Mother's Day Brunch Board

By Katrina Lander

A Mother’s Day brunch board is a simple yet elegant way to celebrate Mother’s Day. It’s customisable, meaning you get to choose all the things you know your mum loves, it’s visually pretty, and stress-free to put together.  

Brunch boards are easy to prepare and can be assembled ahead of time. They are also perfect for sharing and create a relaxed atmosphere whilst still feeling thoughtful and special. 

Although a brunch board can be either sweet or savoury, they can also be both – which is what I have decided to go with for my Mother’s Day brunch board, as I know that’s what my mum would enjoy the most, but you can create yours based on your own preferences. 
No matter what board I’m making, I always want to make sure my board looks full, includes a variety of shapes and textures and creates a flow. Here are my top tips to create your own:

Look at what foods work together:

Before you start, it’s important to think about the produce you know you want to include, this gives you a good starting point and you can then look at what foods work together. It’s important to think about different sizes; you will want to include larger items i.e. blocks of cheese and/or pastries, and smaller items to fill in gaps i.e. nuts and/or sweets. Most importantly, think about the foodie items you know your mum enjoys.

Here are a few examples of items that work well on a brunch board:

• Cheeses - Popular cheeses are goat cheese, brie or camembert and cheddar.
  
• Smoked salmon 
  
• Sliced deli meats – prosciutto and ham
  
• Pastries – Croissants, bagels, waffles (you can also use a mixture of sizes) 
  
• Fruits – Strawberries, grapes, avocado and cherry tomatoes  
  
• Spreads and condiments – Jam, honey, Nutella
  

Start with your largest items

Once you’re ready to start arranging your board, ensure to start with your largest items, which will make it easier to create a base and build around. Separate the large items on the board, rather than putting them close together. I started with my croissants and block of cheese. As my brunch board is a mix of sweet and savoury, the larger items made it easier to separate them, keeping sweet with sweet, and savoury with savoury. 

Add small bowls:

After arranging your larger items onto your board, I like to add some small bowls. These act as focal points and are great to hold your spreads and condiments. I’ve used mine to hold honey and strawberry jam. If you’re creating a sweet and savoury board like I have, placing small bowls on your board will also help with keeping sweet and savoury items slightly apart. 

Assemble your ingredients in a fun way:

Choosing foods that are different shapes and sizes will help with adding dimension and different heights to your board without you having to do much work. It’s also important to think about how you lay the ingredients out; I like to use fan shapes - using small bowls on your board can really help with this, as all you need to do is follow the shape of the bowls. For the smoked salmon, I folded each slice back and forth as opposed to laying the slices flat which makes the salmon look more appealing (and a bit more fancy). 

Fill in the gaps:

In my opinion a full platter is a good platter, I try not to leave many gaps on the board by filling these with smaller, picky ingredients. For this particular board I have chosen some mixed nuts as I feel they work well with both sweet and savoury and compliment the other ingredients. 

Keep it colourful:

Choosing some vibrant and fresh produce really brings your board to life, and makes it look aesthetically pleasing. I opted for a mix of red and green grapes, strawberries and a luxury smoked salmon to add a touch of elegance and vibrancy. 

Ingredients on my board:

• Croissants
  
• Strawberries 
  
• Red and green grapes
  
• Boiled eggs topped with chilli flakes
  
• Smoked cheese 
  
• Mixed nuts 
  
• Strawberry jam 
  

Boiled eggs:

1. I opted for classic hard-boiled eggs, however, see my timings below on how to create an oozy yolk if this is your preference:
2. Ensure you are using room temperature eggs. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil, you want to ensure there is enough water to fully cover your eggs and enough space for the eggs to move about.
   
3. Using a large spoon, gently lower your eggs into the boiling water (be sure not to overcrowd your pan). Time 6 minutes 30 seconds. 
   
4. While your eggs are boiling, create an ice bath big enough to hold all your eggs.
5. Once your 6 minutes are up, remove the eggs from the boiling water and transfer to the ice bath for 3 minutes. 
   
6. Remove from the ice bath and peel, ready to be added to your brunch board.