As grazing boards have made their way into gatherings over the past several years, essentially becoming party standards, their size and level of complexity has also multiplied. With increased extravagance for every curated board comes increased effort, increased time devotion, and increased monetary expense. I love an elaborate grazing board and they definitely have their place. But, as someone who rarely has a fraction of the audience to justify such a labor (and as someone who is appreciating simplifying more and more), I’m excited to share a board today that’s affordable and simple, while still making a statement — a rainbow fruit charcuterie board, complete with fluffy “cloud dip”. It can be reduced or increased, depending on your guests and ingredients, but the beauty of this board (aside from the yumminess and aesthetics) is that it is literally just fruit. No fruit and nuts. No cheese. No additional snacks. Just fruit.
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**As a note, I’ve talked about this before, but in an effort to answer the keyboard warriors before anyone leaves a comment, while “charcuterie” typically involves meat, including “charcuterie” in our board descriptions makes it possible for search engines to find grazing boards on KN of all kinds.
With a small(ish) board, measuring in around 11″x9″, here’s the ROYGBIV rainbow fruit charcuterie board I pulled together — just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, but perfect for any occasion, especially as we move into warm weather months!
No specialty stores or exotic ingredients needed… just a quick run through the produce department. With spring on the horizon, we’re moving into lots of yummy in-season fruits too, where we’ll find everything we need in its yummiest state and at lower prices. And while I could have contained the fruit dip to a bowl, I thought scooping it into clouds, directly on the board, rounded out the theme.
And by the way, I have been loving our berry bin colanders, not just for fruit, but also for veggies. It has made such an improvement on availability, readiness, access, and storage in our fridge! I have a few and love that they’re stackable and click into place — you can find them HERE.
Rainbow Fruit Charcuterie Ideas
I doubled up on a few colors (like raspberries and strawberries for “red” and kiwi and green grapes for “green”, but that’s totally unnecessary. When I’m picking fruit for each color though, I try to diversify fruits by shape and size, flavor, and how they can be cut. Also, be mindful of fruit that need extra “care” — like watery fruit or fruit that browns that may need to take a lemon water bath first 😉
Here are some ideas to help your fruit board shopping list…
Red
- red apple slices
- cherries
- raspberries
- strawberries
- pomegranate seeds
- cranberries/dried cranberries
- watermelon
- blood orange slices
Orange
- orange slices
- grapefruit
- peaches
- cantaloupe
- papaya
- dried apricots
- clementines
- nectarines
- kumquats
- persimmons
Yellow
- lemons
- pineapple
- banana
- yellow apple slices
- mango
- star fruit
Green
- green apple slices
- green grapes
- kiwi fruit
- green pear slices
- honeydew
- limes
Blue, Indigo, Violet
- blueberries
- blackberries
- purple grapes
- red grapes
- plums
- figs
- raisins
- prunes
Fruit Board Tip
The best way to ensure all the fruit is eaten is by making sure all the fruit is cut into small, single-bite pieces. When I serve myself from a pre-made fruit tray, I typically skip most of it because the chunks are so big. When I purchase pre-cut fruit containers, I always go through and cut the large pieces into smaller pieces. I don’t want to have to make multiple bites into single chunks — it’s messy and ends up being wasteful. Keep the pieces small (and cut what needs to be cut) and I promise it will be devoured. The same goes for the cut fruit that’s in your fridge.
How to Make Fluffy Vanilla Fruit Dip (AKA Cloud Dip)
The best part is — once you fall in love with the “base” dip (cream cheese and marshmallow cream), you can get creative and customize it! I love it in its simple vanilla form for all fruit, though 😉
Fluffy Vanilla Fruit Dip
Easy, yummy 3-ingredient vanilla fruit dip that goes perfectly with any fruit!
Ingredients
- 1 block of cream cheese
- 14 oz. marshmallow cream
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Instructions
-
Combine all ingredients and use hand (or countertop) mixer to stir well. Mix until uniform in color and then store in the refrigerator.
Recipe Notes
With the cream cheese and marshmallow cream as the “base”, you can get creative with other flavors and add-ins (chocolate chips, hershey syrup, strawberries, etc.)
Often, the dip will be spooned into a bowl but if you’re serving it on a board as “fluffy cloud dip”, a cookie scooper (like ours HERE) is perfect for neatly spooning (no sticky fingers required).
Creating a Rainbow Fruit Board: Step By Step (Video)
More Fruit Charcuterie Boards
While today’s fruit board was exclusively fruit, we’ve created lots of different themed fruit boards in the past with other snacks included. While a little more involved, here are some additional fruit charcuterie boards we’ve curated in the past…
Fourth of July Red White & Blue Flag Board
(See the full board details HERE)
One of my fave boards, I loved concepting this fruit & cheese board, paying homage to the USA.
Round White Marble Board (similar) | Ramekins (similar) | Mini Gold Spoons | Set w/ Mini Star Cutter
Caramel Apple Board
(See the full board details HERE)
Perfect for fall, but fun for summer! Soak your cut apples in a little bit of lemon juice/water to keep them from turning. All dips and toppings welcome!
Round White Marble Board (similar) | Ramekins (similar) | Large White Dip Bowl | Olive Boat | Tassel Turkish Hand Towel (similar) | 3-Compartment Serving Dish (similar) | Mini Gold Spoons | Mini Gold Forks (similar)
St. Patrick’s Day Rainbow Board
(See the full board details HERE)
Created in a trio of boards YEARS ago, I didn’t refer back to this one before creating the latest fruit charcuterie board, but was surprised at the similarities after pulling this photo for the post!
Round White Marble Board (similar) | Ramekins (similar) | Mini Gold Spoons
More St. Patrick’s Day Charcuterie Boards
And along with the rainbow boards, here are a couple additional St. Patricks’s Day boards we’ve created for the upcoming holiday…
St. Patrick’s Day Green Board
(See the full board details HERE)
All green produce, this is easily achieved with a quick run in the fruit and veggie area of your grocery store (and a quick jet over to the pickle area 😉 ).
Round White Marble Board (similar) | Ramekins (similar) | Mini Spoons (similar)
St. Patrick’s Day Gold Board
Also part of the trio of St. Patrick’s Day grazing boards from years ago, you can put some clear treat bags next to this gold sweets board as a favor…
Round White Marble Board (similar) | Large White Dip Bowl | Mini Gold Spoons
(See the full board details HERE)
A Few Favorite Boards Available Now…
All your boards are cute and such great ideas. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you for stopping by and for your kind note, Cassie! This was an easy board to do and the timing was perfect since so many fruits and berries are in season. Here’s to spring and St. Patrick’s Day!
I shamelessly copied your rainbow fruit board, and cloud dip, for my granddaughters fifth birthday party. It was beautiful and delicious, and easy! Thank you Kelley!
Kari, What a perfect board to serve for a fifth birthday party! I’m so happy to know that this was a timely post for you and love that you made and served it.