Mini Cheese Ball Bunnies - Cute Easter Appetizers

Your family just may squeal with delight when they see these adorable Mini Cheese Ball Bunnies served as appetizers for Easter or perhaps a baby shower or even Earth Day.

Each little bite-sized bacon cheddar cheese ball is simply decorated with a cream cheese tail and two floppy white cheddar cheese feet.

It has been a few years since I created my very popular Mini Cheese Ball Chicks and as I was putting together a compilation post featuring over 100 of my Easter recipes I realized I had not created an Easter appetizer in a while.

As I looked at the Bunny Butt Cheesecakes and Pretzel Bunny Butts it struck me that I should make some Mini Cheese Ball Bunnies.

So I grabbed some cream cheese, cheddar cheese, and seasonings and got to work.

What do you think? Aren't they cute?

They are super easy to make too. You will start by making the cheese ball mixture.

For these Mini Cheese Ball Bunnies, I chose to make Bacon Cheddar Cheese Balls seasoned with Worcestershire sauce, garlic powder, and seasoned salt, but I have some other really great cheese ball recipes that you might prefer.

Check out these other cheese ball recipes too then decide which you'd like to make:

• Roasted Garlic Parmesan Cheese Ball
• Camembert Cheese Ball
• White Cheddar Cheese Ball
• Zesty Taco Cheese Ball
• Simple Cheddar Cheese Ball
• Bacon Ranch Cheese Ball

RELATED: See all of my Easter Recipes here.

Ingredients

• cream cheese
• Worcestershire sauce
• seasoned salt
• garlic powder
• freshly shredded white cheddar cheese, divided
• finely chopped bacon
• slices white cheddar cheese
• crackers

Supplies

• mixing bowl
• hand-held mixer
• disposable pastry bags
• small ice cream scoop (1 tablespoon size)

Start by making the mini bacon cheddar cheese balls.

• Beat a block of cream cheese until light and fluffy.
• Scoop out about 2 ½ tablespoons, place in a disposable pastry bag or zip-top bag, and set aside.
• Add a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce, ¼ teaspoon of garlic powder, ¼ teaspoon of seasoned salt, and one cup of freshly shredded, aged, white cheddar cheese to the remaining cream cheese and beat until well combined.
• Toss in ⅓ cup of finely chopped, crispy bacon and stir until blended.
• Scoop out about 2 teaspoons of the cheese ball mixture and set it on a pile of freshly shredded cheddar cheese.
• Coat the ball with the shreds of cheese then roll it into a nice ball.
• Repeat creating a total of 18 mini bacon cheddar cheese balls.

What type of white cheddar cheese should I use?

• I used Kerrygold Aged Cheddar which I found at my local grocery store.
• This white cheddar cheese has a wonderful buttery flavor and tastes great in this cheese ball recipe.
• You can use any aged white cheddar you enjoy eating on its own. The flavor of the cheese will be very pronounced in this recipe so use something really tasty.

Why use freshly shredded cheese?

• Most importantly freshly shredded cheese tastes better than packaged shredded cheese.
  • Did you know that some packaged shredded cheese is coated in what's called cellulose which is made from wood pulp? Gross!!!
  • The coating, be it cellulose, corn starch, or potato starch definitely changes the flavor of the cheese.
  • And it makes the cheese dry which makes it more difficult to roll onto the mini cheese balls.
  • Plus shredded white cheddar cheese is not as readily available as orange cheddar cheese and you definitely don't want orange cheese ball bunnies!

NOTE:

• You want your shreds of cheese to be about an inch in length.
• So, either use short strokes when sliding the cheese across the grater or cut the cheese chunk into narrower pieces before shredding.
• You can also cut any long shreds if needed.

How many ounces of cheese do I need?

• One 8-ounce block of cheese will produce approximately 2 cups of shredded cheese.
• You will need at least 2 cups and possibly more depending on how well the cheese coats your little cheese balls.
• The Kerrygold Cheddar Cheese comes in a 7-ounce block so I shredded two of them and just kept the extra in the fridge for later use.

Assemble the Mini Cheese Ball Bunnies.

• Cut 36 small ¾ inch ovals out of slices of white cheddar cheese.
  • I used an oval cookie cutter from this set which is available on Amazon. You can use kitchen scissors to cut them out by hand if you prefer.
• Use a pink food coloring marker to draw four little toes and a pad onto each oval to create your bunny feet.
• Pipe a small ball of cream cheese on top of each cheese ball to create the tail.
• Use a small dab of cream cheese to attach two feet onto each cheese ball.

Aack! I can't get my pink food coloring marker to write on the cheese, what should I do?

• Check out my Food Coloring Markers Tips page. It will show you what to do.