Christmas Dessert Board
This stunning Christmas Dessert Board features a homemade buttercream frosting tinted festive green for dipping your favorite cookies and holiday treats. It’s bound to be the talk of your Christmas desserts.
Easy Christmas Dessert Board Recipe
How do you make a Christmas Dessert Board? The beauty of these types of sweet butter boards is that you can fill it with whatever goodies you like. It’s especially great for those who may not be inclined to bake, yet it’s impressive and people love to pick and choose what they would like to dip in the gorgeous green homemade buttercream frosting. The amount of items you’ll need will depend on the size of the board used. You can add or take away to create your own unique dessert board.
How to Make the Best Christmas Dessert Board Recipe
- To make this Christmas Buttercream Dessert Board you’ll need the following ingredients: Powdered sugar (confectioners sugar), unsalted butter, vanilla extract, gel food coloring, red berry candies, variety of cookies and sweets for dipping.
- Kitchen gadgets you’ll need: Measuring cups and spoons, mixing bowls, rubber spatula, electric stand mixer or hand mixer, piping bags, Wilton 1M open star tip, and a charcuterie board at least 15 inches in diameter.
- When using cold butter straight from the fridge, you can use the soften feature on your microwave or gently heat on high for a few seconds.
- For this color, I used the brand Chefmaster Liqua-gel in the color Leaf Green. Gel coloring works best as it doesn’t add any additional liquid to the buttercream frosting. You can use any brand of gel coloring found at your local craft store, big box store such as Target or Walmart or baking supply store.
- What cookies and sweets work best for dipping into the buttercream? The best cookies and sweets for dipping into the buttercream are ones that are firm enough to not fall apart in the dip. Any sorts of cookies or brownies would work. For cake pieces, a simple cake mix cake probably isn’t firm enough (it would crumble on the board) but something firmer like my Million Dollar Pound Cake cut into small cubes would work well. Choose items that won’t dry out quickly once they are cut up and placed on the board.
- Tips for assembling a dessert charcuterie board: Always start with the biggest items first. For example, the buttercream wreath design should go onto the middle of the board first, then the largest cookies should be placed on the outer rim of the board.
- Lastly, fill in with the smallest items like candy to fill in any gaps.
- It’s also best to alternate colors in the layout For example, don’t put two dark items beside each other like brownies and chocolate cookies.
- You can make the buttercream 1-2 days in advance, then pipe it onto the board and assemble the board just before serving. You’ll need to use a mixer to whip the buttercream before loading it into a piping bag.
How to Choose a Charcuterie Board
It’s important to make sure the board you choose is food safe and able to be used with wet and dry foods. If it’s only dry food safe, place wet foods such as fruit, frostings and candies in pretty bowls or small plates. You can also line the board with parchment paper, colorful foil or food safe paper to add color and visual interest.
More Christmas Dessert Recipes to Make
Some easy sweet ideas you may consider making for your desserts this holiday season and some could even be added to this board.
- Chocolate Dipped Peanut Butter Crackers are an old school favorite everyone loves.
- Gingerbread Cupcakes are frosted with an eggnog infused cream cheese frosting.
- No bake Bourbon Balls.
- White Chocolate Snack Mix just like my Grandma used to make.
- Triple Chocolate Potato Chip Bark works great for gift giving.
- Santa Hat Brownies will delight kids of all ages.
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Haystacks are sweet and salty.
- Fruitcake Cookies from Noshing with the Nolands.
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Helpful Kitchen Items:
Christmas Dessert Board (with Buttercream Icing)
Ingredients
- For the Buttercream Frosting:
- 3 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 1 cup salted butter softened
- 2 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp pure almond extract
- green gel food coloring
- 1 5 oz package gummy berries (or red hots or red gum drops to decorate the wreath and add color to the board)
- 1 10 oz package candy kisses, jelly beans or any of your favorite Christmas candy
- candy canes either hard candy or gummy candy canes
- Candies, Cookies & Other Treats:
- 10-20 mini brownie bites
- 10-20 chocolate covered pretzel rods or chocolate dipped Oreos
- 10-15 chocolate dipped cookies or ginger cookies
- 5-10 mini donuts
- 5-10 mini cinnamon buns or pecan rolls
- 5-10 shortbread cookies
- You could also add fresh fruits for dipping like strawberries and cubed pound cake
Instructions
- To make the Buttercream Frosting: In a medium bowl using an electric mixer beat butter with vanilla and almond extracts for 2 minutes or just until light yellow and fluffy. Lower the speed of the mixer and gradually add the powdered sugar 1 cup at a time. Once all is added, beat on high until light and fluffy. (about 5 minutes). Scrap the bowl, then use a toothpick to swirl green gel into the buttercream. Beat with the mixer, repeating until the desired depth of color is reached.
- Prepare a piping bag with a Wilton 1M piping tip (or similar large open star tip) and fill the piping bag with green buttercream frosting.
- To assemble the Christmas Dessert Board: In the middle of a large 15-18" charcuterie board (pictured here is a 15” round board), make a circle of green swirl “roses”. Place red berry candies around the frosting wreath.
- Place several small bowls around the board, fill with seasonal gummies, candy kisses and Christmas candy.
- Fill the rest of the board in with the cookies, mini brownies, pretzel rods, mini doughnuts, cinnamon buns, shortbread cookies, fruit and pound cake or your favorite sweets to dip into the buttercream.
- Please note: The buttercream can stay out at room temperature safely while serving for several hours. To store, it should be wrapped well in food-safe plastic wrap and popped into the refrigerator. The best way to store these leftovers is to scoop the buttercream into a food-safe container. Then keep the candies and other sweets stored separately in food-safe containers at room temperature.