Sweet charcuterie board (or fresh fruit platter)

There’s been a lot happening over the last couple of years in the UK with the late Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee, and the next big royal event being the King’s Coronation. Four day weekends galore.

There’s plenty going on around here with special events in villages and in the towns. Our village tends to do a community BBQ or picnic. The town has a Coronation party. I’ll probably just watch on the tv. For the jubilee, one of our hills was used to light one of the village beacons, and there’s another hill near us being used for the other village, so we did head out to see one being lit.

The Queen had an amazing innings with 70 years on the throne, and now the Coronation. It’s worth celebrating if only to watch the pageantry and history. Picnics are always good to celebrate because they’re good to get everyone together in an informal setting. And food always seems to taste better when eaten outside.

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Jubilee meal ideas

Savoury jubilee meal ideas could include coronation chicken (why not try a curried marinade for chicken drumsticks on the bbq), quiche, ploughmans with a selection of cold meats.

As for summer puddings. I quite like the sound of the winner of the jubilee dessert competition – lemon and amaretto trifle. I’m not sure I’ll be making it but maybe I’ll do a normal trifle instead.or simply Eton Mess which is quite often my go to summer dessert.

As a snack board or even a (slightly healthy) dessert why not try a fruit platter or sweet charcuterie board.

Of course, any of these ideas would work for coronation foods too.

Fruit platter ideas

Grazing boards are obviously popular at the moment, in particular dessert charcuterie boards. You can use any foods you want to create your artistically places foods. You could add dips like a sweetened cream cheese, or a melted chocolate for dipping your fruit into.   Provide small plates or little bowls and everyone can dig in as they want.

Sticking with the Platinum jubilee theme, I chose as near as I could get to red, white and blue.  (It’s hard to find blue food, but not impossible).  For the white you want to adapt the ingredients depending on the size of your board. The British flag is quite complicated to fit all the colours in place. My board was quite rectangular so I had to sit the raspberries on top of the white in some places rather than next to them.

Fruit ingredients

Red: strawberries, raspberries, redcurrants, watermelon slices, cherries, red grapes

White: white chocolate drops or buttons, marshmallows, popcorn, melon balls or pear slices, white fudge pretzels, coconut, yoghurt covered raisins

Blue: blueberries, blackberries, black grapes

What you need for a dessert platter:

• Chopping board* preferably texture to avoid round fruit rolling off, or
• Serving platter*
• British Cake toppers or coronation or jubilee themed decorations* (optional, but great for added decoration if you’re sticking with a plain colour theme rather than flag design)

How to make your jubilee sweet charcuterie board

1. Chop larger pieces of fruit to make them easier to place

2. Hull your strawberries.

3. Lay out your red St George’s cross (horizontal and vertical cross)

4. Depending on the size of your board, lay out your red diagonal cross (if your board is smaller, you might need to have your red fruit on top of your white layer).

5. Lay your white items alongside the red edges either side. I used fudge pretzels for the diagonals, popcorn for the vertical and horizontal. I added a few small chocolate drops to fill gaps.

6. Then fill in the triangular gaps with blue fruits.

7. Place on the table, add any dips alongside.

These fruit platters or charcuterie boards are really versatile.  If you’re not celebrating the jubilee, why not change it to create a 4th of July dessert charcuterie board instead. A US flag looks effective, or just stick with using the colours and creating a red, white and blue themed board. You can add themed flags or parasols as decorations.

As an alternative to a board, you could make a sweet version of my loaded savoury tart. Just spread nutella on a rolled puff pastry base, bake until the pastry is cooked through, then top with the fruit you want to include, and drizzle with melted white chocolate. It’s easier to spread the nutella on a raw pastry  base. But you could melt it more to pour and spread on a cooked base, then add the fruit.

A plain vanilla sponge traybake would also work well, with a cream cheese or buttercream icing, topped with the fruit.

What would you add to your own sweet charcuterie board for the King’s Coronation?

Like this post, try these other tips for nearby days out.