Tag Archives: art

How to Decorate Food With Watermelon Carvings

Posted on by

Watermelon is an incredibly versatile fruit that can used to decorate a number of desserts, main dishes and also cocktails. You can do more with it than carve it up into chunks and throw it into fruit salad. Watermelon is easy to work with and holds it’s shape which is not something that can be said of all fruits.

One way to get artistic with them is to make watermelon roses. You can line a bowl with these roses or, perch them on top of an arrangement with a toothpick. The roses can also be used to rim a cake or a dish of a sorbet. They are the perfect frozen garnish for a sorbet or ice cream cake. They also suit many types of cocktails, especially those using a melon based liquor.

Makin a watermelon rose one is easy enough to do. You use a knife to cut a large chunk of fruit from the watermelon and then carve out five to seven thinner strips of watermelon in different thicknesses and lengths. You then take the strips at either end and coil them around each other to make a rose shape. Fruit dip or melted chocolate can help your roses stick together. You can also spear them on the green stem of a toothpick.

The types of watermelon carvings that can be made are as only as limited as your imagination. Using a kitchen knife you can hollow out the flesh from the rind and make a decorative bowl. People make everything imaginable from watermelons including pirate ships and baby carriages. The finished carving be filed with blueberries, melons, grapes and strawberries.

You can also use a melon baller on watermelon flesh. You can spear these with other fruits, stack them or use them as décor for ice cream or any other dessert. Watermelon balls also look great frozen in an ice cube or frozen by themselves and dropped in a cocktail. They go especially well in a tall frosty glass of coconut water.

Another interesting project is to simply cut flat slices of watermelon and then use cookie cutters to create watermelon themes. You can then arrange these shapes as desired on a plate or around a dessert.

One of the nicest carvings to be made out of a whole watermelon is the lotus shape. Simply cut the peel off of the top of a watermelon and then start making wedge shaped cuts into the flesh that look like petals. Keep doing this in a spiral upwards until you have what looks as a closed lotus bud shape.

How to Decorate a Centerpiece With Banana Fruit Carvings

Posted on by

Fruit carvings are popular in Asia, Malaysia and Hawaii. One of the foods that it is commonly used in centerpieces is the banana.

To make any type of carving out of a banana use a good hand paring or carving knife. Make sure it has a stainless steel or bronze blade. Make sure to sharpen any knives before using. Dull blades are more likely to slip in your hand (hands get slippery with juice doing this craft) and you could cut yourself. Some people also use cookie cutters or candy molds to help cut bananas for decorating purposes.

Making a successful fruit carving means choosing the right banana in the first place. If the banana is too ripe you will not be able to cut it. Choose a banana that is firm and whit inside. You do not want the banana to go mushy while you are carving so buying bananas that have a bit of a green tinge to their skin is very much recommended.

One of the easiest things to make is a banana centerpiece. Slice up the banana into coins and line it up along a plate. Stick a toothpick into each and then cut a strawberry into slices which makes a natural heart shape You can then stick the toothpick spearing the heart shapes with any type of fruit you want. A rounded piece of pineapple or watermelon works well as a base for this type of centerpiece.

You can also carve a banana octopus by opening the peel of a banana half-way. Take out half of the banana and then cut the peel into eight tentacles. Black peppercorns can be used as eyes.

It is also easy to make a Banana Daschund. Simply take an unpeeled banana and carve the foot shape out of the peel without stripping the banana. Open the peel of a second banana to make the head of the dog. Cut off half of the second banana and two of the four peels so that the two remaining peels look like dog heads. Attach the head to the body of the dog. Whole black pepper can be used to make eyes for the dog and a bit of red fruit or a maraschino cherry makes a nice shiny dog tongue.

This is one decorating project where it is okay to make a mistake. You can always mash up the left-overs and make banana bread!