Come on, seriously how cute are these little guys? They would be the perfect little addition to any party, wedding reception, or bridal shower. They are simple to assemble and do not take a lot of ingredients. If you want to make a lot of these, I would suggest slicing and shaping the carrots a day ahead of time. Cover and refrigerate the carrots until you are ready to assemble the penguins. The assembled penguins can be stored in the refrigerator for up to two days if they are covered with plastic wrap.
Here are a few suggestions for you before you begin.
1. I use garden vegetable cream cheese. I personally think that the plain cream cheese is to bland. Any savory flavored cream cheese will work.
2. I like to use the carrot matchstick for the beaks. You can use the section of the carrot that you cut for the feet, but I found that it tore the olive and made a mess a lot of the time.
3. To pipe the cream cheese into the olives, use a zip lock bag and cut the tip of the bag. Be careful not to cut too much of the tip off. If you cut to much of the tip off, the olives will tear when you try pipe the cream cheese in.
Crank up your favorite music and let your creativity flow. Let the kids get involved and most importantly have fun!
Until next time,
Carrie
Olive Penguins
18 jumbo black olives
18 small black olives
2 to 3 carrots, peeled (do not use the baby carrots)
1 tbsp. of matchstick carrots
1 8 oz. container of garden vegetable cream cheese, softened
toothpicks
Directions:
1. Drain all the juice from the cans of olives. Lay the olives out on a paper towel and let them air dry for about ten minutes.
2. Slice the carrots vertically into 36 1/4 inch slices. Sort the carrots into piles. The larger slices (from the top half of the carrot) will be used for the penguins feet. The smaller slices (from the bottom half of the carrot) will be used for the bow ties. You will need one large carrot slice and one small carrot slice for each penguin.
3. With each large carrot slices, cut a small pie shape notch out of the carrot. This will be the feet.
4. With each small carrot slice, cut a triangle out of the bottom part of the slice with the tip of the triangle in the center of the carrot slice. Do the same thing at the top of the slice making a small bow tie.
5. Place the softened cream cheese in a zip lock bag and cut off a small section of the tip of the zip lock bag.
6. Cut a 1/4 inch section from top to bottom of each jumbo olive. Pipe the cream cheese into the jumbo olive so that it fills the whole olive and you can see the cream cheese in the cut out section. Cut off the bottom of the jumbo olive so that it will sit flat on the carrot. Clean off any excess cream cheese with a wet paper towel.
7. Cut the matchstick carrots into 1/4 inch sticks. Pipe the cream cheese into the hole of the small olives. Place the carrot matchstick in the opposite end.
8. Place a jumbo olive, hole side down, on top of a large carrot slice. Then set a small olive on top of the jumbo olive and adjust it so that the beak cream cheese chest and the notch in the carrot all line up. Secure by sliding a toothpick all the way through the olives and the carrot.
9. Pipe a small dot of cream cheese under the penguins head. Place the carrot bow tie on the cream cheese. Repeat this process with the remaining carrots and olives. Place the penguins on a tray, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes before serving.
This recipe is adapted from Cream Cheese Penguins on allrecipes.com
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