I've been on a mission to come up with cute snack ideas for the little miss's pre-k class. She keeps asking for
clementine pumpkins which are great and healthy, but not so seasonal at this point. I was searching Pinterest and found a cute idea for
fruit race car snacks made out of apple wedges and grapes. Love the idea, but I was worried that the apples would brown (I know the whole rub the cut sides of the apple wedges with lemon trick but I find that they still tend to brown a bit, especially with travel, and I wanted to keep them as appetizing as possible for the kids). Babybel cheese is a fan favorite with our pre-k crowd (except for one activist in the class who is a self-proclaimed vegan at the ripe age of 5). I was going to cut the Babybel cheese rounds in half so that they looked more like the shape of the body of a car, but I figured each kid should get at least one whole Babybel and I didn't want to have to make 2 cars per kid. I also thought the proportions of the grape "wheels" would look off if the Babybels were cut in half. The little miss helped me make these cheese race cars: She unwrapped each round of cheese from the plastic wrapper, I put most of the grape "wheels" on (she did a few but since I had to cut the toothpicks it was easier for me to do that part); she put the race flags into each "car."
After the whole making tiny construction paper hats for cheese sticks nonsense that I engaged in last month for the class snack, I decided to go ahead and buy
wooden race car flag toothpicks for $4.12 to save myself the trouble of spending an evening crafting. If you would prefer to make your race car flags here's a link to
free printable checkered flags that you can print, cut out and glue onto toothpicks. Knock yourself out.
Here's a quick step-by-step of how to make these cheese race car snacks.
Step 1 - Gather your supplies. For each cheese race car you will need 1 Babybel cheese round, 4 grapes that are all about the same size, two plain toothpicks and 1 checked flag toothpick (see note about where to buy the pre-made checkered flag picks or how to make them with the free printable template).
Step 2 - Next hold the Babybel cheese round with the white pulls tabs towards what will be the bottom of the body of the car. Take 2 toothpicks and push them through each side (towards the bottom) of the cheese round. Try to place the toothpicks as low as possible on the cheese so that the grape "wheels" will be lower than the cheese car (it will make them more stable but since it's made of cheese you can always push down a bit on the finished cars to make the bottom of the cheese a little flatter so the wheels are stable).
Step 3 - Hold the "car" upside down and place the grapes on either side of one toothpick. Thread the grapes on the toothpick sideways, meaning perpendicular to where the stem so that they do not slide off the toothpick. Leave one side longer than the other so you can trim the point off the toothpick once you have all the wheels on.
Step 4 - Add the remaining two grapes to the second toothpick just as you did for the first. Using sharp scissors (this is where you have to get a bit crafty), trim the excess length of the toothpicks so that they are not showing past the grapes.
Step 5 - Place the cheese/grape race car on a flat surface and press down slightly to flatten the bottom of the cheese round and make it a bit more stable.
Step 6 - Place the checkered flag picks in each "car" towards one side. To easily transport these cheese race cars, wrap them individually in plastic wrap.
*This post contains affiliate links. Thanks for helping to support Stylish Spoon by using the links.
I've been on a mission to come up with cute snack ideas for the little miss's pre-k class. She keeps asking for clementine pumpkins which are great and healthy, but not so seasonal at this point. I was searching Pinterest and found a cute idea for fruit race car snacks made out of apple wedges and grapes. Love the idea, but I was worried that the apples would brown (I know the whole rub the cut sides of the apple wedges with lemon trick but I find that they still tend to brown a bit, especially with travel, and I wanted to keep them as appetizing as possible for the kids). Babybel cheese is a fan favorite with our pre-k crowd (except for one activist in the class who is a self-proclaimed vegan at the ripe age of 5). I was going to cut the Babybel cheese rounds in half so that they looked more like the shape of the body of a car, but I figured each kid should get at least one whole Babybel and I didn't want to have to make 2 cars per kid. I also thought the proportions of the grape "wheels" would look off if the Babybels were cut in half. The little miss helped me make these cheese race cars: She unwrapped each round of cheese from the plastic wrapper, I put most of the grape "wheels" on (she did a few but since I had to cut the toothpicks it was easier for me to do that part); she put the race flags into each "car."
After the whole making tiny construction paper hats for cheese sticks nonsense that I engaged in last month for the class snack, I decided to go ahead and buy wooden race car flag toothpicks for $4.12 to save myself the trouble of spending an evening crafting. If you would prefer to make your race car flags here's a link to free printable checkered flags that you can print, cut out and glue onto toothpicks. Knock yourself out.
Here's a quick step-by-step of how to make these cheese race car snacks.
Step 1 - Gather your supplies. For each cheese race car you will need 1 Babybel cheese round, 4 grapes that are all about the same size, two plain toothpicks and 1 checked flag toothpick (see note about where to buy the pre-made checkered flag picks or how to make them with the free printable template).
Step 2 - Next hold the Babybel cheese round with the white pulls tabs towards what will be the bottom of the body of the car. Take 2 toothpicks and push them through each side (towards the bottom) of the cheese round. Try to place the toothpicks as low as possible on the cheese so that the grape "wheels" will be lower than the cheese car (it will make them more stable but since it's made of cheese you can always push down a bit on the finished cars to make the bottom of the cheese a little flatter so the wheels are stable).
Step 3 - Hold the "car" upside down and place the grapes on either side of one toothpick. Thread the grapes on the toothpick sideways, meaning perpendicular to where the stem so that they do not slide off the toothpick. Leave one side longer than the other so you can trim the point off the toothpick once you have all the wheels on.
Step 4 - Add the remaining two grapes to the second toothpick just as you did for the first. Using sharp scissors (this is where you have to get a bit crafty), trim the excess length of the toothpicks so that they are not showing past the grapes.
Step 5 - Place the cheese/grape race car on a flat surface and press down slightly to flatten the bottom of the cheese round and make it a bit more stable.
Step 6 - Place the checkered flag picks in each "car" towards one side. To easily transport these cheese race cars, wrap them individually in plastic wrap.