Cream Cheese Penguins

Gets folks laughing! Worth the effort. Tips (from me & others): use herbed or ranch flavored whipped cream cheese (it will still look white); don't simply slice the olive, remove a small section to accomodate the filling; pipe whipped cream cheese using a sandwich bag; make "beaks" thin to avoid splitting the "head" while inserting them; try inserting "beaks" vertically rather than horizontally; "heads" take the most time - make them the night before and leave them soaking in the olive brine. Don't forget to make baby penguins! Fill a single olive & set on top of carrot feet with large whole facing up. Insert toothpick through center to pin it to the "feet". Set "beak" into cream cheese filling of large whole - it will hold it in place. Do a variation on this to make "swimming" penguins. Fill a single olive. Stick beak in one end and feet in the other. Shave off a small portion from the underside of the olive to keep it from rolling around. For "environment" we used an aluminum pizza pan and foam board ($1.99)for an ice flow. Trace the pan on the foam board. Cut out the circle with a craft knife. Cut circle in half jaggedly to simulate ice flow. Cut remaining half into pieces; glue and stack in layers to create "hills". Cover pizza pan with blue plastic wrap. Place "ice flow" into the pizza pan. Tape plastic wrap to bottom of the pan to hold it in place. When placing penguins, push the toothpick into the foamboard to hold them in place. Transports easily this way.

These are too adorable!! I added some garlic powder to the cream cheese for a little flavor. Also, I heated the cream cheese briefly (about 20 seconds) in the microwave and then put it in a ziploc bag. By cutting off a small corner of the bag, you can easily squeeze the cream cheese into the olive using the ziploc like a pastry bag!

Stuffed olives with cream cheese has always been a favorite of mine but I would never have thought to shape them like a penguin. CUTE! I like to use the "onion & chives" flavored cream cheese. It gives an added flavor. To easily get the cream cheese into the olives, I use a pastry bag with a #12 tip. I'll now need to buy a smaller tip to fill the smaller olives. Great recipe!

I made these darlings for my sister's wedding shower, and they were a smash hit! We arranged them in rows and they looked like an adorable little army! One suggestion would be to add dry ranch mix to the cream cheese to add a little flavor. Great party appetizer!

This was a great recipe! It was a hit at a family picnic I made it for. I was able to get 25 penguins out of a can of jumbo olives. For the beaks, I had to cut a horizontal slit into the smaller olives, and I sliced the beaks thinner so they would fit better. I made these the night before and was worried they would get dried out, so I stood them up in a tupperware container and placed a small amount of water in the bottom and sealed the top. They were fine the next day. They took about an hour to make. I needed to transport them safely on a two-hour car ride so I used the top and bottom of an egg carton and leaned the penguins on their backs in each section of the egg carton, which worked great and prevented them from shifting and getting stuck together. I used an herbed cream cheese spread which worked well. A couple people thought they were chocolate covered treats so you may want to tell people they're olives! I'll definitely make these again!

These were really a hit with the kids at our Christmas family gathering. Instead of using frilly toothpicks, I went to a party store and purchased the toothpicks with the flags from diferent countries. I also made a cheese ball in the shape of an igloo and placed my little guys all around it. Very cute!

These are hilarious! My friends and I made them for a "girls" night, and giggled all the way through. So fun! I found that putting a little cream cheese on the carrot bottom (feet) made the body stick better. And the thicker the slices, the more they stand up on their own. Not too thick though, because you don't want an overwhelming carrot flavor. .

This is my favorite recipe for the winter holiday season and I make it for each and every party I attend. It definitely takes a little practice to get the penguins assembled correctly, but after about 5, it's a snap. My boyfriend helps me make them and we get an assembly line going. One thing I do to add some flair is to use a basic frosting pump (same thing you would use to fill deviled eggs) to squirt the cream cheese into the olives. This creates a "ruffled tuxedo" effect down the penguin's front. These are always a hit and each penguin will have its own personality! People can never get enough of these. You can also make an "igloo" to sit next to the penguins out of cream cheese. Use a toothpick to draw the ice bricks.

My 14 yr old daughter and I made these last Christmas. They were a BIG hit - they look adorable. We made a cheese-ball igloo out of cream cheese and put everything on a platter with crackers.

So adorable, they were a hit with my guests! A little bit time consuming but their small, waddling army made me laugh all day. I used flavored cream cheese to make them tastier. Thanks!