April Fools’ Day was sweet at 3 Tiers Bakery in Scranton, where a line stretched out the door Wednesday for mystery flavor mousse cakes. Elsewhere, the region marked the day with spoof ads and at least one elaborate prank video.
Owner Genesis Vega started making mousse cakes a few months ago and they sell briskly. They are elaborately molded and decorated candy shells that usually reflect the flavor of the mousse inside.
She went big for April Fools’ Day, closing her 349 N. Washington Ave. shop Tuesday to prepare a dozen versions of the labor-intensive sweets. She made 12 shapes that did not match the fillings inside. The flavors won’t be revealed until Thursday.
At midday Wednesday, the best seller was one molded to look like a cracked coconut. Usually, coconut is not a top seller. Along with mango, blueberry, strawberry lychee and raspberry lemonade are usual customer favorites.
Coal Creative’s April Fools’ joke took founder and chief creative officer Gerard Durling to the bottom of the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour. (COURTESY OF COAL CREATIVE)
Coal Creative’s April Fools’ joke took founder and chief creative officer Gerard Durling to the bottom of the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour. (COURTESY OF COAL CREATIVE)
A plate of April Fools’ mousse cakes at 3 Tiers Bakery in Scranton on Wednesday, April 1, 2026. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
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Coal Creative’s April Fools’ joke took founder and chief creative officer Gerard Durling to the bottom of the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour. (COURTESY OF COAL CREATIVE)
She began experimenting with shapes after a friend showed her an online video. Her first was an apple. “I made it and I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so excited.’”
The sweets are priced at $10 each.
Another bakery, Zax Bakeshop in Archbald, went for laughs. A spoof photo in a Facebook post advertised new macaron flavors: toothpaste, ketchup, green bean, mayonnaise and bologna.
Coal Creative, a Wilkes-Barre marketing agency that often shows off on April Fools’ Day, posted an elaborate 3.5-minute video about moving its office to the bottom of the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour.
Founder and Chief Creative Officer Gerard Durling descended into the mine dressed in business casual. The joke also served to promote the Lackawanna Coal Mine Tour in McDade Park, which opens for the season Thursday.
April Fools’ Day is the agency’s favorite holiday, Durling said. “It allows the team to just kind of come together as a full creative team and put our minds to a project that is just totally based off of something that we want to do for fun.”
In Pottsville, Pilger Ruh Brewing’s Facebook joke required close reading of the caption. The photo showed a brewmaster stirring a foamy vat of what could have been any kind of beer. The caption: “Alyssa’s in the brew house today brewing up a traditional German Hefeweizen! Just kidding, April Fools! She’s actually brewing a Belgian Witbier!”
The Lackawanna County Visitors Bureau’s Facebook page posted a joke claiming that its Visitors’ Center will become a Spirit Halloween store.