If it has to be fruit cake...

Sunday, 25 June 2017

 

As a sufferer from Dried-Fructophobia I don't like fruit cake.  I don't like making it, I don't like decorating it, and I absolutely wouldn't eat it. 

However when Denny asked me to make a cake for Rob's birthday breakfast,  I thought that adding a heavy chocolate mud cake to the feast of yummy breakfast foods might be a bit much, so I suggested I make a cake-shaped-fruit-sculpture instead. 

I was confident in the concept, but the whole process was a bit nerve wracking -  I couldn't really practise it beforehand (due to winter fruit prices). I just had a vague idea in my mind (inspired by other creations on the internet) but I didn't know exactly how it would work, or even how long it would take to make. Until the day before I wasn't even sure I'd be able to buy the fruit I needed - although as it turned out everything was available including a whole watermelon.  In the middle of winter - amazing!

So after shopping for the fruit the kids helped me cut up half the fruit and we put togther a few test pieces the night before.

  

I wasn't sure how I was going to support the skewers but luckily I had enough bits and pieces of foam around the place, so I carved something that would fit into a cake tin..

 

Arranging the structure in a tin turned out to be quite clever as it stopped it dripping everywhere. 

On the morning of the party I got up at 6.30 and continued cutting fruit and making fruit skewers. My intention was to have two tiers of the skewers but it wasn't really working out, so I tried out a few other ideas and eventually settled on the watermelon middle tier and blueberry top tier which I think worked really well. The number 40 is carved out of watermelon skin.

 

The whole process was pretty messy and time consuming, but I just had time to finish it off before we had to leave.. 

 

 

The party itself was really good - Denny had done a lot of work with decorations and the rest of the food, and I think the cake was a success. Aside from being unusual, once it was cut people were able to help themselves to the fruit skewers and slices of watermelon. There wasn't much left by the end and the spare bits of fruit that I didn't use were served with the pancakes.   Perfect.

 

 

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