Everyone loves a good spa day, so turn your favorite relaxation time into a Spa Party Appetizer! This delicious cheese ball is funny, festive, and will have everyone wanting more.
A few years ago my friend celebrated a birthday of huge significance, you know one of those birthdays when you start counting backwards. Her life is full of constant stress, so I thought it would be nice to throw her a spa party where she could relax and be pampered for an evening. She loved it and I was happy to have hosted such a wonderful event for her.
During the party we dined on gourmet appetizers and over the top desserts, but I sure wish I would have come up with the idea to make this cheese ball back then as I know she would have thought it was so clever. I guess I just need to host another spa party:)
As I was dreaming up ideas for my birthday party recipes, that spa party and an image of a women enjoying a facial came to my mind. I’ve made food into faces before for Halloween parties, and had no trouble deciding just how to make this particular face. I wanted the woman’s face to be covered in an avocado mask so I chose to make a cheese ball that tasted a bit like a taco – the flavors work well together. Her head is wrapped in a mozzarella cheese towel and she has cucumbers over her eyes and a roasted red pepper lips. It took me less than 30 minutes to create this whole thing. I love recipes like that.
Spa Party Appetizer – Taco flavored cheese ball
Ingredients:
2 – 8 ounce blocks cream cheese, softened
8 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, shredded
8 ounces Monterrey Jack cheese, shredded
1-2 tablespoons taco seasoning (season it to your taste)
1 fresh mozzarella cheese roll
1/2 cup guacamole or pureed avocado*
2 slices cucumber
1 roasted red pepper
*I prefer the flavor of guacamole on the cheese ball, but you may just like pureed avocado. If you are using store bought or fresh guacamole, strain it through a fine mesh stainer to remove all of the chunky bits
Special Equipment Needed:
food handling gloves, optional
Instructions:
Wash the face mask with warm soapy water. Dry. Line it with a piece of plastic wrap.
In a bowl combine cream cheese, cheddar cheese, Monterrey Jack cheese, and taco seasoning. Stir well to combine. I like to put on some food handling gloves and just mash it all together using my hands. Press the cheese mixture into the face mask. Smooth out the top surface then fold the plastic wrap up over the cheese and smooth out even more. You can, if you want, refrigerate the cheese ball for up to a week. You want to decorate it close to the time you serve it.
If you want to decorate it now, just un-mold it and set it on a serving platter. The woman’s skin will be very wrinkled. Use your finger to smooth away the wrinkles (wouldn’t it be great if that worked in real life?)
Unroll the mozzarella cheese roll onto a cutting board. The two ends of the roll wont open up too flat, but you will easily be able to cut out a 10″-12″ piece of flat cheese. Cut that piece in half lengthwise. The underside of the cheese, although wrinkled, is much more smooth than the top side. Flip both slices of cheese over and make sure the top side shows when placed on the face. It will really look like a towel.
Pick up one strip of cheese and set it at a diagonal across the left side of the face. Press the cheese up against the head. You want to form the cheese around the top and side of the head then cut off the excess cheese. Lay the second piece of cheese in the opposite diagonal direction across the right side of the face and repeat the process.
Spread guacamole or pureed avocado over the face. I think I would have liked my face a little better had I left more of it exposed. Try to spread the guacamole in an oval over the face, leaving some of the pale orange cheese ball showing. Place cucumber slices over the eyes. Cut lips out of roasted red pepper and place on face.
Serve. If you wont serve right away, don’t add the green guacamole face mask. If you need to have it ready early, see the pictures below for other green mask options that can be refrigerated.
UPDATE – Reader’s photos – You can see more reader’s photos in the Reader’s Gallery (here.)
I was so happy when I heard from Jo and Sue from the blog of the same name, for letting me know they had fun making this recipe for a friend’s party. They made the cheese ball using my recipe with 1 tablespoon of taco seasoning. Then, because they were needing to make this several hours before the party and didn’t want the guacamole to turn brown, they used sour cream tinted with green food coloring instead. I think it is a great option and love how the woman’s facial mask has a cool glow. They also used Swiss cheese in place of the Mozzarella for the towel wrap. I think it looks just as good and it may be easier for many of you to find, just be sure the get long slices, not square ones. To see more pictures of their creation click here. Thanks for sharing Jo and Sue.
Cheryl and Liddy B. and me created this spa party cheese ball without the help of a mask. She molded her cheese ball by hand then scooped some out to create indentations for the eyes and used that cheese to mold a nose. It looks great. I particularly like her nose. In order to get her cheese ball to look pink, she added salsa. It added the right color and a flavor twist. Cheryl posted a tutorial on her blog so you can see just how she did this recipe. Thanks for sharing Cheryl.
If you can’t find these plastic masks in your local craft store, you can buy them from Amazon.com (commission earned for sales). I love the mask without the holes. It is perfect for this project.
We had a spa party at church for the ladies and this would have been fantastic. I will have to keep this idea handy for next time. Thanks for sharing all your great ideas.
Oh my goodness! This is so great 🙂 You have the greatest ideas. Seriously. Love this.
Oh my goodness! This is fun. I really admire your creativity!
I have been following this blog for a long time but this is the first time I have ever been truly disappointed. You wrote this post as if you had this sudden idea that came out of the blue, but spa lady with avocado or green sour cream etc has been around since I was in school. Most recently it was made popular again by slashfood http://www.slashfood.com/2008/08/20/box-lunch-spa-bento/ and a link I posted on here a few months ago but is now removed.
How disappointing
Oh, who cares? It's just a cute idea. Lighten up.
such a clever Idea. I will def. use this one someday. Thanks for sharing!
Hi Bonincontrus, I am so very sorry I have disappointed you as that was never my intention. I work hard to come up with creative ideas and provide really intensive step-by-step tutorials for each recipe I make. When I pick a theme or holiday to create themed cuisine, I spend a lot of time just brainstorming ideas and do dream up most of my ideas usually as I'm swimming or riding my bike. That's not to say all of my ideas just pop into my head at the moment I need them. I search for inspiration throughout the year. I look at clip art, crafts, nature, television, etc. to find ideas. As with all of my recipes, once I figure out what I'd like to make, I do a Google search to see what similar recipes might be out there. I'm always thrilled when my idea is truly original, but more often than not it is a new twist on an idea that has already been done. In this case there were lots of cakes that used this spa party theme. I wanted to make this dish savory not sweet and felt that was a big change. I did also see the bento picture which is really fantastic, but as it is on a lot of bento sites, there are no detailed instructions for readers to use to replicate the recipe. So, yes the image of a woman getting a facial had been done in food before, but not as a cheese ball which is how I interpreted this idea.
My goal here at Hungry Happenings is to make recipes that my readers can re-create at home and to show as much detail in preparing the recipes as I think is needed to do so easily. If I use an idea directly from another site, as I did with the Rice Krispies Treat Party Hat (a twist on Kellogg's Rice Krispies Treat Witch Hat) I will say so as to not take credit for an idea or recipe. If, however, I dream up the idea or create a recipe own my own, and it just happens to be similar to another one I find, I still feel like it is my own idea to share with my readers.
Not every one of my ideas will be ground breaking or unique (of course I wish they were), but I do hope that all of my readers enjoy what I present here. I also encourage you take my idea or recipe and add your own twist to it to make it your own. I've featured several pictures from readers who took an idea from Hungry Happenings and made some changes that worked so well. I am thrilled when I can inspired someone else to be creative in the kitchen.
Beth @ Hungry Happenings
i’m planning for a ladies laugh in (fun, let-down-your-hair, fun event where a joke in hand by each woman will serve as a tirhis wonderfuk idea/recipe will be great for my event.
i’m planning for a ladies laugh in (fun, let-down-your-hair, fevent where a joke-in-hand by each woman will serve as a ticket. this wonderfuk idea/recipe will be great for my event.
REPLY
That sounds like so much fun. I hope the ladies love this cheese ball. 🙂
Too funny! Love this idea! You could really go several ways with it – sour cream or something on top like cold cream, mashed black beans for a mud mask, etc. I'll have to remember this. 🙂
So happy so many of you like this idea and I think Chris offered some great suggestions for chaning it up a bit. I love the idea of a mud mask and really like black beans, too!
Thanks,
Beth @ Hungry Happenings
THIS IS THE BOMB..I LOVE LOVE LOVE your blog so much x 1 million billion. I feel bad about the other post b/c you INSPIRE ME ALL THE TIME…I just don't have the talent or time to reproduce your wonderfulness. I hope you shake that off and know you are a cool chick.
Thanks Trish:)
Found you on Tip Junkie's linky party…love this idea! I want to plan a spa party just to make this cheese ball!!
This is so cool! Love it!
THIS IS AMAZING! Thanks for sharing this great tutorial. I would have never thought of this myself, and now I'm thinkin' I might need to do a spa party sometime soon!
http://www.spiritedshannon.com
Beth – Don't jealous people suck?!?! You rock!
Hi Beth,
I love this appetizer idea and your tutorial is so easy to follow. I wanted to let you know that I've shared it on my site (on my page about spa birthday party ideas – perfect!). Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to add. Thanks so much for sharing!
-Jill
I just ran across this while searching for recipe ideas for a cooking demo that I'll be doing next month with the theme of "when girl's nite out stays in." This is perfect! Thank you!
Well, it's a new and original idea to me! I LOVE this and want to have a spa party so I can make this – ha! Thanks for the photo tutorials – makes like so much easier. Thanks for sharing your knowledge!
That is the coolest appetiser I have ever seen.
Would LOVE to see the ideas mentioned for Halloween cheese ball masks!
Thanks for all of the wonderful comments. I'm so happy to see so many people like this idea. I've seen this recipe posted on Pintrest a lot in the past week and have gotten lots of positive comments, but have also heard from some that are bit squeamish at the thought of eating a face. Not me! Halloween is coming soon, and so will more gross recipe ideas.
Beth @ Hungry Happenings