Do you want to channel your inner Martha Stewart? A dessert board will do it! This book is so fun, colorful, and creative. I certainly don't have the vision to create these on my own but I was surprised at how easy it is to put a dessert board together when you have specific directions. It would definitely provide that wow factor for special events, family gatherings, or just every day specialness.

This is such a fun book!!! Who doesn't like dessert? There are boards designed for the different holidays. If you want to create a special night for St Patrick's day or the Super Bowl this book has you covered. These boards are not huge you can make them as full or as sparse as you like. The pictures are great and give you wonderful ideas of how to lay things out. If you want to have a cupcake or cookie decorating party they have a lay out for you. One of my favorites is the after school sweets. Individual boards with some skewered fruit and some nuts with yogurt. Perfect for those after school. The chocolate boards have my mouth watering. Ice cream bars and hot chocolate bars are fun for family game nights. Recipes are included.

This was great and really gave me some ideas! I love how it started from the very beginning with what to use and how to get started.

The dessert boards in this book are so beautiful and colourful, they are practically works of art! My artist heart felt so happy just looking at them. My metabolic issues also had me looking at the pictures to see what alternatives for low-carb desserts I could come up with. Lots of ideas here for those who have no such issues.
The food can be store-bought or made at home if you choose, as recipes are provided. Definitely a book to have on-hand for a party where you can wow your guests.

I like that the boards in this book are all focused on dessert or sweet themes. Chapters are Boards to start the day, boards for happy holidays, around the world boards, family friendly boards, celebration boards, any time boards, and recipes for homemade treats. Each board "recipe" has a full color photo and lists the ingredients in homemade and store bought sections. One of my favorite traits in this book is that each board recipe starts with listing the shape and diameter of the board or platter the author used to assemble it. This is a fun book for someone looking for specifically dessert boards or party dessert ideas.

This book is 95% about arranging store-bought treats of various kinds onto boards and platters of various kinds. It has a few recipes thrown in at the end and one page of general advice about creating dessert boards. The bulk of the book consists of two-page spreads on one page is a picture of the board. on the other is a description of how it was put together. It's not worth the trouble, you can do this without a book.

Good for people that want to entertain and don’t have time to make much from scratch. This isn’t a cookbook more an inspiration book (there’s only 15 recipes in the book). 95% of the boards are store bought items. The pictures are cool I just prefer to make more from scratch.

I would not consider myself a culinary artist, but I do love to cook and I definitely appreciate excellent presentation. This picturesque book gives me hope that I can be the host with the most eye-catching and delicious boards around.
The highlights of this book of confectionery display principles include:
Types of boards and props that can be used
Build techniques
Ingredients and layouts for different types of sweet boards
Some of my favorite boards were:
Coffee Bar
Yogurt Parfait
Spring Brunch
Sushi and Sweets
Desert Nacho
After School Sweets
Sweet Summer Fruit Salad
There were so many beautiful, delicious, easy to make boats that narrowing it down to a few favorites was difficult.
An easy (and tasty!) 5 stars for this combination coffee table/recipe book. The photos are stunning and hunger inducing. There are even dessert recipes in the back to help you fill out your boards. Many thanks to Harvard Common Press via Netgalley.

Drool alert! The boards in this book look so yummy and fun. I like all the unique things people are doing today vs. The old boring cheese boards.

Dessert Boards: 50 Beautifully Sweet Platters and Boards for Family, Friends, Holidays, and Any Occasion is one of the latest books on the trendy “boards” craze that is growing daily. Although caterers and professional cooks have been presenting foods on boards for years, this new cookbook shows how to make these at home. Blogger and cook who has appeared on television and popular web pages, Kellie Hemmerly, has outdone herself with presenting beautiful boards that are suitable for serving on holidays and special occasions.

Hemmerly has an excellent imagination and presents unique boards for holidays, as well as breakfast and brunch dessert boards and dessert for every occasion including outdoor gatherings, formal gatherings, and buffets.

Hemmerly’s boards are suitable for children, families, and adults only parties. Almost everyone loves to choose from several offerings rather than just one thing. These trendy boards add lots of fun to dessert, and will probably be offered for years to come. These boards are beautiful, and there is a beautiful photograph of every board that is presented.

There are excellent recipes for many of the sweets that are used in the boards. The recipes are succinct and easy to follow. These recipes and boards are easy for anyone to put together, including beginning cooks, non-cooks, and experienced cooks. Some are made of all store-bought items, and others homemade items. They are also easy to adapt to what you have in your home, and substitutions are easy to add.

While boards aren’t a new idea, they are a great idea and will make your entertaining and family desserts lots of fun.

Special thanks to NetGalley for supplying a review copy of this book.

Very creative and photos are well done. Recipes in the back are helpful although you should realize this is not a recipe book - it is a dessert presentation book.

I never thought of flipping the "in vogue" charcuterie board into a fun dessert option. I will definitely use this for the future - especially bringing to friends homes!

OMG my mouth was watering while I looked through this book. One word sums it up.... Yummy.

This book turns those boring cheese boards into something quite sensational.
I'll admit I have not tried any yet but with christmas coming I see a chance in my future.
She covers everything from the actual boards to the utensils needed.

She covers everything from kids to adults.
The cookie board looks awesome. And she seems to have covered most of those special occasions.

Give it a go and become more creative at parties and gatherings.

Enjoy!

I love a good food board. This gave me some fun inspiration. Looking forward to include some of these ideas into my own board making

A simple yet impressive display of desserts on boards/trays for everyday and special occasions. There are a few sweet, delicious recipes at the end. This is a very fun book to browse for great ideas.

This is one of the least inspiring of the foodboard cookbooks I've have looked at. This one was more clearly "What can we throw on a board and give a cute name?". A great example of this was a Doughnut board which just included a big picture of a mound of doughnuts. Not much I could find in this book that you couldn't find on pinterest.

So many cute and fun ideas for sweet boards! Great for themed parties, holidays, and special occasions! I love that homemade treat recipes are included in the boards along with store bought treats. Can’t wait to utilize these ideas!

I received a copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book was around 3.5 stars for me.

It's a beautiful book - lots of pictures of themed dessert boards that look delicious! I love the noshing board trend and am apparently picky in what I'm looking for. There are recipes for some of the desserts in the back, but the book is mostly how to arrange different desserts that are store bought to look nice. Some of the boards aren't super practical - like the hot cocoa board seems like a lot of work to lay everything out when it's just all going in a mug and the cheesecake board is basically just showing you how to plate cheesecake.

The pictures are great and I like the idea, but overall not quite what I was expecting.

YUM!!! Wonderful ideas for all kinds of celebrations. Each board is beautifully presented and photographed to inspire lovely, luscious dessert boards that will truly wow anyone lucky enough to get invited to that party!

Most of the boards revolve around things that can be store-bought, but there is a nice section of recipes for some homemade treats as well. This would be a great gift for anyone with a sweet tooth who loves entertaining!

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review!

Dessert Boards is an exuberantly well curated ode to desserts with recipes by Kellie Hemmerly. Released 2nd Nov 2021 by Quarto on their Harvard Common Press imprint, it's 144 pages and is available in paperback format.

This is a well presented and easy to follow book full of good tips and tricks for presenting tasty food and creating a convivial atmosphere with platters and boards full of sweets. I like that the author has a very friendly upbeat style of writing and the food is beautiful.

The introduction covers the basics of building a board including the board itself (not necessarily wooden), bowls, serving utensils, and food considerations (including transportation logistics). The boards themselves are arranged thematically: early day (coffee, breakfast, etc), holidays, international, family gatherings, celebrations, and anytime. The boards contain both homemade treats (recipes in the back of the book) and store-bought additions such as fruit, trail mix, granola bars, donuts (no recipe included), croissants (ditto), and jams/jellies. The following section of the book contains the recipes used in the boards. Recipe ingredients are listed in a bullet-style sidebar. Measurements are in American standard with most metric measures in parentheses (yay!) followed by step by step instructions. Boards using the recipes are listed in the header. The book doesn't include nutritional information. The recipes are pictured with the finished boards and the pictures are beautifully clear and colorful. Many of the recipes do use pre-packaged ingredients and condiments for convenience.

Five stars. The dishes and boards here aren't super *fancy* but they really *feel* special because of the presentation. I liked everything about this book, from the presentations, the clearly written recipes, and the beautiful photography and food styling. This is a very popular instagram/pinterest trend and this book contained a lot of time-saving shortcuts and suggestions. Perfect for holiday entertaining.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.