This Strawberry Tree is quite the show stopper and is really not that difficult to make. It doesn’t take too long either! Today I had a ladies craft luncheon and was asked to “Please bring that gorgeous Christmas tree you make”. This tree is a delight and can be made with strawberries, cherries or grapes but I like to combine them.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
A large polystyrene foam cone. I bought mine at an Art/Craft shop because they do carry a large range of sizes but you will often find them in $2 shops.
Green based Christmas paper. This year mine came free with a magazine. Perfect! And sticky tape.
A pot of toothpicks
Three punnets of SMALL strawberries. You will see that mine were a little large. We live in a wonderful place in the world where all the strawberries in our supermarkets are enormous at this time of the year.
A couple of handfulls of cherries and seedless grapes ( green or red)
A small star. Now usually I use a decoration but decided on a polystyrene one which I intended to paint. It didn’t happen, so it was fine just white.
ASSEMBLING THE TREE
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Cover your cone tightly with paper and sticky tape in place. Trim the paper around the base to enure you tree sits flat.
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I started with a row of cherries because they are uniform in size and help to keep the tree stable. Starting at the bottom of the cone push a toothpick in and push on a cherry. Continue creating rows.
3. Making one row at a time as you move up the tree, I alternate grapes, cherries and strawberries. The grapes look like the lights.
4. As you near the top you may find it better to shorten the toothpick. Poke the hole, remove it to break the stick. Now replace it and push on the berry or grape.
5 Finish by filling in any gaps between the berries. I have used pins with mint leaves to fill in gaps because I was a bit short of strawberries and it still looked lovely. (Make sure everyone knows the fruit is NOT pinned on.) 
6 It is easier to build the tree on the serving plate but it can be moved carefully. I also added extra large strawberries with cherries and grapes around the bases to represent smaller trees.
TO SERVE
Just prior to serving your tree use a fine sieve with icing sugar to dust for the snow. If you are able to get some edible gold or silver glitter this can make it spectacular! I promise this will be a show stopper – be prepared for requests from everyone. This could become your “Bring a plate to share” Christmas dessert! Luckily the cone is reusable several times with fresh wrapping.
VARIATIONS:
Mde with cherries, grapes and a few strawberries.
HAVE FUN!