I can’t believe this is my first ever Halloween board. Well actually I can, I don’t love Halloween. I’m pretty sure my fear of clowns forever instilled my dislike for Halloween at a very young age. I’ve had some fun with costumes over the years, but I’m not into all that spooky stuff. However, I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again… I never pass up an opportunity to create a themed cheese board, but the joke is now on me because this was the most detailed board I have ever made. Whew, I think I deserve some wine after this board! What do you think?
Disclaimer: This blog post contains affiliate links. This means I may earn a small commission should you make a purchase using my link. It’s okay – I love all of these products and ingredients anyways, and you will too!
One of my favorite food bloggers is Tieghan from Half Baked Harvest. Her cookbooks and website are full of delicious comfort food and ideas for entertaining. She posted this witch hat cheese ball back in 2015, but I somehow just stumbled upon it this year — it’s SO creative. I used that witch hat as the inspiration to build this entire Halloween board and incorporated other festive elements that I’ll break down below.
Mini Witch Hats
Rather than making one big witch hat, I wanted to make mini witch hats. The recipe for the cheese ball can be found further down in this post. Once formed into shape, I used crushed blue tortilla chips to coat the hats. I used a thin slice of pepperoni to wrap around the hat for the belt and placed the final hat on top of a blue corn tortilla chip. Perfect for grabbing an individual portion at a party!
Witch Brooms
These are one of my favorite details on this board, and they were one of the easiest to make. All you need are some pretzel sticks, string cheese, and some chives. Cut the string cheese into thirds. Stick a pretzel stick in the middle of the cheese and gently pull apart the edges to resemble the bristles of a boom. Tie some chives around the the top of the cheese to make it look like the strings on the broom.
Witch Cauldron
Being that Halloween isn’t my favorite, I needed some help to get my creative juices flowing. In addition to the witch hat, I found this cheese cauldron from Hungry Happenings and took a stab at recreating my own using a different cheese ball recipe.
All cheese balls on this board are made from the recipe at the bottom of this page! Keep scrolling!
Marshmallow Skeletons
If you have been following along on Instagram, maybe you have noticed I have been using a lot of yogurt covered pretzels on my boards and boxes. One day while I was making a board I had the idea to make cute little skeletons on a stick using the same yogurt covered pretzels.
Melt some chocolate in the microwave and transfer to a ziploc bag. Snip the edge making a small hole to pipe chocolate on the marshmallows to make your skeleton faces. Repeat until you’re out of marshmallows or chocolate. Let the marshmallows dry for 15-20 minutes or until the chocolate hardens.
To assemble, slide a small marshmallow a couple of inches onto the stick. Add 4 yogurt covered pretzels and top with a skeleton head!
Tips for making a Halloween Board:
- Cookie cutters are the most underrated tool in the kitchen. They can be used for much more than cookies. I used these cookie cutters to make the ghost and pumpkin cutouts! Cheese is delicate, so take your time when using cookie cutters.
- Since there was a lot of detail going on with my board, I tried to use a consistent fall color palate. Stick with darker colored fruits and lighter color cheeses.
- Use festive spreaders on your board so guests can easily make themselves a plate.
- Another fun idea which I didn’t use on this board, but have done in the past, is to use edible eyes. Kids love when they see funny faces on a board. I originally got this idea from Meg at Ain’t too proud to Meg.
Other details on this board:
- The skeleton hands add such a fun spooky touch to the board. It looks like someone is diving right in to grab a bite!
- This large round board has become one of my favorite boards to use when entertaining.
- The spider is made out of an olive. Another option is to purchase spider rings to simply place in the dips or elsewhere on the board.
Halloween board shopping list by retailer:
I got my ingredients from a few different stores. To make it easy for you to recreate the different details from this board, I made a shopping list by retailer!
I hope this post gave you some inspiration to make boards of your own. I cannot wait to see what you come up with! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!
Halloween Cheese Ball
Ingredients
- 16 oz cream cheese
- 1 cup cheddar cheese grated
- 2 scallions sliced
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1-2 dashes hot sauce
- 2-3 slices crumbled bacon optional
Instructions
- In a medium sized bowl, mix together cheese ball ingredients.
To make mini witch hats:
- Roll 1 tbsp into a ball. Using hands, carefully form into witch hat shape with a point. Roll in crushed blue corn tortilla chips. Refrigerate for 1 hour until cheese firms up and holds shape. Serve on top of round blue corn tortilla chip to complete the with hat!
To make cauldron:
- Roll ⅔ of cream cheese mixture into a ball. Coat in poppy seeds and set aside. Put remaining ⅓ cream cheese mixture into a piping bag. Pipe a round edge on top of the ball, forming the top of the cauldron. Coat rim in poppy seeds.
- Add guacamole with pomegranate arils to resemble brewing potion.
- Cut small pieces of bell peppers to make flames. Using the 1 tbsp of reserved cheese mixture, smear a little on each piece before sticking to the side of the caludron.
- Break pretzel rods in half and form into a circle to resemble logs. Serve cauldron on top of pretzel rods and serve with crackers!
I’d love to see your Halloween board creations! Don’t forget to tag @rightbackspatula on Instagram if you take any pictures!