It’s easier than you think to make food look as good as it tastes. At a birthday, bridal or baby shower, luncheon, or any occasion from Mother’s Day brunch to a Labor Day picnic, food flowers turn appetizers, salad courses, and fruit plates into dishes that double as decor. These food flower spreads aren’t just tasty treats; they’re a fun surprise for friends and family.
A fun take on mozzarella-and-tomato salad, these Caprese Daisies are surprisingly easy to make. Just slice red and yellow cherry tomatoes in half, arrange them around a ball of mozzarella and add a few basil leaves.
But cheese and tomatoes aren’t your only option! You might try:
- Fruit Plates
- Fruit and Cheese
- Charcuterie
- Cheese and Charcuterie
- Crudite
- Smoked Salmon and Crackers
- Candy, Nuts and Chocolates
This fruit-and-cheese Fruit Flowers plate includes blossoms made out of round slices of grapes (with the grape end in the middle); round slices of green pear topped with a small wheel of goat cheese or brie and a walnut; and round slices of yellow cheese topped with a slice of an apple core. (If you’ve got larger cheese, simply cut a slice and punch out rounds with circular cookie cutters.)
And since not all petals are round, a fig, sliced halfway into four quarters and accessorized with a hazelnut in the middle unfolds into an “orchid.” Even five walnuts, arranged around a grape in the middle, look like a flower with ruffled petals.
Use your imagination and have fun with picking Food Flowers! To make the meal extra special, print out our banners and write in each guest’s name so that the Food Flowers plate works as a placecard. Or, fill in the banner with Happy Birthday, Happy Anniversary, Congratulations, or I Love You. Whatever the occasion or greeting, you can say it with Food Flowers!
What you’ll need:
- A sharp knife
- Small, Round Cookie Cutter (optional; a shot glass works, too!)
- Downloadable Crudité Bouquet label, scissors, and pen (optional)
For the fruits and vegetables of your choice
- For the Caprese Daisies, we used red and yellow cherry tomatoes
- For the Fruit Flowers, we used figs, pears, red grapes, apple core slices
Cheese
- For the Caprese Daisies, we used small mozzarella balls.
- For the Fruit Flowers, we used a small wheel of goat cheese and semi-hard yellow cheese like pecorino, cheddar, swiss, comte, or gruyere for example.
Extras (optional)
- For the Caprese Daisies, we added basil leaves for greenery
- For the Fruit Flowers, we used walnuts and edible flowers as decor.
How To:
Step One: Cut fruit. Slice the cherry tomatoes in half. Slice grapes and apples into thin rounds. Make vertical cuts halfway down the fig to divide it into quarters so that it unfolds into petals.
Step Two: Arrange the Food Flowers. Set out cherry tomatoes around a central mozzarella ball to make a daisy, and slip in basil leaves as greenery. In the Fruit Flowers plate, arrange grapes into flowers around a central grape end. Arrange pear slices in a blossom, place small wheel of brie on top, add a walnut half on top of that. Place cheese slices in a flower pattern with the apple core slice in the center. Arrange walnuts around a grape in a flower pattern. Drop hazelnuts into the center of the open fig.
Step Three: Optional: Download our printable banner, print, and cut out. Write a greeting or name, place it on the plate, and bring your flowers to the table.
For more fun ways to turn food into flowers, check out our Crudité Bouquet.
