How to Make an Easter Dessert Board (Dessert Charcuterie)
As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read the full disclosure here.
Let your friends and family choose their own Easter sweets from this colorful collection of candies, cookies, fruits, and sweet quick breads on this Easter Dessert Charcuterie Board.
This post is sponsored in conjunction with #SpringSweetsWeek. I received product samples from sponsor companies to help in the creation of the #SpringSweetsWeek recipes. All opinions are mine alone.
Recently dessert boards have been all the rage! While we have typically seen charcuterie boards filled with cheese this year has been all about dessert boards.
Dessert charcuterie is a fun way to serve your favorite desserts. The idea is to take a board and fill it up with a collection of your favorite treats. The boards can center on a color theme, holiday theme, or even a seasonal theme.
In this case of my Easter Dessert Board I was thinking all things spring. That means I wanted to use bright spring flavors paired with sweets in a variety of pastel colors.
The great thing about dessert boards is that you can use everything that is store bought or you can use a combination of homemade treats along with store bought items. This means you can have a large collection of Easter treats but only have to make a few on your own!
What is a Dessert Board?
Basically a dessert board is a like a cheese board but with all desserts! It’s so much fun to mix and match your favorite sweets and snacks to create a gorgeous board that you can serve for dessert.
Still having trouble picturing it? Picture a holiday cookie platter but bigger, more colorful, and better. Dessert boards are so much fun because there is such a large variety of sweets so everyone is sure to find something they’ll love.
What do you put on a Dessert Board?
I happen to love dessert boards because it’s a great way to get rid of odds and ends that are in my pantry. Have half a box of graham crackers in your pantry? Put them on the board! There’s a handful of chocolate covered raisins left in a bag? Put them in a bowl on the dessert board! The possibilities are endless.
Pick a theme:
Since Easter is quickly approaching I decided on an Easter theme. This means I wanted lots of pastel colors, Easter candy, candies covered in pastel covered chocolate, and an assortment of fresh spring fruits like berries.
I like to add fresh ingredients to my dessert boards to give my guests a healthier option. Since Easter is in the spring berries are a great choice. If you are going with a summer theme stone fruits are a great choice. For fall think apples, pears, and grapes. On a winter dessert board citrus is definitely king.
Choosing sweets for your Dessert Board.
The first thing I did before putting together my Easter Dessert Board was to check my cupboards and see what I had. I had chocolate covered pretzels, Hershey’s kisses in pastel colors, and chocolate covered raisins. I also had a few packages of Nairn’s Stem Ginger Oat Grahams.
Next I looked in the refrigerator to see what fruits I had available. I found a container of raspberries, a container of blueberries, and another one of strawberries. I also found a bag of Meyer Lemons from Melissa’s Produce that I thought would be fun to bake with.
Finally I made a grocery list so that I could pick up some jelly beans, gummy candy, and a few pocky sticks.
Decide what you want to bake.
No matter what I put on my dessert boards I do like to include at least one homemade treat. Some recipes for Easter treats that can go on an Easter Dessert Charcuterie Board are:
- Carrot Cake Nests
- Easter M&M’s Cookies
- Pastel PEEPS Mini Pudding Pies
- Easter Malted Milk Dip
- Easter Bunny Chow
- Peeps S’mores
I needed to decide on what I actually wanted to bake for my Easter dessert boards. Since I had a bag of Meyer lemons and a container of blueberries I wanted to makes something with lemons and blueberries.
Because a dessert board is usually something you don’t need utensils for I knew my options were limited to cupcakes, cookies, or mini breads. I choose to go the route of mini breads because I could whip up one batter and make three different flavors.
I made a quick bread batter using the Meyer lemons, Dixie Crystals sugar, flour, and a bit of lemon paste extract from Taylor and Colledge. Then I divided the batter into three different bowls. I left one as Meyer lemon bread, I added lavender paste extract from Taylor and Colledge to the second bowl to make lemon lavender bread, and folded the blueberries into the third bowl to make lemon blueberry bread.
I poured each batter into two of the mini loaf wells in my Circulon mini bread pan. They baked up in about 25 minutes and then I let them cool.
Once cooled I cut each loaf into 4 or 5 slices so they were ready to put on my dessert board.
Putting it all together.
When you are ready to put your dessert board together pick a board that is large enough to hold everything you want to put on it but make sure it isn’t too big. If it’s too large then you are going to have empty spaces and you don’t want that.
I always start by seeing if there is anything that needs to be in a bowl. This would include dips, small candies like jelly beans, and small fruits like blueberries. Arrange the bowls on the board and fill them.
Next, begin arranging items around the bowls. You can put them in piles, arrange them around the bowls, or stack them if they are cookies and crackers. Finally, starting filling in the gaps with the remaining items. If you still have some holes on your board either add more of the items you already have on the board or add a few extra items.
Once you have everything arranged simply put the board on the table and wait for people to be amazed! I’ve found that people get very excited by the sight of a dessert board because there are so many options. Hand out small plates and let your guests choose whatever they want!
If you’ve tried my Easter Dessert Board or any other recipe on Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks please take a minute to rate the recipe and leave a comment letting me know how you liked it. I love hearing from you! You can FOLLOW ME on:
Trio of Mini Quick Breads
Ingredients
For the quick bread:
- 1 1/2 c. flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- zest of 1 Meyer Lemon
- 4 Tablespoons butter
- 1 c. granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1/3 c. vanilla yogurt or sour cream
- 2 Tablespoons fresh Meyer Lemon juice
For the Meyer Lemon loaves:
- 1 teaspoon of lemon extract paste
For the Lemon Blueberry loaves:
- 1 c. fresh blueberries
- 1 teaspoon of lemon extract paste
For the Lemon Lavender loaves:
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract paste
- 1 teaspoon lavender extract paste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a mini loaf pan with cooking spray.
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and lemon zest. Mix well and set aside.
- In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar.
- Add the eggs and mix until well combined.
- Stir in the yogurt and lemon juice and mix until smooth.
- Depending on what version of the bread you are making, add in the extra ingredients and mix until combined. For the blueberries you will gently fold them in.
- If you want to do like I did and make all three simply divide the batter into three portions and cut the extracts in half and the blueberries down to 1/3 cup.
- Divide the batter between your mini loaf pans.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
- Run a butter knife around the edges of the pan and remove the mini loaves. Continue cooling on a wire rack.
More Spring Recipes:
- Blended Mocha Frappe by Cheese Curd In Paradise
- Coffee Jelly Roll by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
- Cream Cheese Cupcakes by Pook’s Pantry
- Easter Dessert Board by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks
- Frozen Pineapple Margaritas by Family Around the Table
- Lemon and Lavender Cream Pie by A Day in the Life on the Farm
- Lemon Cooler Cookies by Blogghetti
- Lemon Shortbread with Sprinkles by Shockingly Delicious
- Mini Carrot Ginger Rhubarb Bread Loaves by The Spiffy Cookie
- Mini Key Lime Pies by Palatable Pastime
- No Churn Lavender Ice Cream by Art of Natural Living
- Raspberry Almond Coffee Snack Cake by Sweet Beginnings
Beautiful dessert boards. Charcuterie means “cured meats” or a place that sells cured meats. So a dessert charcuterie is “dessert meats”.😀
I know! That’s why I actually named it a dessert board with dessert charcuterie in parenthesis because I know people do search that term. But it’s actually a dessert board like the title says. Thank yoU!
Such a fun idea not only for Easter but a birthday party or game day gathering!
This is awesome. Love it!
Oh this opens so many possibilities for other holidays!
This is one of the cutest ideas I’ve seen in ages. Totally making one of my parties in the future!
I love how this turned out. I am going to have to try and make one of these for my friends the next time I have someone over.
I love picking at a little of this and a little of that for dessert!
This dessert board is so incredibly darling! I love the sweet bread with the cookies and candy. So cute!
Totally in for this dessert board!
What a great idea and your trio of lemon quick breads are perfect as the base of this dessert charcuterie board