This no-bake Circus Animal Cheese Ball recipe is easy to make in 10 minutes by combining cream cheese, butter, sugar cookie mix, and crushed circus animal cookies and rolling it in rainbow sprinkles.
Sweet, creamy, crunchy, and tons of fun to eat, this pretty pink mixture tastes like a bite of cheesecake but is served as an appetizer spread or dessert dip.
Table of Contents
- Circus Animal Cookie Cheesecake Cheeseball
- Why We Love This Cheesecake Cheeseball Circus Animal Cookie Recipe
- Circus Animal Cheese Ball Ingredients
- Substitutions and Additions
- Recommended Tools
- How to Make Circus Animal Cheese Ball
- Tips From Our Recipe Developer
- Why Do I Have to Heat Treat My Dry Sugar Cookie Mix?
- How to Store a cheesecake ball
- Frequently Asked Questions
- More Delicious Recipes
- Circus Animal Cheese Ball Recipe
Circus Animal Cookie Cheesecake Cheeseball
Our Circus Animal Cheese Ball is a cool and creamy treat with a sweet twist from the traditional savory party starter.
Easily made with a cream cheese and cookie mix base, this cheesecake cookie ball has all the flavor of the classic pink coated vanilla shortbread circus cookie, all covered in crunchy rainbow nonpareils.
This sweet cheeseball is filled with crushed cookie pieces and plenty of colorful sprinkles that will brighten up any boring balls of finger food.
Pair it with your favorite crunchy companions and turn a traditional holiday party platter into a fun and festive dessert treat – perfect for dipping with your favorite circus cookies, pretzels, and graham crackers.
Why We Love This Cheesecake Cheeseball Circus Animal Cookie Recipe
- Quick and easy to make in 10 minutes.
- Uses simple kitchen staple ingredients.
- Creamy sweet treat that can be served as an appetizer or dessert dip.
- Fun and unique way to serve a sweet spread to your football fans, family, or friends.
- Perfect Super Bowl snack, game day dessert, or anytime party appetizer.
Circus Animal Cheese Ball Ingredients
- Cream cheese
- Unsalted butter
- Vanilla extract
- Sugar cookie mix
- Red food coloring
- Circus animal cookies
- Nonpareils sprinkles
Substitutions and Additions
- Double Dippers: Use your favorite cookies and crackers to double as a dessert and a dipper. You can try chocolate graham crackers, animal crackers, gingersnap cookies, vanilla wafers, pretzels, mini Hershey’s bars, apple slices, broken pieces of sugar cones, or any of your other sweet or savory snacks.
- Customize Your Colors: Feel free to use festive colors of candy coating for different holidays and special occasions. Cover your cheese ball with green and red M&Ms for Christmas, red, pink, and white candy for Valentine’s Day, or customize your creation with your favorite football team’s colors.
- Skip The Dip: Instead of using this spread as a dip, you can use it as a creamy filling for cookie sandwiches or use it to frost cakes, cupcakes, cookies, or brownies. It even tastes delicious as a spread for toast and bagels.
Recommended Tools
- Stand Mixer or handheld mixer
- Mixing bowl
- Plastic wrap
How to Make Circus Animal Cheese Ball
- Heat Treat: Microwave the dry sugar cookie mix in two 30-second intervals, stirring between each interval. Cool completely before mixing into the cream cheese.
- Make The Cheese Ball Mixture: Beat together the cream cheese, unsalted butter and vanilla extract until smooth. Blend in the sugar cookie mix and red food coloring. Stir in the crushed cookies and sprinkles.
- Wrap and Roll: Place the mixture on a piece of plastic wrap, cover, and roll into a ball. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm.
- Serve: Roll the cheese ball onto the sprinkles to evenly coat. Allow the cheese ball to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving. Enjoy!
Tips From Our Recipe Developer
- Use softened cream cheese to make it easier to mix and to prevent lumps.
Why Do I Have to Heat Treat My Dry Sugar Cookie Mix?
It is important to heat treat the dry sugar cookie mix before adding it to the cream cheese. Flour in uncooked batter can cause sickness and can carry bacteria. So, a quick heat treatment is needed to ensure that those germs are killed off. It’s super easy to do this by placing it in the microwave or oven for 1-2 minutes.
How to Store a cheesecake ball
- To Store: Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5-7 days.
More Easy Cheesecake Recipes
More Delicious Recipes
- Chocolate Lasagna
- Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Recipe
- Puppy Chow
- Watergate Salad (Pistachio Salad)
- Pudding Cake
- Spring Blossom Cookies
Circus Animal Cheese Ball
Ingredients
- 8 ounces package of cream cheese softened
- ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter softened
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1½ cups sugar cookie mix
- Red food coloring
- 1 cup crushed circus animal cookies
- ½ cup and 1 tablespoon Nonpareils sprinkles divided
Instructions
- Before adding the sugar cookie mix, it is important to heat treat the dry sugar cookie mix. Pour the dry cookie mix into a medium-sized heat-safe bowl. Microwave the cookie mix in two 30-second intervals, stirring after each interval. Allow the cookie mix to cool completely before mixing it into the cream cheese.
- Beat together cream cheese, unsalted butter and vanilla extract until smooth.
- Add in sugar cookie mix and blend until well combined.
- Mix in a few drops of red food coloring to make the batter pink.
- Stir in the crushed circus animal cookies and tablespoon of sprinkles.
- Scoop the cheese ball mixture into the center of a piece of plastic wrap, cover and roll into a ball.
- Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or until firm.
- When ready to serve, place the remaining sprinkles onto a plate. Remove the plastic wrap and roll the cheese ball onto the sprinkles to evenly coat. Allow the cheese ball to sit at room temperature for 15 minutes before serving, enjoy!
Jenn’s Notes
- To Store: Store leftovers in an airtight container for up to 5-7 days.
- Use softened cream cheese to make it easier to mix and to prevent lumps.
The kids loved this recipe ! Well the adults too! Who doesn’t like frosted animal crackers !
This is a cute idea, but sugar cookie mix has raw flour in it, and flour is meant to be baked otherwise it can have harmful bacteria in it. You may want to consider replacing the “sugar cookie mix” ingredient with something safer to eat than raw flour.
My bad, I see the “heat treat” information for the flour. Very useful tip, thanks!