Quick and Easy Crafts: Edible Watermelon Animals

Then end of summer is quickly approaching. School is almost back in session, and the days are not as long as they were a month ago. It is time for all of us to get to the beach, or pool, and enjoy those last few weeks of summer. Are you planning a party to celebrate summer or even a birthday? Grab your kids and some watermelon and make some wonderful watermelon animals to celebrate summer with.

After watching my young daughter play with her Play-Doh, I was busy cutting some watermelon for a birthday party when I got a great idea. Why not combine what she was doing with the Play-Doh with my watermelon slices and have some great fun! I thought this was a great way to expand this hobby into an edible craft.

This is a quick and easy edible craft idea the entire family can get involved in. My son loved the salamanders we made and my daughter giggled at the frog. We even made flamingos for Grandma. If you do not have any cookie cutters at home, you can select from a wide variety in the food section of your local Michaels Craft Store. They are low in cost and great for many different craft and hobby projects. You probably remember Jello Jigglers? You can make those with cookie cutters. There is no end to what you can make, either edible or decorative, with cookie cutters.

To make your Watermelon Animals, you will need the following supplies:

1 seedless watermelon
Animal shaped cookie cutters
Sharp knife
Pan to place the slices in
Ruler

For this project, we, as a family, selected five cookie cutters: a bear, flamingo, frog, butterfly and salamander. Using a sharp knife, you will want to slice your watermelon in approximately ½ inch thick slices. If you are worried about the thickness of your slices, measure the thickness of your cookie cutters and use that for reference. Be very careful on how thin you slice the watermelon. If you do it too thin, the watermelon will break and you will have an injured watermelon animal.

After you have sliced the proper thickness, lay it flat and get your animal cookie cutters ready. Carefully position the cutters to use the most of the watermelon without the white near the rind edge. (Please see above picture for reference.) Firmly press the cutter into the watermelon. Do not try to pull it out as it will rip apart the delicate watermelon. After both cutters are placed, carefully cut around the melon and then extract the shapes. Place in the pan and repeat the steps for more edible fun.

The cookie cutters I used were standard size, but if you use smaller ones, you will get more snacks with less waste. The extra bits can be used in a fruit salad.

This can also be used for other melons, too. You may want to use smaller cookie cutters for the other types of melons, like cantaloupe. Enjoy!

Sources:

Personal experience
Michaels Craft Store