Watermelon Shark Attack!
This is the all-time best way to serve fruit. Guests always get such a big kick out of it. Shorebird and Goat have done this a couple times and have some tips to share, from experience.
Tip one is about watermelon selection. The best looking sharks will come from an oblong watermelon. This one is a little bit round, but he’ll just make a fat shark. First find the best looking part of the watermelon and chop off about a quarter or a third at the bottom, so it sits flat and is pointing slightly upward. (Keep the chunk of watermelon you just cut off, we’ll get back to that later.) Then make an incision for the mouth.
Watermelons have two clear ends. Make the top of the mouth just slightly above the end of the watermelon. Make the bottom about 3 inches lower. As with carving a jack-o-lantern, it’s best to trace the face with a marker and then carve. That helps you get an even mouth, and if you don’t think it’s even, erase and start over. Also, key to remember at this step, the mouth on the final shark will be much bigger than that initial incision.
Now, take a melon baller and start scooping out a cavity for the mouth. You don’t want to serve a watermelon shark and not have any watermelon in the mix of fruit. Once you have enough watermelon, set the balls aside in a bowl, refrigerate, and use a spoon to finish scraping out the insides. Now comes the only part that’s really hard.
The tooth line. With a marker, trace a line about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch away from the edge of the maw.
With a paring knife, cut along this line. Now, this is crucial, only cut about 1/8 of an inch into the watermelon. You do NOT want to cut through here. Then, take the paring knife and slide it right under the rind, that same 1/8 of an inch under. Slowly cut away the rind until the shark has a big ring of white all the way around his mouth.
Then, one by one, carve out the teeth.
If you accidentally cut off a tooth, don’t sweat it here. You can use a toothpick to re-affix any broken teeth.
Yarrr!
For the eyes, a mellon baller does the trick. A couple inches above the corner of the mouth is good placement. For the eyes, we took two cherries, removed the stems, put them on toothpicks, and stuck them in the eye socket. If you wanted smaller eyes, grapes would obviously do the trick too. I think blueberries would be too small.
He is starting to look hilarious. Now here’s where that chunk of watermelon you set aside earlier reappears. Cut a piece of it into a triangle and attach it as a fin.
Now you’re ready to add the fruit. The medley today was watermelon, cantaloupe, strawberries, blueberries, grapes, and cherries. Fill his mouth and the surrounding tray. A tray big enough and deep enough to surround the shark obviously lends to the appearance that he’s jumping out of a sea of fruit.
Even a fairly big container doesn’t actually allow for a huge amount of fruit on the tray. Keep the rest refrigerated and you can replenish the ocean once or twice as the party continues.
As the final little flourish, we strongly recommend including some swedish fish to the mix. Sharks and party guests love eating a little bit of swedish fish.