Cupcakes for Dinner and Mashed Potatoes for Dessert?!?

April Fools!!!

Oh yes, those are meatloaf cupcakes, my friends (with mashed potato frosting)! Who can resist a meatcake?!? When I saw this post on Fine Furious Life while blog-surfing yesterday, I knew that I had to make them! :)

The meatloaf is really good....scroll down for the recipe. The mashed potatoes are super simple; the pink "frosted" ones are tinted with beet juice.


And for dessert....mashed potato cupcakes! These are from the Hello Cupcake! book by Karen Tack. She has instructions for an entire TV dinner set of cupcakes, but we went all mashed potatoes.

To make them, I followed the book's instructions for doctoring a cake mix. Substitute 1 cup of buttermilk for the liquid, add the amount of oil called for on the box and use 4 eggs. This makes 24 cupcakes.

Once cooled, frost with vanilla frosting, mounding it in the middle. Use a teaspoon to make an indentation in the middle, and plop down a yellow Starburst. Drizzle with gravy (caramel sauce).


It was a fun April Fool's Day! :)

Meatloaf Cupcakes:
(adapted from Fine Furious Life)

1/2 lb. ground chuck
1/2 lb. ground pork
1 small carrot, chopped
1/2 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3/4 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs
1/3 cup milk
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan
2 eggs
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 12 regular size muffin tins.

Soak the breadcrumbs in the milk and set aside.

Saute the vegetables in olive oil until softened. Transfer to a food processor and process until very finely minced.

Mix the meat, eggs, breadcrumbs, parmesan, parsley, salt & pepper and vegetable puree in a large bowl with your fingers.

Place meat mixture into the muffin tins and bake until brown and pulling away from the sides, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from tin and cool on rack.

For the frosting:

2- 3.3oz. packages instant mashed potatoes (I used butter flavored to stay away from any "bits" in the mix)

Follow the instruction on the packages. Follow one exactly. For the pink frosting, use the juice from 1-2 cans of beets for the liquid, adding water to equal the amount needed.

Let cool slightly, transfer to a piping bag fitted with a star tip and pipe the frosting on the cakes.

Sprinkle with very finely diced green bell pepper.