Monday, June 15, 2009

Flip-Flop Cakes and a Watermelon Fruit Kebobs Tutorial

Flip-flops made their appearance in a few details of our annual pool party—and not only in terms of our footwear. They could also be found in the invitation, table decorations, and the cakes I made.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

I baked four humongous simple rectangular white cakes, layering them in sets of two with a simple and easy mixture of strawberry and whipped cream filling. Flip-flop shapes were cut out using a very sharp knife and a template I made out of poster board. If you flip your template over after cutting out the first cake, then you have an opposing flip-flop (i.e., a right- and a left-shoe).

To make the cake images I had in my head a reality for this party, I took the first of a series of cake decorating classes over April and May. My friend Janel also took that class. She and her mother, Judy, came over Friday night to help me decorate the cakes and assemble the fruit kebobs. Their help was such a blessing and kept me from having to stay up all night.


© June Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Air Heads ribbon candy worked wonderfully for making the thong pieces of the flip-flops. Because my cakes are over-sized, we simply seamed the ends of two of the candies together and added an icing flower to cover the resulting seam.

Earlier in the day I made huge amounts of icing and sorted it out into different containers to which food coloring was added to make a supply of multicolored icing for the decorations. Then Janel and I did fun things with our cake decorating bags/tips.


© Dub Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

We had so much fun decorating the cakes in crazy colors.


© Dub Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Aren’t the cakes as cute as they can be?

Watermelon Fruit Kebobs Tutorial


© Dub Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

Here’s how to assemble a fruit kebob display that makes a great centerpiece and an easy treat for guests to handle.

  • Select the fruits you want to use for your kebobs. If using apples or other fruits that will turn brown, dip the fruit in lemon juice after cutting. Using long skewers, insert into bits of various fruit, filling about ½ of each skewer. I make these the night before a party, wrapping the finished kebobs well and storing in the fridge until time for assembly.
  • Dust a platter with brown sugar to simulate beach sand (optional). Slice a bit of the bottom of a watermelon (just the rind, don’t cut through to the fruit inside) so it sits flat on your platter.
  • Simply insert your assembled fruit kebobs all around the watermelon and its ready for folks to pull and eat.

© Dub Scroggin, All Rights Reserved

The watermelon was chock-full of the kebobs; in the picture, people were already pulling and enjoying them.

Pool Party Results

The party was a blast. We partied from 2 p.m. until the last group of guests left about midnight. My husband and I had everything cleaned up, the dishwasher doing its job, and all back to normal within an hour after the party. All the work was well worth it because everyone enjoyed the food, pool, and each other. We think this was our best party ever.

This post concludes my pool party series. Now I have sewing projects to do as one of our vacations is coming up very soon.

13 comments:

Jennifer W. said...

those cakes are PHENOMENAL!

Glad the party was a hit!

Anonymous said...

Oh, June! How wonderful. You did such an incredible job on everything. Absolutely fun and festive and great ideas. I so wish I could be on your guest list!

Anonymous said...

You are truly artistic all around. That cake was a great idea and it turned out so professional-looking! You sound like a fun person to be around.

FinnyKnits said...

You are a total pro with cake decorating - those are actually VERY cute!

Sometimes I feel like people have a grand vision for cake decorating, but sadly, the end result is nothing as beautiful. However, in your cake, you actually made them WAY CUTER than I could have pictured.

I bet your party was a rockin' success :)

Thimbleanna said...

Oh How Cute!!! Love those flip flops Junie Moon -- you're so clever and talented. It sounds like the party was a total success!!!

karen said...

The party sounds amazing - I love the flip flop cakes - really good idea and wasn't it wonderful to an idea of yours turn into reality. The cakes look yummy.

Diane Schuller said...

wow, those flip flop cakes are amazing! So creative and quite a lot of work too. Your friends must have been blown away by all your special touches. So glad the day was such a great time for you as well!

SOINSPIRED said...

Those cakes are amazing. Had you not mentioned the Air Heads candy, I would have thought they were ribbon.

Pat @ Mille Fiori Favoriti said...

I love these edible decorations June!The flip flops are so colorful and look scrumptious. I like the kabob idea and I'm going to make them my next celebration! Thanks!


I'm glad you had a wonderful party! Please send soem sun to the east coast as all it has been doing is raining ;-(

shenry said...

Love the cakes; they are adorable. Love the fruit kabobs even move; it's a tasty, colorful porcupine.

And you had everything cleaned up in an hour? That's the most remarkable thing about this post.

Jessica said...

I've really loved reading about all your crafty pool party related work - very inspiring! Those flip flop cakes are just the best :)

Saucy said...

The flip flop cakes are toooo cute! I will have to make one for Loopy and some pals to enjoy by the pool one day over summer vacation, what a great idea!

Rachel@oneprettything.com said...

That cake is FANTASTIC! The Airheads were such a great idea, I love it! I'll be linking.