by Danielle of Habeas Brulee

April Fool’s Day is upon us, and what better way to celebrate than by making some tricksy, sneaky treats to eat? I love to play with my food every day of the year, but I’ll take April Fool’s Day as a fun excuse to share that playfulness with friends and family.

Since April Fool’s Day is all about surprise, my first suggestion would be that you check out my Marxipan Muffins - muffins in disguise! I made little Groucho Marx disguises and glued them with sugar paste on top of muffins for an extra-sneaky treat. Marzipan is a wonderful medium for sculpting silly, fun decorations for any baked goods. For a warmer way to play with marzipan, you could also make some fabulous Knit Knight Cupcakes, following these detailed photo instructions from VeganYumYum.

Another fun trick involves hiding sweets in unlikely containers. Helen from Tartelette baked delicious looking Creme Brulee inside of cleaned out eggshells. She served them in egg cups, making for beautiful presentation and a succulent surprise in every egg.

The classic misleading dessert is Kitty Litter Cake, made here by McAuliflower of Brownie Points. You serve a cake in a litter box with a plastic kitty litter scoop - clean and new! - used
to serve it. With a crumble top and melted and reshaped tootsie roll poo, it looks just like a freshly used litter box. I decorated a birthday cake for my youngest brother this way one year, when he turned 10 or so, and he was Not Amused. The rest of us enjoyed it, though, especially the little girl next door, who couldn’t stop giggling and asking for extra slices to bring home to her parents.

McAuliflower also brings us another sweet fake-out, Sweet Candy Sushi. She used rice krispie treats brushed with white chocolate for the rice, chocolate for the nori, and mostly marshmallows for the fish. She gives more detailed instructions on how to make candy sushi here. Wouldn’t it be fun to serve these to someone, perhaps with a sugar paste lump of wasabi? As kids we always used to tell friends who had never eaten sushi before, “Try the green stuff, it’s sweet!” Perhaps it’s time to try that one on them again, and finally mean it sincerely.

Similarly, Aki and Alex from Ideas in Food made Steak with a Faux Caulifower-Lime Pickle Hollandaise Egg, simple, delicious, and completely unexpected. The fake egg was made with two different types of methocel, and if you’re interested in getting to science experiments in the kitchen, you can check out their instructional video on creating false eggs. Their blog is full of surprising dishes, such as their recent Tarragon Crab Sphere served with Saltine and Raspberry Pebbles.

No discussion of food for April Fool’s Day would be complete without mentioning fools, those creamy, fruity desserts that look so lovely layered into glasses like Bea’s Beautiful Verrines. Amanda from Little Foodies made these charming Flowery Fig Fools, using a rosewater and orange blossom water syrup to bring out the floral notes in her figs. Bron Marshall used scorched lady fingers to mop up creamy droplets of her Rhubarb and Raspberry Fool. And this Rhubarb Fool from SpittoonExtra calls for greek yogurt for that rich, dense creaminess to contrast with the tart fruit.

Another way to surprise people on April Fool’s Day is by making a candy that is unabashedly straightforward, but so unexpected that no one really believes it until they taste it for themselves. I’m speaking of course of Bacon Toffee from Off the Bone, which I had the pleasure to try for myself back when he
first made it. The name seems to worry people at first, but the flavor is incredible and addictive.

I’m not sure if these last dishes are more appropriate for April Fool’s Day or for Halloween, but I just love Chadzilla’s Octo-Pie, which consists of grilled baby octopus, parmesan cracker crust, yellow tomato curd, whipped artichoke topping, and olive streusel.

And on a similar note, check out the Deep-Fried Rabbit Ears made by Rob from Hungry in Hogtown. They look delicious, and they’d certainly give my family a real surprise if I were to serve them this year.

… And, of course, you can find even more April Fool’s Day recipes on the FoodieView Recipe Search Engine.

Danielle is an attorney, glassblower, and occasional chef who shares her recipes, stories, and food photography on her blog, Habeas Brulee.