CREAM CHEESE PENGUIN APPETIZER

This might sound kind of strange to be making penguins as an appetizer, but they are just adorable! I made them for a holiday party one year and made a cheese log recipe (posted separately) that I formed into an iceberg for the back of the platter. I covered the platter with panko to give it a snowy look and voila, the cutest appetizer I've ever made. It was a huge hit at the party. Not only were they adorable, but yummy too! (That still sounds strange, that the penguins were yummy) Anyway, here's how they looked.

I used Extra large olives for the body, regular sized for the heads and piped in the cream cheese with a cake decorator.

Pretty adorable. Cream cheese filled olives, carrots for feed and the beak. I wish I had some kind of fun toothpick, but I had to go with what I had.

Here is the iceberg and the snow covered platter.

Cream Cheese Penguins

Print version 

This was a little time consuming, but well worth it in the end. 

Ingredients

• 18 jumbo black olives, pitted
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 18 small black olives
• 1 carrot

Directions

1. Cut a slit from top to bottom, lengthwise, into the side of each jumbo olive. Carefully insert about 1 teaspoon of cream cheese into each olive. Slice the carrot into eighteen 1/4 inch thick rounds; cut a small notch out of each carrot slice to form feet. Save the cut out piece and press into center of small olive to form the beak. If necessary cut a small slit into each olive before inserting the beak.
2. Set a big olive, large hole side down, onto a carrot slice. Then, set a small olive onto the large olive, adjusting so that the beak, cream cheese chest and notch in the carrot slice line up. Secure with a toothpick.