Hot December weather means Queensland’s watermelon season is in full swing, so it is the perfect time to make a watermelon cake. Try this watermelon cake recipe for an easy dessert that will please all the family.
The clever folk at Harris Farms have created a watermelon cake that’s more like a Christmas fruit cake bringing together all the beautiful fruits of the season into a fabulous watermelon dessert. Don’t confuse it with the famous Strawberry and Watermelon Cake made by Black Star Pastry. This is a much healthier version with no added sugar, but if you would like to add some of those flavours to your creation, I have some tips below.
This masterpiece features white chocolate stars topping off fresh fruit straight from Queensland growers and watermelon from Burdekin and Bowen in North Queensland and Bundaberg.
It’s the perfect cake for Christmas celebrations and it fits many dietary preferences. Just take off the chocolate (or find vegan chocolate) and its gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan friendly and just downright delicious!
Watermelon Cake
Hot December weather means Queensland’s watermelon season is in full swing, so it is the perfect time to make a watermelon cake. Try this watermelon cake recipe for an easy dessert that will please all the family.
Ingredients
- 1 seedless watermelon
- 1 strawberry punnet
- 1/2 blueberry punnet
- 1/2 raspberry punnet
- 3 yellow peaches
- handful of cherries
- 125g white chocolate (use vegan chocolate for a vegan cake).
Instructions
- Melt the white chocolate over a double boiler. Once melted, spread it out with a spatula on to a flat baking tray lined with baking paper. Allow to cool completely before cutting out the star shapes with cookie cutters.
- Using a large knife, slice off the top and bottom of the watermelon so it sits flat on a chopping board. Slice the sides off evenly so it resembles a round cylinder shape and no white of the watermelon rind is showing. Keep any cut off scraps to make watermelon juice or place in the freezer for a spritz at a later time.
- Slice the cylinder into 4cm wide discs, depending on the size of your watermelon you should end up with 3 or 4 discs.
- Lay the most level watermelon disc first onto a flat serving plate. Place 3 level pieces of the left-over watermelon skin roughly 2-3cm wide to allow for a 1cm gap when you lay the next disc on top. This also helps to ensure the cake is level.
- Place the second disc on top and repeat the process.
- Slice the strawberries and peaches into slices. Stick the slices alternately in the gap between the watermelon discs poking outwards. Add blueberries in-between each slice.
- Cover the top of the watermelon cake with piled-up whole strawberries, raspberries, cherries, more slices of peaches and a good handful of blueberries. Poke the white chocolate stars in-between the fruit and serve your watermelon dessert.
Notes
The key lies in purchasing top quality fruit to ensure amazing flavours for this watermelon dessert. Buy a seedless watermelon to make the job so much easier.
You could serve the watermelon cake with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream to contrast the flavours.
For a little more magic, take some tips from Black Star Pastry’s strawberry and watermelon cake. Try serving the cake with whipped cream flavoured with rosewater (300 ml of thickened cream with 30 gm of castor sugar and 2 tablespoons of rosewater). Pop some dried rose petals on the top for additional wow factor.
Macerating the watermelon and strawberries with 20 ml of rosewater for 15 minutes will also add a flavour boost. You could also sprinkle 2 tablespoons of sugar over it too. Wipe the slices dry before assembling.
Nutrition Information:
Yield:
10Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving: Calories: 101Total Fat: 4gSaturated Fat: 2gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 1gCholesterol: 3mgSodium: 12mgCarbohydrates: 16gFiber: 1gSugar: 14gProtein: 1g
Disclaimer: Recipe supplied by Harris Farms.
It just makes so much sense to have something light, cool and delicious at the end of a big meal instead of a heavy dish. I do love plum pudding though…
A watermelon cake at Christmas is such a great idea! The English tradition of the Christmas pudding really doesn’t work for a hot climate… I struggled through several hot christmas dinners and equally boiling pudding in Western Australia, you Queenslanders have found the best solution!