A guide to making edible fruit and flower arrangements

A unique idea for a dinner party would be an edible fruit arrangement for the centre of the table. Use this centrepiece as an unusual desert or as delicious individual edible gifts or fruit gifts for your guests to take home at the end of the night. In any case, creating an eatable arrangement is fun and relatively easy to do.

Choose your receptacle

This could be a traditional wicker, as in more traditional basket of fruit arrangements, a decorative bowl or a vase. Place a ball of play dough or a block of florist’s foam in the centre of your receptacle so that you can stick your magic fruit into it.

Preparing the fruit and flowers

Skewer all the fruits and flowers that you wish to use in your edible arrangement with a bamboo skewer, cocktail stick or toothpick (for smaller fruits). To make chocolate fruit such as with strawberries, mandarin segments, cherries or red grapes, take the skewer, dip the fruit (red fruits look more striking) into a bowl of melted chocolate and leave to cool. This can be white or dark chocolate, or a variety of both. Another idea is to dip the fruit into shredded coconut. Some fruit and flowers such as pineapples or watermelons lend themselves well to making fruit designs. Use a cookie cutter to cut the fruit into interesting shapes such as star or flower shapes. A melon baller can be used to create ball shapes to your basket or fruit creation. Flowers such as violas, geraniums, pansies, marigolds and carnations make lovely edible decorations. The leaves or petals can even be dipped in chocolate.

Arranging the fruit and flowers

The arrangement has the same principles as in gardening - tall at the back or middle, and low at the front and sides. - Position them at various angles, starting at the bottom and working up. - Cut the skewers to get them at the right height to create a bouquet effect. - Pack as many fruit and flower skewers into the play dough or florist foam as close as you can so that it cannot be seen. - If some of the play dough or florist foam is visible, place some leaves or flowers at the base to cover it. Author's suggestion To order an eatable arrangement for a special occasion, visit Ediblearrangements.com.