Fruit Carving Ideas For Valentine's Day

I have two new videos that are quick and easy ideas for Valentine's Day or any romantic dinner:

Chocolate Covered Strawberry Roses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7J0TnOFyboU

Vegetable Garnishes For A Romantic Salad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT2LOjx5wgo

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Fruit Carving and Vegetable Arrangement Photos

Just a photo slide show I uploaded to YouTube with some recent pictures of fruit carvings and edible arrangements that you may remember seeing on here.

Hope it inspires you!

Fruit Carving Books on Kindle

Amazon has lots of fruit carving books but I thought it was interesting that they started offering some on Kindle. I think this is a great idea, very easy to have your Kindle next to you in the kitchen to refer to! Check it out here: Kindle Fruit Carving Books

My Entry For Create N Carve - Fruit and Veg Event

Last month I heard about this event but because of the holiday crazies I never entered any of my vegetable or fruit carvings ... come to find out, this event is being hosted on a different blog each month. It is not a contest because their is no judging, it just a friendly event in which you try new things and get better.

Learn more at the event host's blog:

http://www.givemesomespice.com/2011/01/event-announcement-create-and-carve.html

Or learn more about the entire event:

http://simplysensationalfood.blogspot.com/p/simplyfood-events.html

My entry:

"Very Edible Christmas Tree Arrangement"

 

I cut the stem of the broccoli pieces at an angle like a wedge.

 

I used a craft store foam cone, left it in it's wrapper and added a layer of plastic wrap. The broccoli was secured in by toothpicks on the bottom row and then I just slide the next couple of rows in behind the last row.

I only put in toothpicks every couple rows just to hold it together.



For the garland I used carrot curls that I cut to size.

 

I secured the carrot garland with toothpicks, I left the ends of the toothpicks exposed and then added my cherry tomatoes to the exposed ends.

Simple cucumber flower with radish center.



I love using mini bell peppers as flowers, very colorful and simple. Just quarter the pepper down to the stem base taking care not to cut through and cut the membrane out that keeps the peppers shape.

Keep all your veggie flowers in ice cold water so they will start to open and curl like flowers.



Use green onion (just the dark green straw part) to make the wood skewer look more like flower stems.

Edible Vegetable Arrangement Christmas Tree

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Have more pictures of this broccoli Christmas tree with edible veggie flowers coming soon.

Simple Vegetable Platter With Veggie Flowers

This was a small and simple vegetable platter I made for a dinner using the extra veggies I had left in my fridge from the large Thanksgiving vegetable arrangement I made!

Vegetable Carving - Edible Veggie Flower Bouquet

This is a closer picture of my edible vegetable arrangement I made for our holiday party so you can see the details better!

Vegetable Flower Arrangement

This is a "crudite" or raw vegetable arrangement that looks like a flower arrangement that I made as the main appetizer for Thanksgiving dinner. I used a separate platter to hold the dip in a hollowed-out orange sweet pepper as well as olives and other veggies.

Halloween Pumpkin Carving

This was my Halloween pumpkin carving, it is definitely not my best work but I am still proud of it. I tried a couple new techniques and did not finish my drawing out my stencil until right before carving my pumpkin, so the whole project was a bit rushed.

I did the stencil myself with a little help from my printer/scanner/copier and I used a tip I saw online that used cornstarch (or flour) to make the tiny stencil guide holes easier to see. Now the tip did as advertised, making the holes easier to see but I had to take more care to make sure all traces of the white powder where gone.

If you look at my stencil, you can see that there is a bat hanging off of a tree branch right in the middle of the pumpkin carving stencil ..... poor planning, my branch was to thin and the bat too big, they did not make it.

Pumpkin Carving

Helped my niece carve this pumkin, she did most of the work including 95% of the cutting!

Guinness Fruit Carving

I saw this photo of a Guinness Book of Records winning apple and all I could think is how many cool things I could carve out of it, I mean it is the size of a melon! :-D

Sebastian The Miami Hurricanes Mascot Fruit Carving

This fruit carving is a custom job for a real Miami Hurricanes fan who requested it for the big Miami vs FSU game tommorow! This is not the completed bowl just a sneek peek of my all nighter to get the main components done, more pictures of this fruit bowl to come soon!

Edible Veggie Bouquets

Found this website that is all about eating raw foods and they have an ebook on how to make edible vegetable bouquets and even has 12 different homemade dressings recipes to go with it.

Visit the website

Easy Fruit Carving Holiday Project - Baked Apples

This fruit carving video was an experiment for the upcoming holiday season and I thought it turned out pretty good! It is a very easy carving project that is a twist on a classic holiday dessert, baked apples. I did not plan on making a video about this project, I threw this quick video together out of pictures I took and did not add sound, so do not expect alot from the video. I just wanted to share the idea :)

Fruit Carving Tool Set Reviews

I have been getting a lot of questions lately about fruit carving tools and I thought I would take the opportunity to review a couple of complete fruit carving tool sets that are good for first time buyers. I kept in mind that the set should have at least one of each basic tool including a knife and should be moderately priced.

#1 - 22 Piece Fruit Carving Tool Set with Wood Case (about $68)

I feel that this one is the best deal for the money because it has the most common, usable pieces at a reasonable price per piece. This set includes multiple sizes of each type/shape of tools and knifes that would cover a wide variety of designs.

Negatives: Wood handles are not dishwasher safe and requires hand washing and drying of tools.

#2 - 9 Piece Fruit Carving Set with Vinyl Case (about$50)

Silicone handles makes these tools dishwasher safe and easier to grip, vinyl pouch carrying case with zipper makes this set compact and portable and the quick reference card with description of each tools uses is great for beginners.

Negatives: Only one size of each tool included in set.

#3 - 80 Piece Fruit Carving Set with Wood Case (about $130)

This is the set I own and it is the most complete set I have ever seen in the under $150 price range. It has all the tools from the 22 piece version as well as 24 more tools that are a little more uncommon but still very useful. It also includes 34 stencil/cookie cutter shapes, 8 of which are Chinese lettering or symbols. Great set for someone who is serious about fruit and vegetable carving but may be overkill for someone who is new to fruit carving.

Negatives: Wood handles are not dishwasher safe and requires hand washing and drying of tools.