My 3 year old daughter has a dairy allergy and I always feel so bad for her when we go out and she can't eat what the other kids are eating.
We attend a lot of kids' birthday parties and one of her favourite parts is the cake cutting. But then when all of the kids are enjoying the eating part, she has to just watch and eat fruit or another snack that we bring for her. She's a good sport about it, though… she quite enjoys having her fruit.
For her past 2 birthdays, I wanted her to be able to fully eat and enjoy her own birthday cake, so I made them purely out of fresh fruit.
They've all ended up looking more fabulous than most kids' regular cakes!
When I told a friend of mine that I feel bad for her that she can't eat regular cake, her exact words were "No! Other kids should feel bad that they don't get her fruity cake!"
It's actually a pretty simple process, even though it ends up looking quite grand.
Things you'll need:
- Large fruit to be the base (watermelon, honey dew melon, and/or cantaloupe - depending on the size of your cake and whether or not you want tiers)
- Your choice of pretty much any other fruit! And as much or as little of it as you want.
- Knife
- Optional cookie cutters
- Optional paper toppers
1. Start with your large melon(s). Cut off the top and bottom, to make flat surfaces. I don't recommend taking the seeds out of the melons yet, because it will make it weak, and it might fall apart while you're assembling the rest of it. (After the singing and candle blowing, then cut it up and deseed before serving to guests)
2. Cut up your remaining and smaller fruits. Regular cutting is just fine, but you can also use small cookie cutters to create cool shapes.
3. Use toothpicks to attach the smaller fruit to the melon base, in a line and/or pattern. Let your imagination go wild!
4. Top it off with more fruit, making a pleasing pattern. Let your fruit guide you!
5. I've always added a printed paper toppers as well, to go with the theme that we're using that year. (When she turned 2, it was "Paw Patrol"… and this year it was "Lion Guard" - she had 3 different cakes this year, because we celebrated with different people on 3 different days!)
6. Keep your masterpiece in the fridge until it's cutting time. Feel free to add candles (remove the paper toppers from the flame).
DIG IN AND ENJOY!
Comments