Why bother with expensive fruit centerpieces when it's so easy to make it yourself and fun! ♥
I started by buying a bunch of fresh fruit for the bouquet. I picked up a pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberries, grapes, and apples. These seem to be the standards for edible bouquets, but you can customize them based the preferences of your recipient. I think the arrangements are usually made with Granny Smith apples, but I used McIntosh apples. And a head of lettuce...
In addition to the fruit, I bought wooden skewers (the ones I got were a little too long and I had to cut them shorter), cookie cutters (I used these metal Wilton ones that were strong and deep enough to cut through the fruit well), and a cute planter to put everything in. I've seen edible arrangements made with vases and baskets, but I used a cute coffee cup shaped planter for potted plants.
If you're wondering why I bought lettuce, it's because I used it as the base of my arrangement. I peeled a few layers of lettuce off until it fit snugly into my planter. The lettuce is used to hold the fruit skewers in place as the arrangement is put together.
Once the planter was ready, I prepared the fruit. To make the arrangement extra yummy, I dipped some of the fruit in chocolate. I dipped cut apples and other fruit into a bowl of melted chocolate chips and then placed it in the refrigerator to set. The chocolate ended up sticking pretty well to the fruit, but it would have probably worked better if I dried off the fruit and then chilled it prior to dipping in chocolate.
Then I cut up the pineapple into circles. I simply twisted off the top of the pineapple, cut off the ends, and then made round slices. This worked out great because I didn't have to hassle with cutting the skin off the pineapple which I hate doing.
Once it was sliced, I used the cookie cutters to create cute flower shapes.
Each slice made about one flower cut-out, but on some of the slices I was able to use the cookie cutter off-center and use the rest of the slice to make half of a cut-out. All together, the pineapple made about 9-15 cut-outs which was not a lot, but enough for the bouquet:
I also cut about 3/4 of a cantaloupe and half of a honeydew into wedge segments.
Once all of the fruit was cut, I started arranging the fruit starting at the bottom by inserting
the cantaloupe and honeydew wedges facing upward. At the ends of some of the skewers I also added grapes:
Once I added the cantaloupe and honeydew around the bottom, I randomly inserted more fruit skewers into the lettuce to begin to fill it up. I added a lot of the chocolate skewers during this phase because all though they are really delicious, the chocolate looks a bit messy.
Once most of the bouquet was filled in, I finished up by adding the flower shaped fruits I cut earlier. Since the flower shaped ones are the prettiest I wanted to save them for last so they would be the most visible. I put a few grapes on each skewer, followed by a flower shaped fruit. Once the skewer was inserted into the lettuce head, I topped it with a strawberry or grape.
After a little more arranging, my bouquet was complete! And delicious! enjoy! ♥
I started by buying a bunch of fresh fruit for the bouquet. I picked up a pineapple, cantaloupe, honeydew, strawberries, grapes, and apples. These seem to be the standards for edible bouquets, but you can customize them based the preferences of your recipient. I think the arrangements are usually made with Granny Smith apples, but I used McIntosh apples. And a head of lettuce...
In addition to the fruit, I bought wooden skewers (the ones I got were a little too long and I had to cut them shorter), cookie cutters (I used these metal Wilton ones that were strong and deep enough to cut through the fruit well), and a cute planter to put everything in. I've seen edible arrangements made with vases and baskets, but I used a cute coffee cup shaped planter for potted plants.
If you're wondering why I bought lettuce, it's because I used it as the base of my arrangement. I peeled a few layers of lettuce off until it fit snugly into my planter. The lettuce is used to hold the fruit skewers in place as the arrangement is put together.
Once the planter was ready, I prepared the fruit. To make the arrangement extra yummy, I dipped some of the fruit in chocolate. I dipped cut apples and other fruit into a bowl of melted chocolate chips and then placed it in the refrigerator to set. The chocolate ended up sticking pretty well to the fruit, but it would have probably worked better if I dried off the fruit and then chilled it prior to dipping in chocolate.
Then I cut up the pineapple into circles. I simply twisted off the top of the pineapple, cut off the ends, and then made round slices. This worked out great because I didn't have to hassle with cutting the skin off the pineapple which I hate doing.
Once it was sliced, I used the cookie cutters to create cute flower shapes.
Each slice made about one flower cut-out, but on some of the slices I was able to use the cookie cutter off-center and use the rest of the slice to make half of a cut-out. All together, the pineapple made about 9-15 cut-outs which was not a lot, but enough for the bouquet:
I also cut about 3/4 of a cantaloupe and half of a honeydew into wedge segments.
Once all of the fruit was cut, I started arranging the fruit starting at the bottom by inserting
the cantaloupe and honeydew wedges facing upward. At the ends of some of the skewers I also added grapes:
Once I added the cantaloupe and honeydew around the bottom, I randomly inserted more fruit skewers into the lettuce to begin to fill it up. I added a lot of the chocolate skewers during this phase because all though they are really delicious, the chocolate looks a bit messy.
Once most of the bouquet was filled in, I finished up by adding the flower shaped fruits I cut earlier. Since the flower shaped ones are the prettiest I wanted to save them for last so they would be the most visible. I put a few grapes on each skewer, followed by a flower shaped fruit. Once the skewer was inserted into the lettuce head, I topped it with a strawberry or grape.
After a little more arranging, my bouquet was complete! And delicious! enjoy! ♥
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