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Home » Valentines Day » An Easy, Inexpensive Cheese Board for Valentine’s Day

An Easy, Inexpensive Cheese Board for Valentine’s Day

Published: Jan 27, 2022 by Genevieve Morrison · This post may contain affiliate links

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This easy, inexpensive Valentine’s Day cheese board has just 3 cheeses, crackers, olives, berries, a little strawberry preserves, and a few tiny flowers. It costs about $30 (or less!), it can be assembled in just 5 minutes, and looks so thoughtful and romantic!

All you need is a cheese board, cheese knife, and a little heart-shaped cookie cutter to create this memorable Valentine’s or Galentine’s Day treat.

A cheese board with 3 cheeses, crackers, olives and raspberries on a lace tablecloth.

I like to keep Valentine’s Day easy and affordable. After pricy holidays like Christmas and New Year’s, I like giving my bank account a little break, but still want to make things special. I make my husband an elegantly simple dinner, an easy, but decadent dessert, and like to start with a simple cheese plate like this.

Cheeseboards can get quite expensive if you want to add dry fruits, nuts, sliced meats, or other pricy, treats.

This fancy ensemble cost about $30 (not including the preserves I already had in the fridge) but you could easily bring the price down further if you substituted brie for double cream and perhaps Cabot for Dubliner, and it would be just as pretty and tasty.

A spoon filling a cut-out heart on cheese with preserves.
Isn’t that little heart cute?

Why You’ll Love This Cheese Board

The ingredients are easy to find – You’ll have no trouble putting together this fancy cheese board with what you can find at your grocery store. 

That little heart will make them blush – It’s so cute and so simple to do. You just need a heart-shaped cookie cutter and a spoon to gently scoop off the rind.

It really takes just 5 minutes to put together – If you have to rush after work to put something special together for your date, this is perfect. You’ll have an elegant cheese board and 2 glasses of champagne ready in no time!

Ingredient Notes

7 ingredients on a table with titles describing what they are.

Crackers – I used La Panzanella artisan crackers. I like that they’re longer than most crackers and fit easily between the cheeses.

Olives – The red ones are Italian Cerignola olives.

Strawberry Preserves – You can use just about any kind of preserves, I just like it because it was red. But you can also use mustard for a more savory balance to the sweet berries.

Double Cream Cheese – I like to use a round, creamy cheese in the center like double cream, but you can also use brie, camembert, Bonne Bouche, or even Boursin.

Dubliner Cheese – I chose Dubliner because it’s a nice, semi-hard cheese that I can slice and lay nicely on the board, but you can use just about any similar, sliceable cheese like cheddar, gouda, Havarti, gruyere, fontina, or manchego.

Goat Cheese – It’s nice to have another easily-spreadable cheese like goat cheese, but a Humboldt Fog, petit brie, trillium or teleeka are also very nice additions.

How to Assemble The Cheese Board

A collage of 4 numbered images showing how to make a preserve heart in cheese.
You can also use mustard to fill the heart.

1. Place the double cream in the middle of the board, and gently press a heart-shaped cookie cutter into the center of the cheese. Just enough to cut the rind. 

2. Remove the cookie cutter, and use a small spoon to gently scoop the rind out.

3. Fill the heart with preserves. I’ll sometimes use a toothpick to clean up the edges a bit.

4. Place 5-6 crackers on each side of the cheese.

A collage of 4 numbered images showing how to assemble a cheese board.
Isn’t the mix of colors so pretty?

5. Gently stack raspberries to the right. It’s ok if they fall a little, you can fix them when you add more crackers and cheese later.

6. Add olives to the left of the crackers. Again, it’s ok if they tumble a bit. You can fix them once the other crackers and cheese are placed.

7. Add 5 more crackers to the left of the olives and goat cheese on the end.

8. Slice Dubliner cheese into snackable slices, and place a few more crackers to the right of the raspberries.

To make it extra pretty, add a few flowers like waxflower, to the raspberries. You only need a few to make it look so delicate and romantic.

fingers placing flowers in raspberries stacked on a cheese board between crackers.

Common Questions

1. Where can I find a long cheese board like that?

I found my cheese board on Amazon, and it’s really perfect for a 3 cheese, 2 treat spread with crackers too! It’s about 18 inches long and fits everything nicely.

2. What can I serve this cheeseboard with?

If you’re having a Galentine’s Day party, and want to have a few more pretty appetizers to make a delightful spread, here are some suggestions:

• Valentines Day Deviled Eggs
• Beet Napoleons with Prosciutto Roses
• Bruschetta with Burrata, Seared Tomatoes and Roasted Garlic
• Crostini with Balsamic Strawberries and Ricotta
• A Bacon Rose Bouquet

If you’re creating this for your sweetheart, and want a few dinner suggestions:

• Sage Butter Scallops with Brie and Roasted Garlic Basmati
• Garlic Lime Honey Shrimp
• Perfectly Pan-Seared Rosemary Lamb Chops
• Easy French Onion Soup
• Stuffed Cornish Game Hen with Garlic and Sage

A heart of preserves cut into cheese on a board beside 2 stacks of crackers on a lace tablecloth.
A book cover with a title that says “Elegant Appetizers,” beside a title that says “Don’t forget your free ebook! Subscribe.”

A Few Cocktails to Go with Your Cheeseboard

  • A cocktail on a dark table garnished with raspberries and small flowers, with a few raspberries and flowers at its base.
    The Divine Damiana Valentine Cocktail
  • A cocktail garnished with a small slice of ginger on a dark table beside 2 roses.
    The “Distract-A-Bee” Ginger Rose Cocktail
  • A Sparkling Elderflower Cocktail on a table, garnished with flowers and a few leaves at its base.
    The Enchanting Sparkling Elderflower Cocktail
  • A pineapple cocktail on a table, garnished with pineapple and jalapeño, with tropical flowers in the background.
    The “Hawaiian Bonfire” Spicy Pineapple Cocktail

Shop the Products

A bag of crackers.
A long cheese board with an artichoke on top.
A small spoon with a rose detail.
6 heart-shaped cookie cutters.

For more inspiration, subscribe to my newsletter, and follow me on Instagram, on Pinterest, tiktok, and Facebook! And if you ever make any of my tasty drinks or treats, take a picture and tag me. I want to see!

A heart of preserves cut into cheese on a board beside 2 stacks of crackers on a lace tablecloth.

An Easy, Inexpensive Cheese Board for Valentine’s Day

This easy, inexpensive Valentine’s Day cheese board has just 3 cheeses, crackers, olives, berries, a little strawberry preservers and a few tiny flowers. It can be assembled in just 5 minutes, but looks so thoughtful and romantic! All you need is a cheese board, cheese knife and a little heart-shaped cookie cutter to create this memorable Valentine’s or Galentine’s Day treat.
5 from 1 vote
Print Pin Rate
Course: Appetizer
Cuisine: International
Diet: Vegetarian
Prep Time: 5 minutes minutes
Total Time: 5 minutes minutes
Servings: 4 people
Calories: 614kcal
Author: Genevieve Morrison
Cost: $30

Equipment

  • heart-shaped cookie cutter
  • cheese board – 18 inches long
  • small spoon
  • cutting board
  • sharp knife

Ingredients

  • 5 oz. double cream cheese – or brie
  • 6 oz. crackers – about 20 crackers
  • 4 oz. raspberries
  • 4 oz. olives – red Cerignola olives or mixed
  • ½ oz. strawberry preserves – or mustard
  • 5 oz. Dubliner cheese – or another sliceable cheese
  • 4 oz. goat cheese – I used an herbed goat cheese

Instructions

  • Place the double cream in the middle of the board, and gently press a heart-shaped cookie cutter into the center of the cheese. Just enough to cut the rind. Remove the cookie cutter, and use a small spoon to gently scoop the rind out. Fill the heart with preserves.
  • Place 5-6 crackers on each side of the cheese. Gently stack raspberries to the right. It’s ok if they fall a little, you can fix them when you add more crackers and cheese later.
  • Add olives to the left of the crackers. Again, it’s ok if they tumble a bit. You can fix them once the other crackers and cheese are placed.
  • Add 5 more crackers to the left of the olives and goat cheese on the end.
  • Slice Dubliner cheese into snack-able slices, and place a few more crackers to the right of the raspberries.

Notes

To make it extra pretty, add a few flowers like baby’s breath or waxflower (like I used), to the raspberries. You only need a few to make it look so delicate and romantic.
See post for detailed instructions with photos of the process.
Nutrition information is an estimate.

Nutrition

Serving: 0.25of the board | Calories: 614kcal | Carbohydrates: 36g | Protein: 20g | Fat: 44g | Saturated Fat: 21g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 14g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 89mg | Sodium: 1256mg | Potassium: 199mg | Fiber: 4g | Sugar: 8g | Vitamin A: 1245IU | Vitamin C: 8mg | Calcium: 418mg | Iron: 3mg
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