Watermelon Shark!

The humble watermelon. I offered to bring a fruit plate to a Christmas celebration this week. I’m not sure if this is what the hosts were expecting, but I decided we’d give our fruit plate a twist and create a watermelon shark sculpture! I’d seen something similar on blogs before and wanted to see how hard it was. It’s actually easier than it looks, due to the fact that watermelons, unlike pumpkins, are so easy to cut.

Not really an activity to do with the kids as such (sharp knives), but there are many kid friendly uses for your toothy friend once finished.

• Great for a kids party
• Help non-eating fruit eaters enjoy fruit
• Take to daycare/kindy for kids birthdays

What you’ll need:

• A watermelon! (the more egg shaped the better).
• A sharp knife and a paring knife
• A couple of big bowls to hold the scooped out watermelon
• Lots of fruit to fill it up

Here’s how to go about it:

Step 1: Start by slicing off a section of watermelon to form the base. Cut this section at a slight angle as shown

Step 2: Sit the watermelon on the base, then cut out a large wedge for the mouth. Keep this wedge part of it will form the shark fin later

Step 3: Score and cut away 2 strips as shown with a small knife. These will later form the teeth. Cut down as far as the white area, cutting off any green areas

Step 4:  Next, scoop out all the red fruit from the inside. I found this easier to do from underneath the watermelon

Step 5: The fun part… cut the top teeth out, making the teeth at the sides smaller than the teeth at the front. Tip: Hold on to the triangles that you cut out, just in case your shark loses any teeth by mistake, you have spare teeth which you can attach with a toothpick

Step 6: Cut the bottom teeth out the same way

Step 7: Using half of the wedge that you cut to make the mouth for the fin, cut out any red flesh and attach to the shark head using 2 or 3 toothpicks

Step 8: Create shark eyes by simply attaching 2 blueberries to the shark, again using toothpicks (broken in half)

Step 9: Transfer to a large platter and fill with your favourite fruit!

Vanessa x