How to Make Penguins with Food
Penguin is not a food item you would typically find on any menu, but you can make edible penguins that will turn heads at your next social gathering or dinner party. Repurpose food ingredients that you can find at your grocery store into miniature penguins. Set up a rookery of penguins with members of various sizes and shapes. Recreate a group of penguins as seen on television for a child's birthday party or as sleepover snacks. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- 8 oz. package cream cheese
- 20 pitted jumbo black olives
- 20 pitted small black olives
- Paring knife
- Mandolin slicer
- 2 carrots
- Toothpicks
- 5 to 8 red chili peppers
Instructions
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1
Leave 8 oz. of cream cheese unrefrigerated until it is soft enough to spread easily. Slice a 1/2-inch slit through one side of a pitted jumbo black olive using a paring knife to make the belly of the penguin. Cut an oval from the top of the slit down to the bottom, but do not pierce completely through the olive. Remove the olive material from the hole.
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2
Fill the hole with cream cheese, scraping away the excess cheese so it is flush with the outer surface of the olive. Repeat this with 19 more jumbo black olives.
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3
Use a mandolin slicer to slice 2 medium-size carrots into 20 thin round slices, approximately 1/4-inch thick each. Cut out a small triangle section from the side of each carrot slice. Save the pieces of carrot that you cut away from the slices to use for the penguins' noses.
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4
Slice a 1/8-inch vertical slit in the center of the side of a small pitted black olive. Repeat this with 19 more small black olives. Insert the pieces of carrot you cut away in the previous step into each of the olives with the pointed ends sticking outward.
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5
Slice 40 1/16-inch thick slices that are 1/4-inch long from two seeded red chili peppers. Cut two 1/16-inch wide slits to the right and left of the carrot nose on each small olive. Insert the pepper penguin eyes lengthwise into each of the holes.
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6
Place a carrot slice on a flat surface with the notched end facing you. Stand a jumbo stuffed olive up on its end on the carrot with the cream cheese facing forward. Place the small olive, with the facial features in front, on top of the jumbo olive. Insert a decorative toothpick through the top of the small olive all the way through to the carrot base. Repeat this for the other 19 penguins.
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7
Slice 20 long thin strips and 20 equilateral triangles with 1/2-inch sides from a seeded red chili pepper, using four to six peppers, depending on the size of the peppers. Wrap a strip of pepper around the neck of an olive penguin and tie in a single knot for a scarf. Slide a triangle with the largest side at the bottom on the toothpick on top of the small olive for a hat. Continue with the rest of the penguins.
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Tips & Warnings
Store your penguins in the refrigerator in a covered plastic container until ready to serve.
For a less-spicy option, replace the chili peppers with red bell peppers.
Use only pitted olives for this project.
References
Resources
- Photo Credit Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images
