Sunday, January 27, 2013

Fruit Fun!

One of my favorite mediums for crafting is FOOD! My love to food that is as fun to look at as it is to eat began with my Mom.  She always said, "Presentation is everything!"  I have always lived by that and have taken that to the extreme on numerous occasions.  One of my favorites was this past summer! A wonderful watermelon creation for my two-year-old nephews bug themed birthday party in the park.


I made this in my pre-blogging days, so i do not have a step-by-step picture tutorial.  It is pretty simple though, and a huge hit with all ages! Follow these instructions and you will have everyone at your next picnic talking.
Supplies:

  • Watermelon
  • Cantaloupe
  • Red & green grapes
  • Strawberries
  • Blueberries
  • Melting chocolate (wafers or bars)
  • Tooth picks, wooden skewers
  • White frosting
  • Ziploc bags for piping. 
  • Melon baller
  • Cookie cutters


1. Select a watermelon that has a flatter side.  This prevents rocking and tipping. Cut the watermelon in half the long way, leaving the flat side down.

2.  Use a melon baller on the rest of the watermelon. Cut part of the cantaloupe into several sheets (about the thickness of a cookie cutter).  Use the melon baller on the rest. Put the melon balls on skewers .  Use the sheets of melon and cookie cutters to spell out names or cut our bugs.  I made cantaloupe butterflies and spelled out Eli.  Arrange them on skewers with melon balls to your liking.

3. Wash and skewer grapes. You can do same color together, patterns, or a mix of both. Set aside.

4. Melt chocolate to instruction. Dip end for the ladybug head.

5. Arrange and place skewers in watermelon. Place the strawberries. Some can be put on top of one or two melon balls to create a height variety. Use tooth picks to make grape worms and blueberry ants "crawl" up the sides of the melon, example below.


6. Use the rest of the chocolate for piping on lady bug dots.  Place the chocolate in the Ziploc bag, seal tight and clip the corner leaving a very small whole. Do the same with white frosting. Ziplocs are great alternatives to piping bags and are a disposable. No need to clean bags or tip for such a small. Pipe white dots for eyes with small chocolate centers.  Also use the chocolate to pipe blueberry ant legs. The chocolate can set up fast.  If this happens, you can place the Ziploc in the microwave for a few seconds to soften it back up.

*Transportation can be a little tricky! I rode with someone and carried it on my lap. Once at the park, i used a large food net to cover it up from pesky bees and flies.



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