Fruit Flowers

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

   Every Tuesday, the members of Foodiemonday/ Bloghop group wait in anticipation to see what a fellow member will suggest as a theme for the coming week. We all take turns in suggesting the theme. For the #132nd theme Mallika who blogs at A Foodie Housewife had to decide the theme. She suggested Edible Food Art and also gave us some examples. So some of us said no to the theme and some of us immediately said yes. Usually the majority win. All who said yes immediately, slowly began sending messages that they are not artistic and have no clue how to go about this theme. I was one of them. What came to my mind first was a pretty shaped bread, but then I do that now and then. Then I thought of cookies and seriously couldn’t go through the stress of icing in my super hot kitchen… yes its just too hot in Mombasa! Finally, I decided to challenge myself with a nicely arranged food shapes which normally all mothers do to make their kids eat. I really never had to do that for my kids as they ate whatever we prepared for them without a fuss. So then began the hunt for ideas. I decided to make this pretty flowers for hubby as a dessert treat.

   There are lots of creative ideas using food for kids. I thought this should be easy peasy. Let me assure you its not! Try cutting a juicy ripe fruit into a desired shape, had several strawberries on the counter all mushed up! The day I was trying out different shapes, my maid took one look at the kitchen and quietly walked away to tackle some other jobs. She definitely knew that there would be no space for her. 

   I love flowers so I had decided to make flowers with fruits and serve with chocolate sauce as dessert. A trip to the green grocers and didn’t get kiwi,(where are they when you need them?) , no nice light orange melon. Buying what was available I was ready to get ‘creative’. (I suck at decoration by the way!) 

   Let me assure you this is not easy at all. I should have thought of some shapes using bread as its much easier to handle. But what happens to the big grand glamorous idea of serving fruits with chocolate sauce? There was no turning back. It took me longer to cut the flower shapes than it takes me to cook a dish! 

   Now that’s not where it ends, once the flowers are cut, then getting the chocolate chip to stick in the middle was another frustrating task. It kept falling off and I thought can’t have flowers without the pollen centre. Then comes arranging the flowers in my ‘vase’. Get one stem up correctly, and the other begins to stoop! In the end I just didn’t care whether the arrangement looked balanced or not, and I quickly clicked some photos. 

   Its not that I don’t decor or garnish the food whenever I put it on the table. I try, but in a more traditional sort of way using spices, coriander and other greens. I’ve used cute little jellies with fruits as centre piece for salads, but craving out fruits and veggies and icing a cake is not me! But never know maybe one day will be doing that too. Will have to learn as presentation of a dish is nowadays as important as the taste. 

   In the meantime please please please appreciate my work of art.

FRUIT FLOWERS

Strawberries:
I made five small cuts to resemble the petals of a rose. Repeated again above. And hey got a somewhat rose like flower.

Watermelon and Mango:
Used flower shaped cookie cutters.
Stick a chocolate chip in the middle.
Push the flowers through  long wooden skewers.
Fill the vase with grapes.
Stick the skewers in the grapes or in between. 

For Chocolate Sauce:

1. Melt about ½ cup dark chocolate in a double boiler or in the microwave oven.
2. Add 1-2 tbsp coconut oil and mix well.

You may want to check out my other creative food ideas:

savoury rose rolls

Leopard Patch Bread

Kerstkransjes

Pogaca

Spiced Pumpkin Rolls

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