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Basketball cheese slices

March 23, 2011 This post may contain affiliate links.

Make a super simple basketball-themed appetizer for your March Madness watch party! Top ham and cheese sandwiches or crackers with a round piece of cheese that’s been decorated to look like a basketball to make your basketball party snacks a slam dunk.

basketball cheese slices served on crackers or bread with round pieces of ham

Whenever I host a party, I always serve some form of cheese and crackers, 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 paintbrush 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.

cracker topped with ham and a round slice of cheese decorated like a basketball

How to make Basketball Cheese Slices/Sandwiches

McCormick Black Color, 1-Ounce Units (Pack of 6)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)

Instructions:

painting lines using black food coloring to make basketball cheese slices

  • 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 paintbrush 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.

The surface of the cheese is so smooth that the paintbrush 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 paintbrush 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.

make ham and cheese sandwiches topped with cheese slices decorated to look like basketballs

Mini basketball sandwiches

  • 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.

NOTE: 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.

round crackers and bread topped with ham and basketball cheese slices

 

 

More March Madness Basketball Themed Food
from Hungry Happenings

Mini Cheeseburger with Basketball Cheese
Basketball Bean Dip with Basketball Tortilla Chips

2 ingredient Biscoff Butterscotch Fudge Basketballs are quick and easy to make and are perfect for a March Madness party.

Biscoff Basketball Fudge

Filed Under: March Madness Recipes Tagged With: Appetizers, basketball snacks, cheese, march-madness, snacks

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. USMAN

    October 8, 2011 at 7:32 pm

    this idea is very great appreciatable!
    Vertical Jump Bible

    Reply
  2. hamza

    March 20, 2012 at 7:51 pm

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  3. Khuram

    April 18, 2012 at 7:35 am

    Its like you read my mind! You appear to know a lot about this, like you wrote the book in it or something. I think that you could do with some pics to drive the message home a bit, but instead of that, this is great blog. An excellent read. I’ll certainly be back.

    spinre writer

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  4. 木不子

    October 24, 2012 at 8:00 am

    Thanks for sharing such cute idea. I shared one picture with link in my article, talking about ham and cheese creative ideas. The following is my article.
    http://www.cupcookstudio.com/2012/10/5-cheese-ham-yummy-ideas.html
    If there is anything offended, please leave me a message or write me an e-mail
    cupcook2009@gmail.com
    by Gloria from Taipei

    Reply
    • Beth Jackson Klosterboer

      October 24, 2012 at 11:28 am

      Thank you for including my recipe in your post.

      Reply
  5. Anonymous

    April 7, 2013 at 6:02 pm

    Using a cookie cutter for the bread, cheese and deli meat would make this fool-proof. I initially thought you used a food marker, but thanks for the heads-up about that creating streaks.

    I'm going to start measuring crackers 🙂 as they usually look much bigger on the box and then I have to buy even more boxes to get the right size. We all know what happens when the crackers are not the right size for a project 🙂 That's why I like your idea of bread and the cookie cutter. Everything will match up perfectly.

    Tavette

    Reply
    • Beth Jackson Klosterboer

      April 8, 2013 at 12:09 am

      You are right, Tavette. It is always hard to determine the size of crackers in a box. I've bought cookies and crackers only to find the size was not what I needed too.

      Reply

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