food » and another thought

I realize Halloween is months away but I love pumpkin carving. I let the kids do their silly face carvings on little pumpkins but I always get a bigger pumpkin to do my own carving on. Sometimes I use a template but I find it easier to just do my own thing, maybe use a template as a guide. So I was thrilled when the folks at Faye Clack and the National Watermelon Promotion Board asked me if I would be interested in participating in a watermelon carving competition.

Watermelon carving? But of course. EverythingMom actually included the idea of adding a Tiki Watermelon Carving as a decoration when hosting a Tiki Party (an idea from the National Watermelon Promotion Board. Watermelon is a favourite treat in our house. Last year my 9-year old even did a video on how to make a watermelon banana split, a fun alternative to ice cream so she was all gung-ho on a watermelon carving. Actually, our carving is all her idea: a brain!

What a great idea for a fright night movie night. Watermelon’s are perfect for this fruit carving idea too: the red fleshy inside shows through like blood and the white-ish rind (under the green) is a nice brain colour. Though I have to warn you, when carving you might get a little freaked out as the red starts to show through.

We started with a small watermelon. It can be any size you want but brains aren’t big so it doesn’t have to be huge.

When you see most brains on display they sit flat with a rounded top so we cut 1/4 of the watermelon off for our fruit carving (cut based on the direction we want the brain to sit, more lengthwise versus across the top or bottom). The smaller extra piece, which you won’t need in this fruit carving, is a great piece to practice any ideas on instead of on your main carving too.

Next we used a melon baller and hollowed out the inside. You don’t want to get ride of all the red flesh as you want some of this to show through in your fruit carving as the brain’s blood. Make sure to save the red flesh to use later. The National Watermelon Promotion Board has a whole collection of recipes, however, my kids were content just to eat it as is.

With the inside carved out, now you need to skin the watermelon. You need to get rid of the green shell-like exterior as well as any green hued rind. Plus you don’t want the rind to be too thick either or else you will have difficulty seeing the red flesh underneath when you start carving. Since brains aren’t perfectly round or smooth, you don’t need to worry about skinning your watermelon to a perfectly smooth finish. Actually, bumps and nics are great. Try to get rid of as much of the green tinted rind as you can without cutting down to the red fruit underneath.

You should be left with what looks like a skull top. Now you’re ready to carve.

I’m not a scientist but I do know brains have two-halves. The first carving you can do is right down the center, creating you two halves. This groove will be wider than your other groves. After the grove is in place, I used a pairing knife and rounded the edges of the grove for each side. I also used the knife and rounded the edges of the bottom too so I didn’t have a completely straight edge but that’s my personal preference. I don’t think it will detract from your carving if you don’t do that.

The other end of the melon baller I was given, had a V-shaped cutter with serrated edges. I found this to be perfect for fruit carving as I would cut a groove in one move versus going over a cut numerous times with a paring blade to create a crevices. You want to carve right down until the red flesh below shows, but don’t cut through it. The groove enables the red to show more versus just a cut. Grossed out yet?

If you’re a planner, you can drag your cutting tool around the surface, planning your cuts before actually digging the grove cut out. Either way works fine. There’s no real pattern here; just carve curves and loops and wavy lines all around the surface. I haven’t seen a brain in real life but the photos I have seen show it to look like big noodles all pressed together. So just use your own creative feeling. Make sure to have some of the cuts go to the outside edges too.

Carving all the crevices that make up the brain matter is the longest part of this project. I actually did one-half of the brain and then put it in a baggie in the refrigerator until I was ready to carve the other half (the next day). Once both sides are carved, you’re done. Now you can go over any crevices that don’t stand out and make them wider or deeper if needed.

The finished product looks better than I imagined and makes a great party center piece. As it’s hollowed out underneath, you can also light it up with a tea light. I found I had to make some modifications, cutting the crevices right through so the candle could get enough oxygen or else it just goes out. It depends on the look you want. With the lights on, the red shows up wonderfully. With the lights off you don’t see the red as much but the shadows on the brain look great by the glow of the candlelight.

If you’re interested in trying your own watermelon carving, the National Watermelon Promotion Board has a collection of other (not so gruesome) carving ideas to inspire you. Happy carving.

Thanks to the folks at Faye Clack and the National Watermelon Promotion Board for sending over the watermelon and carving tools. Even if we don’t win the carving contest (winner announced sometime in September), my 9-year old and I had great fun working on this (though winning would be pretty darn cool too).