It's a fake cake!

Since "salad doesn't make friends", how did fruit salad get into the Christmas party?

...Disguised as a cake!

Yes, my jokes are lame but you have my greatest endorsement to laugh regardless.

Anyhow, inspired by Black Star Pastry's strawberry and watermelon cake, and a meme of an iced watermelon on the internet, I experimented with some ideas. The photos below are of the prototype but the recipe has since been modified and improved.

Strawtermelon Fake

Ingredients:
Half a watermelon
400g thickened cream
A punnet of blueberries*
A punnet of strawberries*
1 kiwi fruit*
1 tsp rose water
Almond flakes
200g McVities Digestive biscuits
30g caster sugar

Method:
(Serves 8, preparing time 20min)
1. Depending on how you want your Fake to look, you can carve out your watermelon in two different ways. For the cylindrical shape, use a whole watermelon and slice off the rounded ends. Cut a line through the skin when run the knife along the inner circumference and peel the skin off. For the hemisphere, use a halved watermelon and use a knife to carve through the skin until all the white parts are gone.
2. For the base, crush the digestive biscuits then press evenly onto the serving plate (or where you intend to assemble the Fake).
3. For the rose scented cream, whisk the rose water into the thickened cream the slowly add the caster sugar and keep whisking until small peaks form. Take care to not over whisk.
4. Spread a thin layer of the flavoured cream over the base before mounting the melon onto it.
4. Use a spatula or palette knife to finish icing the rest of the melon evenly.
5. Peel and slice the kiwi, wash all the berries, and slice the strawberries. *If these fruits are not in season, there are plenty of alternatives, or use frozen berries
6. Along with the almond flakes, decorate the Fake as your creative heart desires, then serve up!

Note: 1. In the prototype I baked an almond dacquoise base instead of using McVities Digestives but it got soggy despite the layer of almond meal over it (pictured below). Unlike Black Star's cake, this chunk of watermelon was too big and damp for a dacquoise base to withstand unless you halved the thickness or made a layered cake. 2. Photo credits to Cathy Xu (cxu @ Instagram) for the last snap.