9 Ways How To Cut A Cantaloupe Fancy And Easy For A Summer Party

        This is such a simple way to serve cantaloupe for a charcuterie board. I call it cantaloupe in the shape of a star but we can also call it a flower as well. We can place on the table already precut into wedges cantaloupe but can wait to open them up, so cantaloupe does not dry out. A great technique to serve cantaloupe in advance on a banquet table, on fruit boards, or for the family dessert table.

*I decorated my melon star with red grapes.

1/2 cantaloupe

Knife (the best knife is a filet knife with a narrow blade)

1. Cut half of the cantaloupe into wedges. Amount wedges should be even numbers or we can’t make a star. My cantaloupe I cut into 18 pieces.

2. Every second wedge I take out as in the photo and the star is ready to serve!

The presentation takes a minute and is so simple! Perfect to serve for a family casual meal or decorate a party table. I used grapes to add color to the cantaloupe platter.

The photo below is from Megan Bennett Margolis’s @sweetboards2021 Instagram. Megan creates custom charcuterie boards. She shared with me how she used 2 cantaloupe cutting techniques on her fruit board. It is really impressive and I asked her permission to share the photos on my website. Flowers out of cantaloupe on the fruit board really make the effect of “WOW”!

        I like this method to cut fancy cantaloupe into wedges because easy to eat for guests and makes a very pretty centerpiece for a summer party table! We can make so many different variations of fruit trays or fruit boards with the cantaloupe flower depending on your fruit availability and the size of the platter. I place the decorative dish with strawberries in the center of the cantaloupe platter for a more interesting look. Fill empty spaces with other fruits and mint around melon wedges. On the melon wedges, I place butterflies made from strawberries and papaya with cookie cutters.

Read more about the butterfly cookie cutter ⇒ Cookie Cutters I Use to Make Garnishes

      1. Wash the very well melon and dry it with a paper towel. Another important factor is how to choose the plate. For a small cantaloupe, easy to find the plate to serve. However, a large platter is not always easy to find. I have a lot of different large plates in my house but for this melon in the photos, I didn’t find a large enough plate. So, before buying melons check the size of your plates for an important event.

      2. My melon is 11 inches long.

      3. My plate radius is 8 inches but as you can see it is not large enough because the petal is longer than my plate. In my opinion, for the best look of the cantaloupe platter, the size of the melon should be the same size as the plate. For my 11 inches cantaloupe, I need a plate at least with a radius of 11 inches. I don’t have a larger plate and used what I have.

In a few words choose plate larger than measurments cantaloupe.

      1. Cut cantaloupe lengthwise. Deseed and remove some of the pulp from the cantaloupe. I use an ice cream scoop. Very good kitchen gadget for this task!

      2. Place the half of the melon cut side down and cut in half again. Quartes are of melon are easy to cut into the same size wedges. I cut into 12 wedges my melon because it is large enough. Our wedges need to be wide enough to stay stable.

      3. Make the cut on every cantaloupe wedges. Approximately, 1/3 deep.

4. Make the cut in shape rectangular notch cut on each of cantaloupe wedges.

5. Push the natch inside and it will be holding the wedge up like a melon flower petal. To manage the petal stability move slightly to the right or left of the natch.

6. I place the dish for strawberries on the center of my melon platter and arranged wedges around.

Instead dish we can place a large wine glass on the center.

7. Very important to arrange your melon platter on the table where you are going to serve. The flower is not stable to carry from table to table. I managed to move my melon platter with a flower on it from countertop to table but it was not easy.

A very easy and impressive technique to cut cantaloupe fancy!

In the photo, I rolled my paper napkins instead of other foldings because it saves so much space and is easy for guests to take.

Read more about the napkin folding technique ⇒ How to Fold Paper Napkin Fancy Way 6 Techniques

        This is so easy and impressive way how to serve cantaloupe in the shape of a crown or flower. The cantaloupe slices are easy to eat for your guests and will be great decor for your party table. The technique is the same to cut the melon’s slices but as you can see in the photos it can be a completely different appearance of the presentations if we turn around the slices, for example, and place them around a vase of glass.

1/2 cantaloupe

Knife (the best knife is a filet knife with a narrow blade)

1. Cut cantaloupe in half. Place the half on the plate and cut it into 8 pieces as in the photo.

2. Cut the skin off on the top and leave 1 inch on the bottom attached.

* I drow a line 1 inch on the bottom with a knife. This way easy to see where to stop cutting the skin off. The line is not noticeable. However, if you have a good eye it is not necessary to do.

3. Make 2 cuts towards the top as shown in the photo, leave enough distance between them on the top.

4. Place the piece on the plate and cross both cuts towards each other.

The melon will look like a crown if the skin will be perpendicular to the plate. If you make the skin stand out more towards the plate surface, the melon will be looks like a flower and impressive too.

         The presentation of cantaloupe in the shape of the tulip is another way to make a beautiful cantaloupe platter. It looks like a crown too but I like to call it a tulip. I had only grapes on hand when taking photos but we can make the presentation much more impressive by adding more fruits or berries with contrasting colors.

Tulip out of cantaloupe makes a great addition to fruit board for a large party! Take a look!

The photo below is from Megan Bennett Margolis’s @sweetboards2021 Instagram.

1/2 cantaloupe

Knife (the best knife is a filet knife with a narrow blade)

1. Cut the top of the cantaloupe skin as in the photo below. Cut approximately 1/4 of an inch, so the future tulip’s petals keep the shape well.

2. Cut off the skin on the bottom, so 1 inch of the skin is still on the wedge of cantaloupe.

3. Turn around the cutout.

4. Place in the packet the tulip leaf.

*If the leaf is not fit well in the pocket, I make additional adjustments by cutting a little more out.

Tip.

If you place the platter in advance on the table, make leaves with adjustments but place it as it was originally on the cantaloupe. When ready for the presentation create the tulip, this simple step prevents cantaloupe from drying.

      The way how cut cantaloupe into flower is very simple and so cute as you can see. Especially if we serve with a mix of cantaloupe balls with different fruits. Of course, we can cut in bite pieces fruits but in bolls shape much more interesting effect. The flower maybe not a cantaloupe fruit art but cute enough for any summer party table! We can serve in a cantaloupe bowl different fruit salads or just cut in a bite-size melon. The design of the melon bowl we can make much more interesting by adding different details to the cantaloupe flower carving design (double petals, for example) but it needs more time and for some ideas carving talent.

To make cantaloupe in shape of balls we need a melon baller tool. Very inexpensive kitchen gadget and easy to use. On the photo below a melon baller and small ice cream scoop. If melon is very large, we can use small ice cream scoop as well.

1. Wash very well melon and dry with a paper towel. Cut crosswise and remove seeds.

2. To make cantaloupe balls, I use a melon baller. The technique is very easy. Place the baller all the way into a melon flash. In the hole of the melon baller, you can see then it deep enough. Half of our ball is ready!

3. Now rotate and we have a melon ball. Go around the top of the melon and make balls.

  4. Now we ready to make a cantaloupe flower. Cut the top into flower petals. I used a lid from a tuna can bended in a round shape. Just be careful it is sharp. Before to cut last 2 or 3 petals, mark the distance between equally before cutting and follow it. It is important because when we use tool can happen we don’t have enough room to make the last petal and our flower has one of the petals too narrow.

*We can use already premade tools to make petals or just paring knife.

Check out the page about handmade garnish tool from a can lid and other ideas how to use ⇒ How to Make Handmade Garnish Tool

5. Remove the top from cantaloupe.

6. Cut off the top of the flash of the melon what we can’t able to use to make balls. Continue to make balls from the top to bottom.

7. Smooth out the melon bowl. The excess of the melon place in ziplock bag and freeze it. When you ready use for other dishes, for example, smoothie.

8. I sliced another half and place around cantaloupe flower.

My cantaloupe flower is ready to serve!

* If we are going to use the only cantaloupe balls for serving in the flower bowl we have left this bowl empty. Use it make stand for the melon flower. I show it on the orange example.

Place the bowl cut down side on the serving plate. Cut the top from the melon bowl wide enough to place our melon shaped in flower (another half) on the top.

Read more about orange serving ideas ⇒ 5 Cute And Fancy Ways to Serve Orange and Mandarin

        To make a boat from a cantaloupe is so simple and fun! Most important easy to eat for guests or for kids. The cantaloupe boats are great for marine theme party or fishing theme party! A cantaloupe boat great to serve with other fruits on a plate, as I saw for the first time online. This is an idea from a fine restaurant. I like to learn from chefs, professionals use easy techniques to serve fruits.

        In my opinion, the cantaloupe boats on a large plate with colorful sticks or wooden sticks with colorful flags on the top will be impressive too on a  party table.

1 cantaloupe

Knife

Skewers  (On the photos, I used plastic stirrers because they are colorful and the perfect size for my melon.)

Most convenient for cantaloupe to use wooden skewers because we can cut off and adjust the size. Pick up wooden sticks will be great too for smaller melons.

1. Cut cantaloupe into wedges. Cut off the uneven top for a nice presentation. Don’t make narrow wedges or the boat don’t have stability.

If you have a large cantaloupe, cut off the bottom on the slice for extra stability.

2. Cut off the edible part or cantaloupe but leave a small orange layer. This way you know your guest is getting only the sweet and soft part of the fruit.

3. Cut the layer of the top of cantaloupe skin as I show on the photo. This is the sail for the cantaloupe boat.

4. Attach the sail by skewer and place bite size on the cantaloupe skin. Our boat is ready for the party! Enjoy!

        This method to serve cantaloupe is so easy and a nice and fun presentation. The skewer is not the only decor, it has a purpose. Our guest can use it to eat the cantaloupe. If we serve wedges with a pick what has a flag on it, the cantaloupe edges look like boats. Great healthy and delicious dessert idea for a marine party!

1 cantaloupe

Knife

Picks (skewers) with a flag on it

If picks with a flag on it, the melon wedge will be looking like a boat.

1. Cut cantaloupe into wedges.

If you have a large cantaloupe, cut off the bottom on the slice for extra stability.

2. Cut off the edible part of the cantaloupe from the skin.

3. Cut cantaloupe into bite pieces. Move slightly each piece on the side in the different directions as shown on the photo. Attache a decorative pick on the middle.

Our boat is ready to decorate the party!

Enjoy!

     Cantaloupe is a great fruit to make a centerpiece for a kids’ summer party table or Easter table decor. The technique is super easy! It takes a few minutes and it resembles a bunny so much without making eyes or other details.

          How to garnish cantaloupe platter so many ways from different fruits and berries but the easiest way to make garnish from cantaloupe wedge. For example, this easy cantaloupe butterfly. Butterfly garnish is always appropriate for any summer party, especially for kids’ parties! How to make butterflies I have tutorials on 2 pages. Just difference is I straighten up the bottom of the butterfly so it stays on my fruit platter.

Check out the tutorial butterfly from mango → 5 Fun And Easy Margarita Cocktail Garnish Techniques

Check out the tutorial butterfly from a lemon with video → How To Make Lemon Garnish For Cocktails Or Lemonade