As many of you who are regular readers know, I’ve got a bit of a thing for fruits and vegetables. I’ve been told that I eat an impressive amount of both, and my friends who have traveled with me can attest to the fact that I don’t jump in the car for a long drive without a bag of baby carrots to keep me awake. (I certainly won’t be winning any awards for world’s best long-haul driver in the near future… or ever.)
Another person who can attest to my love for produce, watermelon in particular, is my dad. When my family lived in Bahrain, I’d often insist that we pull over to the side of the road to one of the watermelon trucks. And as you’re about to see, these aren’t your average sized watermelons…
(Photo cred goes to my dad for the above shot.)
In fact, when I arrived back in Canada in 2010, one of my first thoughts was “why are these watermelons so small?” I soon learned that this was normal and whatever I was getting in Bahrain was probably watered with some sort of secret sauce to spur major growth… creatine for watermelons maybe?
Now that these guys are finally in season (and not stupidly priced), I’ve been eating plenty. After admiring plenty of watermelon cakes on Pinterest over the weekend, I decided it would be fun to try making my own. A while back, I showed you guys how I made a fruit bouquet (Edible Arrangements style), and you’ll be pleased to know that this little work of art is even easier!
First, I cut the ends off of my watermelon with a big knife.
Then I stood it up on my cutting board on one of its flat ends and chopped the rinds off. Aim to stay close to the rinds because you won’t want any of that beautiful pink juiciness to go to waste!
Once the watermelon was completely nekkid, I turned it (now kind of cylindrical in shape) on its side so that I could cut some tiers. I sliced right down the middle, then took one of the halves and put it flat on a plate.
For the other half, I trimmed it to be a few inches smaller in circumference than the big tier. Then, for both I trimmed about 1″ off of their height and used my knife to smooth out the edges. I was aiming for circular tiers, but you could totally do triangles or squares or hexagons or whatever polygon your heart so desires.
I wanted to make a healthier version of icing for my cake, so in a bowl I mixed together about 1/2 cup of plain coconut yogurt (you could totally use any kind you like – coconut or almond-based are good vegan-friendly choices), a drizzle of maple syrup and about 1/4 tsp vanilla. Then, with a spoon, I spread about half of it around in the middle of the bottom tier. I placed the top tier on the yogurt-covered area, squishing it a bit so a little yogurt would ooze out the sides.
Next came the fun part, which was the fruit decorating. I used berries, kiwis, and pineapple for this, but you could use whatever fruits you fancy.
And voila, the finished product!
The fruit around the sides of the watermelon stayed put really well. I had toothpicks ready just in case, but the yogurt mixture proved to be a nice sticky ‘glue’.
The pineapple was cut with a cookie cutter, and I think any shape would work as long as it isn’t too intricate. Stars and flowers tend to work the best in my experience.
After making the watermelon cake, it sat on my counter in the kitchen for about an hour because I wanted to see if pieces would start to fall off or if the melon would release lots of water. Neither happened, which makes me think this could be a fun dessert to take along to a barbeque or potluck dinner.
So tell me…
- If you could have any type of cake, what kind would it be?
we finally tried this and it WORKED!!!!!!!! not as pretty as yours but 🙂
i so want to try this!!
I vote a cake party after our trail run if this is the type of things you are going to keep producing.
LOVE the watermelons in Bahrain. Now you are making me want to book a flight. 🙂
If I could have any type of cake, it would probably involve icecream, nutella and peanut butter, but that probably isn’t the right answer…
Ooh yes please! That’s a fabulous idea. Cake + foam rolling + banter about stats and shoes and racing…. sounds like a party to me. And your ideal cake – I LOVE that answer. Maybe next year for your birthday!
Hahaha I made a Shark-Melon this weekend for a party. It was SO much fun to make! I love this, a truly healthy cake and beautiful to boot.
Oooh I want to make one of those!! I remember seeing plenty of tutorials for that on Pinterest too, but haven’t tried yet. Was it pretty easy? That might be my next project….
The watermelon shark was pretty easy to do, kind of like a jack o’lantern. There is a youtube tutorial that was quite helpful, it took us about 45 minutes to make 🙂
Awesome – might be a project for next weekend. Thanks Lauren!
This is almost too pretty to eat! Since it’s healthy, I don’t mind. My favorite cake is carrot cake.
Ooh yes! I’ve never been huge on cake, but if I had to pick, carrot cake would definitely be near the top of the list. 🙂
I gotta try!! saw your post on IG and have been thinking about it since!
This looks amazing!! I have been wanting to make one of these for awhile but I’m sure mine wouldn’t turn out that beautiful!
If I could have any cake it would be a Vegan Red Velvet. Yum!
Have a good week!
Oh don’t worry- you can so do it! The hardest part is not eating all the decorations!
I definitely need to try this and make this for when I go to someone’s summer bbq or something! Such a great and cute idea. PS – I laughed at the “now that the watermelon is nekkid” part…bc right before I read that it was exactly what I was thinking! 😛
I just love this so much! It looks so beautiful. It w ould be a hit at a party for sure but I think people would be doing more picture-taking than eating! 😉
My fav cake is carrot cake. MMMM!
Aw thanks girl! Probably doesn’t surprise you that aside from watermelon cake, carrot is my fave too! 🙂 All this cake talk makes me want to have a blogger meet-up with BOTH cakes. Maybe for my b-day this summer we can make that happen!
This is seriously some piece of art!! Gorgeous and refreshing cake!!
Awesome! I NEED to make one of these this summer…seems sooo refreshing 🙂
Send me a photo of yours if you make one – would love to see!
Okay, that was a totally awesome watermelon cake.
love mom
Wow! I love how you made it a multilayer cake!
just made my first melon cake for a friend’s birthday following your instructions. So easy and so much fun……
I’m so glad to hear it, Martina! I hope it was a great party! 🙂
Can this be made a day ahead?
Hi Kathleen, I don’t really recommend it as the watermelon will start to release its water and the yogurt will start to slip off. You can however, prep all your ingredients so all you need to do the day of is decorate!