Celebrate your baby shower with the summer colors and flavors of fresh fruits, elegantly displayed in a carved watermelon carriage. A delicious centerpiece for any get-together!!
Instructions:
1. Cut a thin slice from the bottom to provide a stable base. Be careful not to slice beyond the white inner layer.
2. Use a knife to cut the shape of the carriage hood and sides. Remove the top section of rind. The sides of the carriage will be slightly under the halfway mark of the watermelon. The hood can be a little past than the middle point to give yourself a little room for error.
3. If you have a V-shaped cutting tool, you can use it to cut a jagged edge along the watermelon.
4. Scoop out the watermelon in the baby carriage and set aside for fruit salad.
5. Use your knife to create a carriage handle out of the portion of the shell you cut out. Attach the handle with toothpicks.
6. Attach the 4 wheels made from orange slices and hubcaps made from strawberries and kiwis.
7. Fill the hollowed carriage with fruit salad. Fruit salad may include an assortment of your favorite fruits, such as watermelon, cantaloupe, fresh pineapple, apples, peaches, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, and grapes. You can also be creative by adding chunks of cheese to the fruit salad mix.
8. For a special touch, you can add delicate ribbon around the edges and a dainty bow on the side.
Tips for our Readers:
1. Select a watermelon that is big enough that you can picture it as a baby carriage. Not too long and not too short. Make sure that there are no cracks, holes, or leaks.
2. .Purchase your watermelon a day or two of the baby shower and keep it refrigerated until you are ready to carve it to keep the watermelon from over-ripening.
3. The watermelon baby carriage should be made the day of or night
before the baby shower to avoid hardening of its rind.
4 . Fruit salad has a tendency to water or lose its water holding capability, resulting in a build-up of juice. You can provide drainage of this juice by carefully slitting the bottom of the watermelon carriage prior to filling it with the fruit salad in order to allow the juice to drain. Place filled watermelon carriage on top of ice in a decorative tray or dish. For eye appeal, cover ice with curly leaf lettuce and/or parsley.