I saw this recipe in Food Network Magazine, looked in my fridge, and since we’d just had tacos the other night, I had all the ingredients on hand. It’s really easy and achingly cute. I mean, it’s a PUMPKIN. Made of cheese. Oh, god. Be still my heart. I added the pumpkin face because I just happened to have a purple pepper on hand. I think the pumpkin face is key to achieve a certain high level of cuteness. Plus, this ball is TASTY…and you can put your kid to work in making it.
- 16 ounces room temperature cream cheese
- 1½ cups shredded cheddar
- 3 tablespoons minced onion
- 2 tablespoons salsa
- 2 teaspoons ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon minced jalapeño
- Crushed Doritos
- 1 bell pepper
- With a mixer, blend all ingredients until incorporated.
- Form into ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Put in fridge for at least two hours.
- Unwrap, roll in crushed Doritos, and decorate with pepper top and eye and mouth shapes.
It’s that easy!
THE PROCESS
And here’s the recipe again, in Technicolor.

Adorable pumpkin ready to be sliced and devoured. Hmm. That’s slightly creepy. That’s what you get for being made of cheese, though.
PS I halved the recipe to make this, and it still worked great. I want to try heating some of the ball up, but I’m a little scared of liquifying the little critter. Ah well. It will be a glorious fate for a cheese ball.
Wooww…..Looking very yummy
Thank you for this delicious recipe