Watermelon fruit bowl recipe

Our mummy blogger Anneliese says: 'When the sun is shining and the temperatures rise, a selection of refreshing fruit becomes increasingly tempting, especially when served with ice cream! My boys love fruit and we always have a ready supply but I wanted to create something visually exciting as a special treat. I also wanted my elder boy to get involved and take on some of the prep. Scooping out the watermelon and slicing soft fruit are not only great fun but they also help to develop fine motor skills. It's an all-round winner!

Ingredients

• 1/2 large watermelon
• 2 apples
• 2 kiwi fruit, skin removed
• Handful of grapes
• 50g strawberries, hulled
• 50g cherries, stones removed

Method

1. First of all make sure your watermelon is ripe. The flesh of the watermelon should have a little give when you press it with your thumb.
2. Slicing the watermelon in half is definitely a job for a grown up. My little boy watched in awe as I 'sawed' the very large fruit in half. It was quite hard work cutting the watermelon in half, so make sure you use a sharp knife.
3. You only need half of your watermelon. Place the other half in the fridge for another day or perhaps use it to make a thirst-quenching drink or even watermelon ice lollies.
4. The next part is so much fun for children. Pass your child a spoon and ask them to help scoop out the pink flesh from the half of the watermelon you are using for your fruit bowl. My son stuffed his face with watermelon as he worked - it was a good job there was so much of it!
5. Move the watermelon pieces to a chopping board, then your helper can use a blunt table knife to slice it up into small wedges. They can then move on to the kiwi fruit and strawberries.
6. While your child is busy slicing you can use a sharp knife to chop any harder fruit, such as the apples.
7. Once all the fruit is prepared, your helper can simply pile all of the fruit back into the bowl. They can do this in layers or mix all the fruit up - they can be as creative as they wish.
8. The finished watermelon looks rather elegant but, to make it a little more fun and appealing to children, you can make 'fruit kebabs' by pushing skewers/kebab sticks down into the watermelon and then pushing more fruit down the sticks for an explosion of fruit!

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