Making Edible Flower Arrangements

Edible flower arrangements made out of fruit are perfect for parties as well as gifts. Since making edible flower arrangements are only limited to one's own creativity, the possibilities are endless.

Edible Floral Bouquets
Edible flowers created out of fruit are fun and easy to make. Use fruits that are self contained, such as grapes, cherries, strawberries and blueberries. If you don't have to cut the fruit, you don't have to worry about discoloration before your guests arrive or before you get a chance to deliver your gorgeous bouquet to its recipient. Star fruit is also another great fruit to include in your arrangement. Cut the fruit into thick slices and stick them on a wooden skewer.

Floral Arrangements
The key to making floral fruit arrangements is to use freshly prepared fruit and to have a basic concept of what you would like your final product to look like. To ensure less fruit is wasted, you might want to draw a few designs beforehand. Once you begin, work quickly. Keep cut or skewered fruit refrigerated until you are ready to arrange your design. Edible flowers or other bouquet garnishes don't need to be perfect, but they do need to be fresh.

Supplies You Will Need:
Basket or dish
Floral Styrofoam
Floral tape
Wooden skewers
Lettuce
Variety of fruit

Fit the Styrofoam to the basket or bowl and tape it in place. Because the fruit will be heavy, causing your basket or bowl to be top-heavy, it's important you keep the lighter portion of the basket and foam taped together. (If possible, use a heavy bottomed basket or bowl). Cover the Styrofoam with a layer of plastic wrap and cover the plastic wrap with a layer of lettuce leaves. Stick the fruit-filled skewers into the lettuce and place the skewers into the arrangement you have designed.

Creating Edible Tall Flowers
Bouquets are generally taller in the center and then taper down so that the flowers fill the rest of the space. This is easy to accomplish with edible bouquets. For the taller pieces, alternate pieces of cantaloupe and honeydew to create striking fruit flowers. Green grapes with a strawberry at the top of a skewer work well in this display. Pineapple chunks with blueberries and watermelon chunks with purple or green grapes will bring another sensational flavor and add vibrant color to your arrangement.

Using orange slices, mandarin slices, cherries and blueberries, make an orange and red tower. Start with the first orange slice placed bottom-side down, add a cherry to the center and place the second orange slice bottom-side up. The end result will be an orange circle with a red center. Make additional skewers filled with mandarins and blueberries. You can also use oranges and cherries on one skewer and mandarins and blueberries on the other.

Creating Edible Short Flowers

Tulips-Peeled and halved kiwi make excellent tulips. Using a small, sharp paring knife, make several indentation cuts into the flat side of the kiwi to resemble petals. When you are finished, push a wooden skewer into the bottom center of the kiwi.

Daisies-Use a small cookie cutter to cut daisies out of thick slices of watermelon, honeydew and cantaloupe.

Stars-Use star fruit.

Jagged Foliage-Cut watermelon, pineapple, cantaloupe or honeydew into large, jagged foliage leaves that resemble lightning bolts.

Adding Vegetables to Your Arrangement
If you need a little variety or if you've run out of fruit, you can always add some vegetable flowers to the mix. Cherry tomatoes on a stick are charming, as are stalks of celery, complete with leaves. Insert the skewer through the bottom of the stalk. Slice unpeeled cucumbers into disks and make nicks or wedges along the peeled edge for design. Add a skewer and insert your new flower into the floral arrangement.

Other veggies that work well include hot peppers (whole), zucchini and summer squash wedges, small broccoli and cauliflower heads and green and yellow pepper slices.