Appetizer Tree

It is holiday party time.  And you know what that means.... the age old question of  "what should I bring?"  This post answers that question with one of my favorite holiday party appetizers...

The Tree

The Tree is actually simple to make but takes some planning.  What you will need is:

1 floral Styrofoam cone 12"-24" high, you pick (mine is 24" which makes a BIG Tree)

A LOT of toothpicks (I used 265 for the above pictured 24" cone)

1 disposable plastic plate (paper is not heavy enough)

A variety of toothpick friendly foods.  For the above Tree I used:

1 jar of blue cheese stuffed olives

1 jar marinated mushrooms

1 jar black olives

1 package salami

1 package peperoni

3 blocks of cheese cut into cubes (I used cheddar, pepper jack, and Swiss)

1 package grape tomatoes

Feel free to use any combination of foods you like.

Step one, rinse off the cone.  I ran mine under warm water.  I did not use soap because it would be difficult to get the soap out of all the Styrofoam pours.  It took a bit of drying to get all the water out of the cone.  You could instead wrap the cone in plastic wrap.  Using a fun holiday color like red or green plastic wrap would be festive too.

Step two, hot glue the Styrofoam cone to the plate.  This keeps the cone from sliding around on the counter or falling over.  If you only have a paper plate on which to glue the cone, you may want to add weight to the plate around the base of the cone like extra cheese or vegetables so the cone and plate do not tip over. The plastic plate I used was heavy enough.
 

The final step is to cover the cone with food.  Stick a toothpick in the food then stick the food to the cone with the toothpick.  Start from the bottom and work your way up going around the cone in layers.  You can make each layer or ring around the cone the same food like I did or mix it up, your choice.  If you start from the top the cone may get top heavy and fall over with a large cone like I used.

The cone will take way more food than you are expecting, especially if you use the 24" cone.  My cone used up almost everything listed above.  All that was left was about half a block of cheese, maybe half of the pepperoni package and half of the black olives. 

The party we went to was a going away party for some neighbors of ours moving out of state.  The tree was completely devoured (surprisingly the kids ate most of it).  There were a lot of compliments and it made a good conversation piece.  Make sure to set out a little bowl to hold all the used toothpicks or they will end up everywhere!

  

You could easily also do this with fruit. Just pick fruit that will not brown sitting out for a few hours. For a fruit Tree I would suggest red and green grapes, mandarin oranges, raspberries, cherries, strawberries, and similar items.  For a fruit Tree you could even add some dried fruit and some chocolate covered berries as well. 

Don't forget to follow me on Facebook and Pinterest.

Featured on:

Shared with:

Creative Home and Garden Hop; Inspiration Monday Party; Clever Chicks Blog Hop; Motivation Monday; More the Merrier Monday; Amaze Me Monday; Homestead Barn Hop; What to Do Weekends; All Things Christmas Link Party; Inspire Me Tuesday; The Scoop; Turn it up Tuesday; Tuesday with a Twist; PINcentive Blog Hop; Wonderful Wednesday; Fall into Fall; Wow Us Wednesday; Homemaking Link Up; Treasure Hunt Thursday; Home and Garden Thursday; The Homeacre Hop; Thursday Favorite Things; Sweet and Simple Friday; Grace at Home; Create It Thursday; TGIF Link Party; Blog Strut Owl Style; What to do Weekends; The Merriest Blog Hop; Christmas Categorically Crafting; Holiday Glam Link Party; Farm Girl Friday; From the Farm Blog Hop; Snickerdoodle Sunday; Tasty Tuesday; Block Party