Big news today – the multi-talented Lisa Ek will soon begin posting her fabulous recipe ideas on our blog every Tuesday! Lisa works on the Tastefully Simple Product Development Team, and she can often be found in our “Secret Lab” (test kitchen) whipping up a luscious recipe for our website, our packaging or one of many other recipe-ish places. Lisa knows how to make everything from hotdogs to hasenpfeffer, and I know we will all enjoy hearing from her every week. Welcome, Lisa! Her first post will appear next week.
Our recipe today features some amazing food art in honor of April Fool’s Day. My co-worker Macaille (pronounced Ma-kayla) Hafner works on our Training Team, and she is also an impressive cake decorator … I think she could have her own TV show! In fact, you may have seen her in one of the cooking demo videos we have at tastefullysimple.com.
Check out this photo of her April Fool’s “Turkey TV Dinner.” She was inspired by a photo she saw in the book Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Here’s what Macaille had to say about how she did it:
- The “chocolate brownie” is Classy Chocolate Pound Cake with chocolate frosting and sprinkles.
- The “fried chicken legs” are Absolutely Almond Pound Cake™ with a doughnut hole on top, then frosted with white frosting and coated with crushed Twisty Grahams™. The bone is just melted white chocolate almond bark that I piped onto parchment paper with a bone-shaped design underneath; after they dried I stuck them into the frosting.
- The “peas and carrots” are Absolutely Almond Pound Cake topped with white frosting tinted green. The carrots are cut-up Starburst® candies and the peas are green Runts®.
- The “mashed potatoes” are Absolutely Almond Pound Cake topped with a huge pile of white frosting dented in the middle with a spoon. I used Creamy Caramel Sauce heated up a smidge and poured over the frosting to look like gravy. The butter pat is a yellow Starburst.
Kids are often both amazed and amused by things like this … so have some fun with your kiddos this week with an April Fool’s TV Dinner! There is also a recipe on our website for April Fool’s Fries … check it out!
J*a*N*e
Such a cute idea! I can’t wait to try it on my kids!
This is directly out of Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. I thought it was a very neat idea too but if you’re going to use the ideas contained in a published New York Times Bestseller I think you should at least give them a shout out and note that’s where you got the idea. Great job RECREATING it but not cool stealing the full plan that’s already published as your own. Even named the same TV Dinner page 31-33 in Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson.
This is in one of my books I bought at the store. I think it is called Hello Cupcake. There are a lot of cute cupcakes in that book. They have the corn on the cob in that book also.
My wife is a consultant here in California and she shared the Turkey TV dinner on her Facebook page. I really thought it was super creative and very nice! Thanks for your efforts.
Still no acknowledgement that this recipe came out of a New York Times Bestseller, Hello, Cupcake by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. Well it did.
Hey gang – looks like I am the April Fool! I didn’t realize this idea came from a cookbook (note to self…remember to ask that question first next time!!).
As a few of you wisely pointed out – the TV Dinner cupcakes were indeed included in the book “Hello, Cupcake” by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. I have updated the original blog post with that info.
Thanks, everyone!!
-Jane