Holiday Dessert Board with Cream Cheese Dip
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This holiday season, wow your friends and family with a creative, beautiful dessert board! This board features various flavors of Cream Cheese Dip, in festive holiday shapes. The dips are surrounded by fresh fruit, cookies, crackers and pretzels for dipping.
Table of contents
Peanut butter reindeer, chocolate gingerbread men and red velvet candy canes, oh my! This dessert board is the ultimate cute, sweet treat for the holiday season. No baking required!
A simple dessert cream cheese dip is made with 4 simple ingredients. It’s then transformed into unique flavors with the addition of cocoa, peanut butter, and red velvet cake mix. Toss on some mini chocolate chips, crushed peanuts and sprinkles, and you’ve got yourself some seriously delicious dessert dips!
Each dip is pressed into a cookie cutter to create festive fun shapes for the holiday season. For dipping up the tasty cream cheese dips, we’ve got wafer cookies, graham crackers and apples. I’ll even show you how to make mini boards to gift to friends and neighbors this holiday season!
What you’ll need
For the cream cheese dip
- Cream cheese
- Salted butter
- Powdered sygar
- Vanilla extract
To flavor and decorate the dip
- Creamy peanut butter
- Roasted peanuts
- Cocoa powder
- Mini chocolate chips
- Rainbow sprinkles
- Red velvet cake mix
- White sprinkles or white chocolate chips
For serving with the dip
- Honey Graham Crackers
- Vanilla Wafers
- Mini Twist Pretzels
- Fudge Striped Cookies
- Milk Chocolate Biscuits
- Vanilla Creme Wafer Cookies
Optional additions
- Sliced apples or apple chips
- Pomegranate seeds
How to make a holiday dessert board
- Prepare the cream cheese dip base.
- Add room temperature cream cheese and butter to a large mixing bowl or the base of a stand mixer. Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract. Use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer to beat the ingredients together for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy.
- Prepare the flavored cream cheese dips.
- Divide the prepared cream cheese dip into 4 large mixing bowls.
- In the first bowl, add red velvet cake mix and use an electric hand mixer to combine the cake mix into the cream cheese dip.
- In the second bowl, add the cocoa and use an electric hand mixer to combine the cocoa into the dip.
- For the third bowl, add peanut butter and use an electric hand mixer to combine the peanut butter into the dip.
- Leave the last bowl of cream cheese dip plain, it will be used to make the Christmas tree with sprinkles.
- Place the cream cheese dips, covered in the refrigerator for one hour.
- Make the cream cheese dips into festive holiday shapes.
- Spray the inside of the cookie cutters with cooking spray.
- Place the cookie cutters on the board, arranged how you want them.
- Quick Tip! Once the dips are in the shapes, it’s much harder to move them on the board!
- Press the dips into their corresponding cookie cutters. Red velvet in a candy cane cookie cutter, peanut butter in a reindeer cookie cutter, chocolate in a gingerbread man cookie cutter and plain cream cheese dip in a Christmas tree cookie cutter.
- Once the dips are pressed into the cookie cutters, gently slide the cookie cutters up and off the board.
- Decorate each of the dips by placing crushed peanuts on the peanut butter reindeer, green sprinkles on the Christmas tree, mini chocolate chips on the chocolate gingerbread man and white sprinkles or white chocolate chips in rows on the candy cane.
- Finish the board.
- Now that the festive dips are ready to go, add the cookies, crackers, pretzels and fruit to the board, surrounding the cream cheese dips.
How to make mini holiday dessert boards
Just as easy as it is to make a big holiday dessert board for family gatherings, it’s also easy to make mini dessert boards to gift to friends and neighbors.
To do this, simply prepare the different flavors of cream cheese dip, then use mini cookie cutters to make the mini board. Add cookies, crackers or fruit, wrap in plastic wrap and deliver to friends. Just remind them to place it in the refrigerator until they’re ready to dig into it!
Tips and tricks
- Be sure to cover the inside of the cookie cutters with cooking spray or you won’t be able gently slide the cookie cutter off of the cream cheese dip and create the fun and festive shapes that you see pictured here!
- Make sure to chill the cream cheese dips before making the board. The dips will need at least an hour to chill before you prepare the board. When they’re chilled, they’re much easier to press into the shapes.
- Leftover cream cheese dips can be wrapped in plastic wrap, or stored in a plastic zipper bag, in the refrigerator for up to one week.
- If making the board ahead of time, prepare the festive cream cheese dips and arrange them on the board in the cookie cutters. Do NOT add the fruit, cookies, crackers or pretzels to the board. Simply cover the dips on the board and place them in the refrigerator. When ready to serve, remove the board from the refrigerator and add the cookies and fruit for dipping.
- Feel free to mix up the shapes! Don’t have a reindeer cookie cutter? No problem! Make two gingerbread men, one chocolate and one peanut butter! No candy cane? Make a red velvet star or heart, because hearts aren’t just for Valentine’s Day!
- To get perfect stripes on the candy canes, I placed toothpicks on the red velvet candy cane, each about 1-inch apart, and then filled in between the toothpicks with the white sprinkles. While I used white sprinkles, white chocolate chips would also work well!
More festive holiday recipes
For more holiday recipes, check out these delicious sweet treats!
Holiday Dessert Board
Get in the holiday spirit with this beautiful dessert board featuring various flavors of cream cheese dip, in festive holiday shapes!
Ingredients
Cheesecake Dip Base
- 16 ounces Lucerne Cream Cheese, room temperature
- ½ cup Lucerne Salted Butter, room temperature
- 1 cup Signature SELECT Powdered Sugar
- 2 teaspoons Signature SELECT Vanilla Extract
Chocolate Cheesecake Dip – Gingerbread Man
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons Signature SELECT Mini Chocolate Chips
Peanut Butter Cheesecake Dip – Reindeer
- ¼ cup Signature SELECT Creamy Peanut Butter
- 2 tablespoons Signature SELECT Unsalted Peanuts, crushed
Red Velvet Cheesecake Dip – Candy Cane
- ¼ cup red velvet cake mix
- 1 tablespoon white sprinkles, or white chocolate chips
Plain Dip – Christmas Tree
- 2 tablespoons Signature SELECT Green Sprinkles
For Serving
- Signature SELECT Honey Graham Crackers
- Signature SELECT Vanilla Wafers
- Signature SELECT Mini Twist Pretzels
- Signature SELECT Fudge Striped Cookies
- Signature SELECT Milk Chocolate Biscuits
- Signature SELECT Vanilla Creme Wafer Cookies
- apple, sliced
- pomegranate seeds
Instructions
Prepare the cream cheese dip base.
- Add room temperature cream cheese and butter to a large mixing bowl or the base of a stand mixer.
- Add powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
- Use an electric hand mixer or stand mixer to beat the ingredients together on medium speed for 2-3 minutes, or until smooth and creamy.
Prepare the flavored cream cheese dips.
- Divide the prepared cream cheese dip into 4 large mixing bowls.
- In the first bowl, add ¼ cup red velvet cake mix and use an electric hand mixer to combine the cake mix into the cream cheese dip.
- In the second bowl, add ¼ cup cocoa and use an electric hand mixer to combine the cocoa into the dip.
- For the third bowl, add ¼ cup peanut butter and use an electric hand mixer to combine the peanut butter into the dip.
- Leave the last bowl of cream cheese dip plain, it will be used to make the Christmas tree with sprinkles.
- Place the cream cheese dips, covered in the refrigerator for one hour to chill.
Make the cream cheese dips into festive holiday shapes.
- Spray the inside of the cookie cutters with cooking spray.
- Place the cookie cutters on the board, arranged how you want them.
- Press the dips into their corresponding cookie cutters.
- Red velvet in a candy cane cookie cutter, peanut butter in a reindeer cookie cutter, chocolate in a gingerbread man cookie cutter and plain cream cheese dip in a Christmas tree cookie cutter.
- Once the dips are pressed into the cookie cutters, gently slide the cookie cutters up and off the board.
- Decorate each of the dips by placing crushed peanuts on the peanut butter reindeer, green sprinkles on the Christmas tree, mini chocolate chips on the chocolate gingerbread man and white sprinkles or white chocolate chips in rows on the candy cane.
Finish the board.
- Now that the festive dips are ready to go, add the cookies, crackers, pretzels and fruit to the board, surrounding the cream cheese dips.
Notes
- The nutritional information provided does not include the serving options, as the information will change based on which serving options you include on the board.
- If making the board ahead of time, only refrigerate the cream cheese dips, do not refrigerate the various serving options with the dips.
- Cream cheese dips can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 7 days.
Nutrition Facts
Calories 483kcal (24%)Carbohydrates 30g (10%)Protein 7g (14%)Fat 39g (60%)Saturated Fat 20g (100%)Cholesterol 93mg (31%)Sodium 355mg (15%)Potassium 208mg (6%)Fiber 2g (8%)Sugar 25g (28%)Vitamin A 1124mg (22%)Calcium 78mg (8%)Iron 1mg (6%)
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