Santa Buttercream Board: A Christmas Dessert Board

The holiday season is a fun time to unleash your creativity, especially when it comes to desserts. If you're looking to add a festive and delicious touch to your next Christmas party, this Santa Buttercream Board is the perfect idea!

This holiday frosting board is not only eye-catching but also a delightful treat for everyone to enjoy. You can even make it your signature dessert of the season and take it to all your holiday parties!

What Is A Buttercream Board?

If you’ve never heard of a Buttercream Board, it’s basically a dessert charcuterie board that features delicious buttercream frosting along with your favorite sweet treats. It's the perfect way to create a themed holiday treat that everyone will love!

This particular snack board looks like a Santa hat and uses marshmallows, cookies and mini pretzels for dipping, but you could also use fresh fruit and a variety of your favorite cookies. When you make your own Christmas dessert board, you get to choose what treats you want!

What You'll Need For This Santa Board

Large Board

A large board serves as the foundation for your Santa Buttercream Board. It not only provides a spacious canvas for your festive creation but also ensures that there's ample room to display an array of treats around your buttercream masterpiece.

The size of the board is crucial as it determines how much you can fit onto your dessert board. Ideally, the board should be sturdy and flat to support the weight of the frosting and treats. It's also a good idea to choose a board with a smooth surface, making it easier to clean and more appealing when presenting your dessert spread. The aesthetic appeal of the board, whether it's a wooden board, slate board, or a board made from another material, adds to the overall presentation of your Christmas dessert.

While we used a large round board for this delicious buttercream board, you could use a smaller board or a different shaped board. I've used serving trays and wooden cutting boards as well for frosting boards.

If you decide to use a wooden cutting board, you may want to put a piece of parchment paper down (you can use plain frosting as “glue”) before adding brightly colored frostings as they can stain your cutting board.

2 1M Tips for Piping

Tip 1M for piping is essential for creating the decorative elements of your buttercream design, particularly the Santa hat's rosettes and star tips. This specific tip is known for its versatility and ability to produce beautiful rosettes, stars, and swirls, adding a professional touch to your dessert board.

The 1M tip is perfect for achieving the right texture and shape of the frosting details, ensuring that your Santa hat looks as charming and festive as possible. Its design allows for smooth and consistent piping, making it easier to create uniform patterns, which is crucial for the overall look of your Santa hat.

And since you'll be using 2 different colors, it's easier to have 2 tips so you're not having to cean the piping tip between colors.

2 Piping Bags

Piping bags are indispensable tools for applying frosting to your dessert board. You'll need two bags – one for each color of frosting (red and white) – to efficiently create your design without having to constantly clean and refill a single bag. The use of separate bags for each color streamlines the decorating process, allowing for quick and easy switching between colors as you build your Santa hat and other decorative elements.

Piping bags give you control over the frosting, enabling precise placement and ensuring a neat, professional-looking finish. They are also flexible and easy to handle, making them suitable for users of all skill levels, from baking enthusiasts to seasoned pros.

Santa Buttercream Board Ingredients

• 1 can of store-bought red frosting (or homemade buttercream frosting dyed red)
• 1 can of store-bought white frosting (or homemade buttercream frosting)
• 1 cup mini pretzels
• 1 small pack of Biscoff cookies
• 1 small pack of strawberry wafer cookies
• 1 cup mini marshmallows
• 1 cup standard-size marshmallows
• Candy Canes

How To Make A Santa's Hat Christmas Dessert Board

Begin by mixing your frosting. If you made your own homemade frosting, you don't need to mix it again.

If you're using store-bought frosting and you have a hand mixer, use one beater and insert it into the plastic can, and mix for about 45 seconds until the frosting becomes smooth and fluffy. Do this for both the red and white frostings.

Next, you'll want to fill your piping bags. Fit each piping bag with a 1M tip.

Add red frosting to one bag and white to the other.

Now it's time to create Santa's hat. Decide where you want to place Santa's hat on the board – in the center or off-centered. I opted for off center since I was adding some long wafers to the board.

To make the rosettes for the hat, lift the red icing piping bag slightly above the board. Squeeze with consistent pressure in a circular motion. Avoid dragging on the board to prevent the rosettes from flattening.

Create several rows until the hat shape forms.

For the top of the hat, you'll want to use white frosting and create a “star tip” by squeezing out a little frosting, stopping, and then pulling off to form a textured cotton ball effect.

To make the bottom of the hat, you'll want to add a longer line of white rosettes at the bottom for the base of the hat.

Now it's time to position all your favorite treats around the buttercream hat to complete the board. Start by adding pretzels.

Then add some strawberry wafers.

Next add some Biscoff cookies to the bottom of the hat and then fill in the rest of the areas with marshmallows and pretzels.

I originally added the candy canes around the board as decorations, but I noticed quite a few people using a candy cane as a dipper. 🤷🏼‍♀️

Serve with a smile!

FAQs {Frequently Asked Questions}

Can I make this ahead of time?

Yes, you can prepare the board a few hours before serving. Keep it in a cool place to prevent the frosting from melting.

How long does the frosting board last?

It's best to eat it on the same day you make it so everything stays fresh and the frosting stays nice and fluffy. If you have any leftovers (which is unlikely since this is such a fun and delicious snack), you can cover the board in plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight. Keep in mind that the cookies and marshmallows may change texture if left near the frosting for too long.

Am I better off using store-bought frosting or a simple buttercream frosting that I make?

While I think homemade buttercream is superior to the store-bought frosting since it uses real ingredients that I can pronounce, I like to keep a tub of store-bought vanilla buttercream and some chocolate buttercream on hand for those busy days where I don't have time to make my own buttercream.

Can I use different cookies or sweets?

Absolutely! Feel free to customize the board with a variety of cookies. You can also use your favorite holiday treats and finger foods.

Some of our favorite sweets are shortbread cookies, nilla wafers, chocolate wafers and chocolate chip cookies. We've also done frosting boards with donuts and snack cakes and those were a big hit too.

You can also opt to add more salty snacks like pretzels and crackers for those who like the combo of salty and sweet.

Can I use chocolate frosting instead of buttercream?

While you can technically do whatever you want, you'll have a difficult time coloring the chocolate frosting to look like Santa's hat. If you really want a chocolate buttercream board, I recommend making a Rudolph Dessert Board and using chocolate frosting to create Rudolph's face and red frosting for Rudolph's nose.

How do I serve the Santa Buttercream Board?

Provide small plates and utensils for guests to help themselves. You can also include a knife for spreading the frosting on your cookies.

Is this suitable for large gatherings?

Yes, it's perfect for gatherings. You can adjust the quantity based on the number of guests.

Creating the Santa Buttercream Board is not only a fun activity but also a way to add a special touch to your holiday festivities. With its festive appearance and delicious combination of sweets, it's sure to be a hit at any Christmas gathering. Enjoy the holiday spirit and the sweet treats!

Check Out These Other Festive Christmas Treats!

Rudolph Cheese Ball

Rudolph Brownies

Rudolph OREOs

OREO Ornaments

Hot Chocolate Cookie Cups

Mickey and Minnie Christmas Cake Balls

Cinnamon Roll Christmas Trees

Pin This Santa Claus Buttercream Board For Later!