[1] Crunchy cheesecake bites (photos #1 and #2 © Duda Fresh).

[2] Start with celery stalks.

So…you’d think that Cheesecake Celery Sticks are an April Fool’s Day joke.

After all…can crunchy celery sticks, a savory snack, be turned into a dessert with cheesecake filling and chocolate sauce?

Well…yes. April Fools!

> The history of April Fool’s Day.

> The history of cheesecake.

> The history of celery.

> More ways to use celery.
 
 
RECIPE: CHEESECAKE CELERY STICKS

Is it a snack? Is it a dessert? You decide!
 
Ingredients For 6 Servings

 
Preparation
 
1. COMBINE in a bowl the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract. Stir well.

2. SPREAD 1 tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture evenly down the center of each celery stick.

3. TOP each with a sprinkle of graham cracker crumbles.

4. GARNISH with a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

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Updated July 2026

Here’s a crowd pleaser of an idea for Easter dinner: an Easter candy “charcuterie board” (platter) at the end of the meal, instead of petit fours*.

Candies and cookies take the place of the meats on an actual charcuterie board†.

We serve ours at the end of the meal, after dessert, with coffee.

You can either create a platter that’s kid-friendly, or a “gourmet” version for the sophisticated foodie crowd, with artisan Easter candies.

You can substitute Easter cookies instead, or combine cookies and candy.

If you’re creating an elegant board for connoisseurs, head to your favorite chocolatiers and augment with petite cookies like mini macarons.

And you can apply the same principles to a Christmas candy or Valentine candy charcuterie board. It’s an all-celebration concept.

And because it’s arranged in advance, you can hide the board from your guests and bring it out as an after-dinner surprise.

Thanks to the International Charcuterie Association for inspiring this article.

Below:

> How to create a candy charcuterie board.

> What are mignardises and friandises?

Elsewhere On The Nibble:

> The history of Easter candy and the Easter basket.

> The history of Easter eggs.

> The history of the Easter ham.

> The year’s 60+ candy holidays.
 
 
CREATE YOUR CANDY CHARCUTERIE BOARD
 
 
STEP 1: Select a tray, platter, or cheese board as the base. It doesn’t have to be large; after eating dinner, people’s capacity for candy will be smaller. Trays with a rim are better to contain the candies after people start to dig in.

Provide small paper or plastic cups (muffin/cupcake liners work) and serving spoons for people can help themselves.
 
 
STEP 2: Pick Your Treats

Focus on the color palette (as in the photos) to make your board pop.

Check out candies in Easter colors or pastels, or gold or color-foil-wrapped:

 
Also look for

 
 
*FOOD 101: MIGNARDISES (PETIT-FOURS) & FRIANDISES

These are different types of sweets served at the end of a meal with coffee. Liqueurs can also be served.

Mignardises (min-yar-DEEZ), from the French for “preciousness,” belong to the group of after-dinner cookies called petit-fours (French for “small baked pastries”).

Petit-fours (pronounced petty-foor) are tiny cakes or other tiny baked goods, like mini macaroons and other mini cookies. The words are French for “small ovens” but mean “small baked pastries.”

There are many varieties of petit-four; the most familiar in the U.S. is a one-inch-square layered sponge cake, filled with butter cream and iced in a variety of colored fondants, often with tiny roses or other piped embellishments (photo #6). A truly American addition to a petit-fours plate would be mini cupcakes.

In France, this style is not common; and there are confections that can be included on a petit-fours plate. See Friandises, below. that are not baked at all.

There are two styles of petit-fours: glacée (iced) and sec (dry).

[1] It’s easy to put together an Easter “charcuterie” board, substituting candy for charcuterie (photo © Taste Of Home | TMB Studio).

[2] A mixture of cookies and candy (photo © Lil Luna—here’s how she made it).

[3] Candy grass can hold jelly beans or other candy, then eaten (photo © The Typical Mom.

[4] Gold foil-wrapped mini bunnies add glimmer to the board (photo © Lindt USA).

[5] A mix of candy and cookies, with an army of chicken and bunny Peeps (photo © Galloway Grazes | Instagram).

[6] Easter petit-fours (photo © Mackenzie Ltd.).

[7] Modern mignardises: We have always loved these speckled eggs with candy exteriors and silken ganache insides from artisan chocolatier Fritz Knipschildt | Chocopologie (photo © Williams Sonoma).

[1] The beautiful Pinkglow® Pineapple (all photos © Fresh Del Monte).

[2] A memorable tropical fruit salad.

[3] Order online and this beautiful box arrives.

A truly delightful gift for any foodie is Fresh Del Monte’s Pinkglow® Pineapple. It looks like a regular pineapple on the outside, but the flesh is rosy pink through and through.

Gift it for Easter, Mother’s Day, hostess gifts, or any occasion where delicious, nutritious, low-calorie* fruit is appreciated.

This unique, exclusive gift comes with pink presentation packaging that showcases the world’s first and only fresh pink pineapple.

Beyond its captivating appearance, the pineapple offers a juicier and less tart (sweeter) flavor than traditional varieties.
 
 
HOW IS IT PINK?

Fresh Del Monte’s Pinkglow® Pineapple derives its unique pink color from lycopene, a natural pigment and well-known antioxidant found in red-colored produce such as cranberries, grapes, tomatoes, and watermelons.

The pineapple was bred to produce lower levels of certain enzymes already in a conventional pineapple. These enzymes convert the pink pigment lycopene to the yellow pigment beta carotene that creates the color of traditional pineapple flesh. Less of those enzymes leads to pink pineapple.

After 16 years of development, Fresh Del Monte Produce released Pinkglow pineapples in 2020: a singular, luxurious fruit.

The pineapples grow on a select farm in the south-central region of Costa Rica, which has the ideal soil and climate to produce them.
 
 
GET YOUR PINKGLOW PINEAPPLES

For more information including online purchasing and delicious recipes, head to PinkglowPineapple.com.

The fruit is available for shipping across the U.S.† and Canada, nicely packaged.

You also can find Del Monte’s Pinkglow Pineapple at select local retailers, starting at $14.99.
 
 
PINEAPPLES: A SYMBOL OF WEALTH

Until the broadscale cultivation of pineapples in the 1900s, a pineapple brought to Europe from South America was very costly.

It was a gift given to kings and nobles. Pineapples remained so uncommon and coveted that King Charles II of England posed with one in an official portrait (see the portrait).

For lesser wealthy mortals, a pineapple centerpiece on a formal dining table said much about a family’s affluence and rank in society.

Guests were delighted just to see a pineapple. It wasn’t eaten. The fruits were so expensive and so much in demand that confectioners would often rent them by the day!

> Here’s more on the history of pineapple.

†Pineapple cannot be shipped to Hawaii.

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