pineapple-palm tree fruit bowl

The menu for the second of my three-week series of cooking classes at Les Gourmettes was Pool Party. This Pineapple-Palm Tree Fruit Bowl was the centerpiece.

When we have an actual pool party at home, one of the best things about this presentation is that not only is it eye-catching, but it looks beautiful from all sides and can be enjoyed by those in the sunken kitchen or those chilling at the swim-up bar.

It is not difficult to create, the only hard thing is finding the right thing to “impale” the pineapples onto. Three pineapples stacked atop one another is precarious, so you need a sturdy pole. A broom hand or dowel, nailed into a round wooden base would work well.

I happen to have a three-tiered server that screws apart. I was able to remove the center and top tiers and use the bottom tier as the base for the fruit.

The first order of business is to hollow out the pineapples. To do so, cut off both ends of two pineapples and only the bottom of the third. This third pineapple will be the top.

Next, use a sharp knife to score and cut out the center cord of each pineapple.

Continue to dig and whittle away at the center core of each pineapple until you have hollowed it from one end through the other. It’s not hard to do, it just takes a little time and patience.

Slip one pineapple onto the pole. Since my pole was threaded, I placed a piece of plastic wrap over, so the pineapple flesh wouldn’t get caught up in the threads.

Slide on the second pineapple.

And finally the third, with its top still attached. Since I had a large bowl as my base, I filled it with watermelon rind to “fill it up” so I wouldn’t have to use so much fruit to make it look full and lush. If you’re using a flat wooden base, you will skip this step.

If you live in an area with palm trees, go out and cut off about a dozen small palm fronds. If not, these can be ordered through any florist. Use stick pins or florist pins to attach the fronts to the top of the pineapple.

Now you are ready to fill it with fruit!

I split a coconut in half and filled each half with blueberries. Sing along with me…

“You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up
You put the lime in the coconut and drink it all up
You put the lime berries in the coconut and drink it all up
You put the berries in the coconut and call the doctor, woke him up
I said doctor, is there nothing I can take
I said doctor, to relieve this bellyache
I said doctor, is there nothing I can take
I said doctor, to relieve this bellyache”

Good luck getting that song out of your head the rest of the day…. you’re welcome!

In addition to the blueberries and coconut, I used;

• Green grapes
• Red grapes
• Blackberries
• Strawberries
• Raspberries
• Watermelon
• Cantaloupe
• and Kiwi halves

That’s all there is to creating this edible and a rather impressive summer centerpiece.

Oh, I nearly forgot, use the tops of the two bottom pineapples on the fruit tray too. As you can see in the photo above, we did use them last night at the cooking class, but they were thrown away at the end of the night, so I didn’t have them to use in the reconstruction I made this morning.

If you live near me and you would like to make this for your next pool party, you are more than welcome to borrow my stand. And if you need palm fronds, I’ve got those for you too.