How to Make Charcuterie Cones (Bouquet)

Today I’ll teach you how to make a Charcuterie Bouquet or individual charcuterie cones, a creative, unique and fun DIY treat for all special occasions! Skip the flowers and choose an edible bouquet using easy DIY paper cones; plus I’ll show you how to make a charcuterie board rose.

It seems charcuterie boards are popping up everywhere these days. Make this Valentine’s charcuterie board into a beautiful arrangement of savory meats and tasty cheeses, and it’s sure to impress your guests.

Craving more romantic recipes? Try my Giant Cookie Cake Heart, Red Velvet Donuts, these Champagne Truffles, or irresistible and easy Heart Biscuit Donuts.

Bonus: Not only is this recipe perfect for your Valentine’s Day festivities, but it is a great way to serve a grazing board on Easter, Mother’s Day, or at a bridal shower or baby shower! Be sure to also check out my individual Charcuterie Cups.

Sample Ingredients for Your Bouquet Snack Board

Below are suggestions and how I created my charcuterie bouquets, many ideas and how to are also in the recipe card at the bottom of the post.

• Charcuterie Board Rose | I used Italian dry salami and peppered salami to make the roses. Use your favorite deli meat. Include a variety of meats, pepperoni roses are fun too. I’ll show you how to make them below. The number of salami slices needed salami per rose varies based on the size of the piece of salami and the size of the champagne glass.
• Cheeses | You’ll need a few thin slices of cheese to cut into small hearts. I used provolone for this part of my bouquet, but you can use whatever you’d like. Some other ideas for tasty cheeses to add are baby mozzarella balls, brie wedges, cranberry goat cheese, and cheese cubes.
• Sweet Treats | For that sweet Valentine’s Day look, use at least two pink macarons. If possible, even better use heart-shaped macarons, these are usually available during Valentine’s day at specialty stores and your local grocery store.
• Variety of sweets in your bouquet | For instance, chocolate-covered strawberries, chocolates, heart-shaped sugar cookies, and red or pink candies are excellent additions. Try incorporating conversation hearts to hit home on a Valentine’s theme.
• Crackers | Of course, you’ll want some crackers for the assortment of cheese, these are great to tuck into the bottom of the cone. I used cranberry crackers for my Valentine’s Day board because of their pink-red color.
• Bubbly Drink | Include one or two single-serve bottles of champagne to make the board feel extra festive. If you’re not a fan of champagne, you could use single-serve wine or your favorite non-alcoholic drinks instead. This is totally optional, but adds a fun, festive element.
• Red Apple | You’ll need one or more small red apples to form hearts.
• Red Grapes | Red grapes add more Valentine’s Day color, but use green grapes if you prefer. If you’d rather use a different fruit, I recommend red raspberries or cherries instead of grapes.
• Fresh Fruit | Want to add more fruit to the charcuterie bouquet. Consider sliced fresh strawberries, figs, raspberries, plums, or pomegranate seeds.
• Greenery | To make the bouquet look like the real deal, add some greenery pieces, like delicate ferns, lemon leaves, edible fresh flower and baby’s breath. You can also use fresh herbs with long stems, like parsley, a sprig of rosemary, or thyme. Pink carnations are another great idea.
• Other Fillers | Other ingredients you might want to add include jams, yogurt-covered pretzels, yogurt-covered raisins, dates, dried apricots, fruit dip, olives, dried cranberries, savory dips, dried fruit, and whatever else you’d like on your Valentine’s Day charcuterie board.

How to Make a Valentine’s Day Charcuterie Bouquet

Step-by-Step Instructions

STEP 1 | Make the Charcuterie Bouquet Cones

Begin crafting your charcuterie cones by cutting out the cone. Like any bouquet, this one needs a wrap that holds it together. Grab some brown craft paper from the store or reuse a clean leftover paper grocery bag. Cut the paper into a rectangle — choose the size depending on how full you want your charcuterie bouquet to be. For mine, I used the dimensions of 14 x 15 inches.

Next, put a similar shape made out of parchment paper. You want the parchment paper to be slightly larger than the brown paper, so it peeks out a little. If desired, scallop the edges of either the parchment paper or the craft paper to add some style.

Then, place the parchment paper on top of the brown craft paper, pulling the corners together to form a cone and secure them together with a piece of tape or a small dot of glue at the center.

To fold the paper like a bouquet wrap, bring the sides in at an angle. The shape should look similar to a triangle or cone shape, but there should be a small hole at the very bottom. Think of this hole like the ones flower bouquets have, allowing the stems to poke out, in fact, use some skinny breadsticks, or pretzel rods to tuck into the bottom of the bouquet. Finally, tie a ribbon or some twine around the middle.

STEP 2 | Prep Your Serving Space

Prepare your workspace by placing the bouquet wrapping on a clean countertop, a large rectangle of butcher or parchment paper, or on a large charcuterie board (I love this large round one) or serving tray.

Alternatives to a wooden board include a marble slab, cutting board, platter, or serving tray. If you are gifting this beautiful treat to someone, you can build the charcuterie bouquet in a large box. Feel free to get creative and choose the perfect board for your occasion.

STEP 3 | How to Make Beautiful Salami Roses, Charcuterie Board Rose

Step A – Grab a narrow mouth glass

The easy way to make a beautiful salami rose is to grab a glass with a narrow mouth, like a champagne flute, wine glass or even a shot glass.

Step B – Fold First Layer of Salami over Rim

You will use between 8-24 slices of salami depending on the size of your glass and size of the salami rose. Fold the first slice in half over the rim of the glass, then overlap the next slice until you complete the first layer.

Step B – Continue adding salami slices second layer

Continue adding salami slices around glass for your charcuterie board rose, shifting slices slightly to create a second and third layer. Continue until you no longer see the hole in the center. When ready, quickly flip the glass upside down against a hard surface, press firmly and twist slightly to set and carefully slide the rose off the glass. Turn out some of the outer pieces of salami to form your rose petals.

Step D – How to make a variety of salami roses

Repeat these steps to make as many salami roses as you’d like, changing meats, sizes of the glasses to change the size of your charcuterie rose. Making some larger roses and some smaller roses. Then, place the beautiful rose inside the top of the charcuterie bouquet and some charcuterie meat roses around for a gorgeous charcuterie board.

Just like there are no two roses exactly the same, for your next charcuterie board, add different sizes of salami roses; or use a toothpick to form a smaller rose bud.

STEP 4 | Cut out the Heart-Shaped Ingredients

For the next few steps, you’ll need a small heart-shaped cookie cutter or multiple sizes. Begin cutting 3-4 hearts out of the thinly sliced cheese and set aside to place later.

Then, make an apple heart by slicing the side off of one apple. Lay this apple slice with the skin side up and cut it into about ⅛-inch slices. Form a heart by keeping the pieces together and carefully shifting them, so the middle slice is the lowest point.

Then, move each slice on either side of the middle slightly upwards, working your way out to create a heart shape. The rounded slice on each end should be the highest point. Place the apple heart somewhere inside the bouquet.

STEP 5 | Layer the Charcuterie Bouquet

Start working around the larger ingredients, like the apple heart and salami roses, to layer your bouquet. Then add the other larger items, like single-serve champagne bottles, pink and red macarons, and bunches of juicy grapes.

I like to place items like breadsticks or crackers in the bottom of the cup.

Next, arrange some greenery on the bottom before filling the board. That way, they stick out in various areas, giving it a real flower bouquet layered look.

Then, fill some empty spaces with medium-sized items like cubed cheese, yogurt-covered pretzels, chocolate-covered strawberries, and sliced fruit. Don’t be afraid to let some things sprawl from the top—This will help it look natural!

Finally, arrange the smaller items like chocolates, small candies, and nuts in the remaining spots.

STEP 6 | Add Some Greenery and Serve! 

How’s it looking? Before finalizing your charcuterie cones bouquet, step back and inspect your masterpiece. Are there more spaces to fill? Do you need to move things around? It may help to look at a reference photo on your phone or computer. Google “flower bouquet” and allow the images to help you create a realistic bouquet.

Finish the bouquet by sticking in some extra greenery and baby’s breath throughout. Decorate it with hearts cut out of cheese, halved strawberries, or heart-shaped cookies, if it needs a little more.

Serve this unique charcuterie board immediately for the best experience!

Variations & Substitutions

• Personal Touches | Make this board extra special by including personalized ingredients, like a jam from a roadside stand you two found on a trip or a cheese made in your hometown.
• Serve a Crowd | If you want to serve this impressive charcuterie bouquet at your Galentine’s day party or any other special occasion, use mainly meat and cheese with some garnishes of pretty pinks, reds, and heart-shaped treats. Then, serve things like crackers on the side in small bowls. That way, you can fit more into the bouquet to feed the whole family.
• Make it Gluten-Free Charcuterie | It’s easy to make this cheese board entirely gluten-free! All you need to do is choose your ingredients wisely. Be sure only to use gluten-free cheeses, crackers, and sweets.
• Dairy-Free Charcuterie | While it’s not quite as simple as making it gluten-free, you can certainly make the board dairy-free. There are many dairy-free kinds of cheese to choose from. Additionally, you can usually find dairy-free chocolate and sweets at your local grocery store.
• Any Occasion | Make this charcuterie bouquet work for any special event or holiday by coordinating the colors to the particular occasion, like a baby shower, bridal shower, Mother’s Day brunch, dinner party, or even Christmas dinner.

Individual Charcuterie Cones

I love how creative people are. Want to make individual appetizers or your own cute paper cone, nicknamed the corona cone? You got it, just scale down your paper cones and instead of leaving somewhat loose, you will create a tighter cone.

You can either cut out a large circle, cut out a wedge, roll the paper into a cone and tape, or my preferred method is to cut out a large large triangle, grab the opposite corner and roll into a cone, fixing it with tape or some glue dots, I like this video on how to do it.

But for some really adorable hand-held cones you can also purchase disposable cones, bamboo cones. These would make a gorgeous display at a bridal shower, baby shower or holiday party.

You may want to purchase bamboo cone holder or a disposable cone holders for a fun way to display and make grabbing these cute charcuterie cones easier for your guests,

Frequently Asked Questions

Storage Tips

Freezer | As a whole charcuterie cones won’t freeze well with their variety of ingredients, but if you disassemble them, wrapping each component tightly in saran wrap or placing in airtight container, some items should freeze fine.

Refrigerator | If you have charcuterie leftovers or want to make this recipe ahead of time, store it in the fridge. Just be sure to wrap it in plastic wrap. Unopened cheeses and meats will last about one to four days in the refrigerator, depending on what you use.

Soft cheese won’t keep as long as hard cheese, and the deli meats shouldn’t be left in the fridge for longer than three days. Wait to add your fruit, pretzels, crackers until the last minute.

To-go | Perhaps you want to give this recipe as a creative gift. Or maybe you need a foolproof way of transporting it to a family dinner or party. The best way to make this recipe to-go is to build it in a large rectangular gift box or use a wooden tray or board. To make an adorable present, wrap the package or board in a giant bow and include a gift tag!

I hope you loved this Charcuterie Bouquet — if you did, I would love for you to share your creation on Instagram, Facebook and Pinterest? And be sure to comment below!