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These Olive Penguins are made with black olives, mozzarella balls, and carrots. They are an adorable and fun appetizer, perfect for game day or small gatherings. These delicious poppers are almost too cute to eat!

penguins made out of black olives, mozzarella balls, and carrot feet. Held together with toothpicks.

Click HERE to save recipe to Pinterest

These Black Olive Penguins aren’t turkeys, but they came to Thanksgiving dinner.

Everyone felt guilty eating them because they were so cute. Too bad there weren’t any kids at our dinner, I feel like kids would love them.

I also feel like I am meant to have kids just to make cute things/crafts with them.

I need to borrow some kids.

[Edit May 2016 – now I’ve got my own toddler to make edible art with!]

OLIVE PENGUINS INGREDIENTS

  • Large Black Olives – for the penguin body
  • Small Block Olives – for the penguin head
  • Carrots – for the feet and beaks – I like to use baby carrots
  • Mozzarella Balls – use mini/small mozzarella balls and they’ll slide right into the olive “body”
  • Toothpicks – to hold everything together
These Olive Penguins are made with black olives, mozzarella balls, and carrots. They are an adorable and fun appetizer, perfect for game day or small gatherings. These delicious poppers are almost too cute to eat!


I’ve seen some “Pinterest fails” of little guys similar to these, but I promise they’re simple. Give them a shot & let me know how it goes!

I feel like these would be adorable at a kids birthday party (or an adult’s birthday party…who doesn’t love penguins?).

Some tips to make these Olive Penguins a success…

  • Assemble/prepare all your pieces before you start your penguin assembly line. If you have everything prepped, it will make putting them together really easy – especially if you’re making a lot of penguins.
  • For the feet, start with baby carrots and slice them into thin disks (approximately 1/4-1/8″). When they’re too thick and bulky, they don’t look as cute.
  • Use small mozzarella balls for the bellies. My local market carries them in the specialty cheese section. I’ve seen people use cream cheese but I imagine that makes life more difficult and messy.
  • Start with small mozzarella balls then slice each one into 4 pieces. That way, they pop right into the olives.
  • Try to avoid low sodium olives (unless you need them). I think they taste terrible!
These Olive Penguins are made with black olives, mozzarella balls, and carrots. They are an adorable and fun appetizer, perfect for game day or small gatherings. These delicious poppers are almost too cute to eat!

TOOLS TO MAKE OLIVE PENGUINS

Monkey Cupcakes | Persnickety Plates
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california-ripe-olive-panda-art1

Speaking of cute food…
Monkey Cupcakes

Panda Cupcakes

Olive Pandas

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penguins made out of black olives, mozzarella balls, and carrot feet. Held together with toothpicks.
3.93 from 53 votes

Olive Penguins

Created by Melissa Williams | Persnickety Plates
Servings: 15
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 8 minutes
Simple Olive Penguins made with black olives, mozzarella balls, and carrots, are adorable and make a fun appetizer!

Ingredients
 

  • Large black olives for body
  • Small black olives for head
  • Baby carrots
  • Mozzarella balls
  • Toothpicks

Instructions

  • I got everything ready then made a penguin assembly line.
  • Cut each mozzarella ball into about 4 pieces.
  • Chop baby carrots into thin disks, then cut out a tiny triangle to make feet. Use the cut out triangle to make the beak.
  • Slice a large olive & slide in a piece of cheese.
  • Stack the large olive onto the carrot, then a small olive sideways onto the body. Hold them straight and secure with a toothpick. Insert the carrot/beak.
  • Repeat as many times as you want/need. Enjoy!
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Nutrition

Serving: 1g

Nutritional information is an estimate and provided to you as a courtesy. You should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe using your preferred nutrition calculator.

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25 Comments

  8. This is so amazingly cute. I am totally in love with them and have to pin this! Thank you so much for sharing this at Wednesday Extravaganza! Hope to see you there again this week with more deliciousness!

    Reply
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  16. I love the penguins! I’m always telling my granddaughter to close the fridge so she doesn’t let the penguins out! Would that be a surprise to a 2 yr old?

    Reply

  17. Hi Melissa;
    JUST joined ‘your page’.
    You said to say “hello”.
    Very much looking forward to receiving your ALREADY great pics/posts of delicious (and adorable penguins) recipes!
    Thanks bunches!!

    Reply