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Looking for the perfect, refreshing dessert to bring to your holiday party? These strawberry Santas are possibly the cutest things we’ve ever seen and should be a winter party staple! There are so many good things about this treat: it’s a fruit dessert, meaning it’s much healthier than some of your other options and it really adds some freshness to any meal or holiday appetizer/sweet spread; they’re not hard to make–if you can cut strawberries in half, use a hand mixer and squirt frosting out of a bag, you’re golden .. Also, they’re ridiculously cute.

If you haven’t seen or tried these, you should absolutely take the time to make them, as they’re a crowd favorite and you’ll love that everyone is oohing and aahing over your adorable strawberry Santas!

Strawberry Santas

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 pounds strawberries
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
  • 1/4 cup semisweet mini chocolate chips
  • 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Directions

  1. Use a paring knife to remove leaves and stems from strawberries and create a flat base for them to sit on.
  2. Cut off the pointy, narrow top 1/3 part of each strawberry and set aside.
  3. In a medium bowl, use a hand mixer to beat together mascarpone and vanilla extract until smooth and thick. 5-6 minutes.
  4. Gradually add in powdered sugar until you’ve reached desired sweetness and sugar is incorporated.
  5. Spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a star tip (or just use a Ziploc bag with a very small part of the corner cut off).
  6. Pipe frosting onto the cut, top part of strawberries and rest reserved strawberry hats” on top of frosting.
  7. Gently push 2 mini chocolate chips into the frosting for Santa’s eyes.
  8. Garnish with a final dot (or 2) of frosting on the front of the strawberry to act as the button(s) to Santa’s coat and a dot on the top part of the strawberry for the puff on Santa’s hat.

Recipe adapted from Just A Pinch

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