Rooster Cheese Ball

My son had a "farm theme" assembly at school. They all dressed up like farmers and cowboys, sang "Old MacDonald's Farm", talked about farm animals, wore chicken feathers on their butts, and generally looked cute. Especially my Jacko, whom I bribed into wearing his little cowboy chaps and vest for probably the last time! Anyway, I digress.

After the assembly all the parents were invited for morning tea. Everyone was supposed to bring something to share. Unfortunately Jack's class parent decreed that girls were to bring the sweet treats, while the boys were delegated the savoury snacks. (Obviously she had a girl!)

I admit I am a bit of a try-hard. Maybe it's because I'm no longer in the paid workforce (and have too much time on my hands?) or maybe it's because I just like being creative. Whatever the reason, I felt like I needed to bring something cool to his morning tea. I wanted to bring a "theme" treat.

My first thought was "piggies in a blanket" but that seemed too obvious. My heart was still in making cute animal cupcakes. I guess I could have rebelled and faced the wrath of my class parent but instead I was inspired by a rooster cupcake I saw on the Internet.

Here's what I came up with. A rooster cheese ball! I bought 2 small cheese balls, smooshed (a very technical term I know) them together to form the rooster's head, and covered it in spreadable light cream cheese. Then I added a mini yellow squash beak, mushroom eyes (with a little black icing for eye balls), and red peppers for the crown. My rice crackers became its feathers.

My son was so impressed he went for the cheese ball first! So, take that cupcake!