April Fool’s Day Dinner: Meatloaf Cake

March 28, 2014

Do you like playing April Fool’s jokes on people? This is a fun recipe to serve for dessert (or better yet – make it on a day when no one would expect, like a birthday in August!)  This meatloaf cake makes a terrific birthday joke cake or April Fool’s Day recipe for dinner.  A basic meatloaf is baked in cake pans then “frosted” with mashed potatoes. Use your favorite meatloaf recipe or the one below.

Meatloaf and Mashed Potato Cake

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 large carrot, peeled and diced
• 1 celery rib, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1 tbsp minced garlic
• 1-1/2 pounds ground beef
• 3/4 cup ground pork or ground turkey
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp black pepper
• 4 cups mashed potatoes
• 10-12 cherry tomatoes or broccoli florets

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray two 9-inch round cake pans with cooking spray.
3. Heat olive oil in a medium skillet. Add carrot, celery, onion and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.
4. Pour vegetable mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add ground beef, pork, ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, oats, eggs, salt and pepper. Mix gently (now is the time to get your hands dirty), until all ingredients are mixed together.
5. Pat into prepared pans.
6. Bake in preheated oven 25-35 minutes, until the internal temperature of the meatloaves reaches 160 degrees. Let rest 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, peel and quarter about 6 medium potatoes.  Cook until tender.  Add some milk and butter and mash to the consistency of frosting.

Assemble the cake:

1. Invert one meatloaf onto a cake platter. Spread a layer of mashed potatoes over the top, as if frosting a cake.
2. Top with the other meatloaf. Frost the whole meatloaf cake with mashed potatoes.
3. Decorate the top of the cake with cherry tomatoes or broccoli florets, as you would with icing roses.
4. Serve immediately.

For  a different decoration, use baby carrots to make the cake look like carrot cake.  Pipe the mashed potato frosting around the cake for more of a decoration.  Add some food coloring to the mashed potatoes for even more of a disguise.

If you need to, reheat the cake on low temperature just to get it hot again.  Put it in the middle of the dining room table and tell your family it is dinner!  Watch the surprise on the kid’s face when they think they are getting dessert instead of having to eat their veggies.

Sharing is caring!