glass. Now make some whipped cream, but make it savory. Salt, pepper, minced basil. Put it on top (not too much, it's not exactly traditional), drizzle with balsamic vinegar reduction (chocolate sauce!), and put a cherry tomato and whole basil leaf (mint!) on top. I guess you'd eat it with a spoon, just shove it down in there. Hmm. I might have to do this now.
posted by showbiz_liz at 3:53 PM on March 28, 2009 [1 favorite]

Oh oh, metloaf cake is awesome!! I've made it - use mashed potatoes for icing, ketchup mixed with worchestershire sauce for decortations, and maybe some parsley or dill as well.... and make asparagus candles!! They're the perfect shape!

This is the opposite of what you were asking for, but make candy sushi! Get fruit roll ups and whatever other gross candy you can find and make rolls, then cut them in pieces.
posted by KateHasQuestions at 2:23 PM on March 29, 2009

I once had chili served in an ice cream dish like this with a dollop of sour cream on top. Anything that's savory that you can make look like ice cream would work. Pureed beets mixed with some mashed potatoes would look like strawberry, any pureed green stuff mixed with potatoes gives you pistachio...
posted by FoHockney at 9:11 PM on March 29, 2009