Super simple snack for your March Madness Parties

Make a basketball themed appetizer for your next basketball game! These Super Simple Snacks will be a great addition to your March Madness Party, they’ll make your celebration a slam dunk!

Whenever I host a party, I always serve some form of cheese and crackers and tend to use small cookie cutters to cut the cheese into fun shapes in keeping with my party theme. So for a March Madness themed party, I wanted to make basketball shaped cheese cut-outs, but a round piece of cheese looks like, well, a round piece of cheese. To transform this cheese “ball” into a basketball, I needed to add the ball’s black seam lines which was really easy to do with a fine tip paint brush and some black food coloring. After drawing seam lines on all those basketball tortilla chips for my last post, I’d gotten the hang of it and created a dozen cheese “balls” in no time. The surface of the cheese is so smooth that the paint brush glides easily across the top and I was able to make nice even lines. I tried using a food coloring marker, but found that it dried out as it went across the surface of the cheese and created streaks instead of lines. Just be sure to use a paint brush that has only been used for food for this project and I recommend a very fine tip brush.

Once you’ve created your cheese basketballs, you can arrange them on a serving platter, or do as I did and make little ham and cheese sandwiches.  Be sure to stop back by in the next few days as I’ll be showing you how to make a great hearty appetizer topped with these fun cheese basketballs.

Basketball Cheese Slices/Sandwiches for your March Madness Parties

Ingredients:
orange cheese slices (American, Cheddar, or Colby)
black food coloring
deli meat slices (ham or turkey)
bread or round crackers
optional: mayonnaise or mustard

Special Equipment Needed:
round cookie cutter (I used 1 1/2″ round)
fine tip paintbrush (use a paintbrush that is only used for food projects)

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Instructions:

Use a round cookie cutter to cut circles from cheese slices, deli meat, and bread (if using.) If you are topping crackers with the cheese, use a round cutter that is the same size as the cracker.  Squeeze a few drops of black food coloring into a small bowl.  Use a fine tip paint brush to paint the black food coloring onto the cheese creating the seam lines of a basketball.  Depending on how you view a basketball, the seam lines look different.  I created two different views.

Assemble little sandwiches by topping a bread round or cracker with deli meat and a cheese slice. Optional: spread some mayonnaise or mustard on the bread before topping it with meat and cheese.  If you make the cheese up ahead of your party, be sure to layer the slices with plastic wrap and store in an airtight container  in the refrigerator. There are so many fun things you can do with this decorated cheese.  Stop back by to see how I transform these little cheese balls into a savory snack you’ll want to serve during the final four game.