How to Make an Affordable Grazing Platter of Sweets & Charcuterie (Full Tutorial)

Valentine’s Day is for lovers and for grazing platters! Making one full of sweets, cheeses, and charcuterie to entertain you, your partner, friends and family; or just yourself is a great activity to celebrate the holiday. If you haven’t already checked out the basics on building a grazing platter, you’ll want to review it to get a grasp of the basic items you’ll need to get started. Next, check out more on treat platters here to understand more about determining the size of serve ware you’ll need to make your grazing and how to decide what items to choose, etc.

I’ll say it again and again, but I love desserts! Actually, me AND DAVID love desserts. We will spend our Valentine’s Day date at home, but I’ll be making one of these beautiful grazing platters for us to eat our hearts out! It’s a day of love and celebration, and what better to do than to eat goodies, watch movies, and cuddle in front of the fire place? But who am I kidding? Of course Little David is going to sneak his little fingers into our grazing platter of treats too 😆 In this post, I’ll guide you through a tutorial on how to make an affordable grazing platter of sweets and charcuterie for Valentine’s Day, plus you can check out the the full tutorial video on YouTube too! You’ll be able to apply these principles when you decorate any grazing platter for any occasion in the future!

Here’s How You Make an Affordable Grazing Platter of Sweets and Charcuterie

Use what you already have at home to create your grazing platter.

If you have beautiful serve ware handy at home or the budget to get it then go for it. But if you don’t have serve ware or some fancy serving board, you don’t need to worry yourself about spending any money to purchase one! Grab any cutting board that’s clean and appropriate to use for dry items, or even something like a large plate. The purpose of this is not to be perfect, but to create a memorable moment for you and your partner, yourself, or others you’re entertaining. You’ll be filling up your grazing platter with food anyway and making it beautiful. No one’s going to pay attention to what’s underneath.

Purchase affordable store bought items that you’ll likely use even after your board is gone.

There’s a misnomer that you have to have a host of expensive charcuterie, cheeses, and fruit to make a great grazing platter and I’m here to dispel that! All you need is a round up of your favorite household treats. Some of the items I had were sliced deli cheese, snack cakes, yogurt covered pretzels, mini cupcakes and cookies, strawberries, and even gummy bears. I know even if I have extra after making the board between my 2 guys at home, it will all get eaten. Use whatever you like. It’s your grazing plate so make it YOUR CREATION!

SHOP THE POST!

Begin building your grazing platter by placing down your anchor(s).

An anchor on a grazing platter is usually the focal point of the board. I always use a ramekin or some other small size container to designate my anchor. You can fill it with sauces, dips, or other small items like cheese cubes or whatever else you’re including on your grazing platter. Begin by placing down your anchor and adding other items around it. Add items from largest to smallest, using the smaller items last to fill in gaps so that as little as possible of the bottom of your grazing platter is showing.

Consider layering and stacking items to add dimension to your grazing platter.

My personal preference is to have a board that is filled with a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, but also dimension. I prefer a board that has stacks of things rather than a one-dimensional board that just has items placed next to one another. It’s totally my preference, but I think of my grazing plate as an art project so the more dimension I have to mine, the better for me!

Get creative and use Valentine’s Day themed cookie cutters to cut your cheese into shapes!

What’s Valentine’s Day without hearts, right? I love the heart theme and I know hearts are popular on Valentine’s day but they can be used year around. Add hearts to your grazing platter by using heart shaped cookie cutters of various sizes. It will add that special touch of love day to your board!

Fill in gaps with small items until your grazing platter is fully covered!

As you work your way around your grazing platter adding items from largest to smallest, you’ll see that your platter should become very well covered. To hide any remaining pieces of the platter showing, cover them up with any remaining small items, garnish, or other Valentine’s Day décor.

Get ready to snack away on your beautiful grazing platter of goodies!

The wonderful thing about a grazing plate is that you don’t really have to have a whole sit down meal situation. You can have small plates nearby or just casually graze on it - which is what I’m sure my family and I will be doing.

Check out the full step-by-step YouTube tutorial on

How to Make a Valentine’s Grazing Platter here!

That’s all to it! I hope this gives you some great direction on how you can easily and affordably make a grazing platter of your own.

If you love the tutorial and make a creation of your own be sure to tag me on Instagram and share. I’d love to know how I inspired you to make an affordable grazing platter for Valentine’s Day, or any special occasion. Until next time!!!