Here’s a fun and creative way to serve up your next watermelon, carve it into a “cake”!
Who doesn’t love watermelon, it’s a summer staple usually always present at cookouts and parties. This “cake” is made with sweet refreshing watermelon that has been carved and shaped into a cake, it gets frosted with fresh whipped cream and is decorated with fresh summer berries, this could be the perfect red, white and blue cake for your Fourth of July party.
I’ve seen this done online and I couldn’t wait to try it myself, I was skeptical about putting the cream on a wet surface but all you do is pat the melon down really good with paper towels after it’s cut, and I was pleasantly surprised how easy and quick it was to put it all together.
I actually made this early in the morning, had it all frosted and garnished, stuck it in my fridge and pulled it out later in the evening and it was flawless, everything stayed in tact, in fact the cream set up so nice and firm and it was so easy to cut into nice wedges, even leftovers the next day were perfect!
Find yourself a nice round seedless watermelon, you’re going to be cutting the top and bottom off so pick a size according to how many guests you’ll be serving.
The first thing I recommend doing is whipping your cream, you want very stiff peaks and then refrigerate it, get it nice and cold. Have all your berries washed and ready to go. You can garnish your “cake” with whatever you want, berries, nuts, sprinkles, slivered almonds, coconut or other fruit of your choice, make it your own and be creative!
The trimming was easier than I thought, after you remove the top and bottom stand it upright and start slicing the dark outer green rind off all the way around and make sure you see none of the light green rind underneath showing either, take your time and start trimming and shaping it to look like a cake.
When you’re done trimming it put it on top of the platter you’ll be serving it on, don’t worry it doesn’t have to be perfectly shaped.
The whipped cream will hide all the imperfections and so will all your added fruit and garnishes.
It’s unexpected, impressive and a guaranteed show stopper when you bring it out to the table and no baking required!
Happy Summer and Happy 4th!
- 1 whole seedless watermelon
- 3 cups of heavy whipping cream ( you'll probably have some extra)
- ½ teaspoon of vanilla
- 2 tablespoons of confectioners sugar or other sweetener like stevia
- assorted fresh berries and other garnishes of your choice like nuts, sliced almonds, coconut, sprinkles, etc.
- First whip your cream with the confectioners sugar and vanilla, whip until you get nice stiff peeks, then refrigerate bowl.
- Wash and dry the whole watermelon.
- With a sharp knife slice the top and bottom off.
- Standing upright begin removing the dark green rind all around.
- Keep trimming the sides removing the light green rind underneath and trimming it into a nice cylinder shape.
- Wipe and pat dry the cylinder with paper towels to remove excess moisture.
- Place shaped and patted dry melon on serving platter.
- Spread cold whipped cream all over with a rubber spatula, top and sides.
- Garnish with berries or other things of your choice.
- At this point you can refrigerate it until ready to cut. I placed the whole platter into my fridge and didn't cover it, but if you had a cake plate topper that would fit over the top, that would be fine too but not necessary.
- If you have some of the "cake"remaining after cutting just refrigerate soon after so the whipped cream doesn't melt down, especially on a hot day.
I’m Marie, a wife, mother, mother-in-law, and gramma of two beautiful girls. My passion is food, clear and simple but especially Italian food, hence the name of my blog, Proud Italian Cook. I want you to feel right at home here so grab a cup of coffee, I’ll get the pastries, take a look around and enjoy your visit! {
