Colourful Fruit Skewers

This is not really a recipe, more of a suggestion for a fun way to serve your usual fruit salad. The combination of of the fruit chunks' bright, vibrant colours looks really appetizing, and it is one of the healthiest desserts you could ever offer your guests or family after an evening meal. It also makes for an attractive centrepiece on the buffet table at a party, or brunch. The credit for this idea goes to my lovely Italian aunties Bonaria, Paola, Patrizia, Ornella and Doli who created it for our Easter lunch.

INGREDIENTS (makes about 10 skewers)

• One pineapple
• One small/medium melon
• Four kiwi fruits
• Ten large strawberries
• Ten grapes
• One orange
• Icing sugar

Note: you can of course use any variety of fruit you like, just ensure it's ripe, fresh and juicy.  
You will also need:  tin foil; ten long wooden skewers; three wooden toothpicks; a colander (check that your long wooden skewers fit in the colander's holes).

Start by creating the base for your centrepiece by following these steps:

1. Take the colander, place it on the table upside down (with the hollow part facing the table surface) and cover it with tin foil. 
2. Wash and dry the orange and cut off a slice from the bottom, horizontally, so that it can stand firmly on its own when placed on a flat surface.  Cut off the bunch of leaves from the pineapple's top (keep the bunch whole by cutting it just below the bottom of the stem, where the pineapple fruit begins). 
3. Stick three toothpicks through the bottom of the bunch of leaves, leaving one half of the toothpicks sticking out; pierce the other end of the toothpicks through the top of the orange (the round part, not the part that you have cut off), thus "nailing" together the two items. If you follow these instructions correctly, you should end up with an orange that stands on its own and has a pretty bunch of pineapple leaves springing from its top. Yes, that's right! ;-)
4. Now, place the mutant "pineappley orange" on top of the colander (the latter upside placed upside down on the table or on a serving tray), i.e. resting on its flat, smaller surface at the centre.

Peel your fruit and cut it in chunks of similar size. Skewer the fruit chunks following a regular pattern (all the skewers should look the same), then stick each skewers through the holes of the colander, arranging them in a circular pattern all around the orange.

Dust the skewers with icing sugar just before serving. Voilà!