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Yesterday in my Birthday Bento post I shared the tools I use for spelling out fun messages with food ( like "Happy Birthday"), and how I store those tools to make it super easy to grab them and use them on the spur of the moment when you want to add a fun message to your food.
But those itty bitty cutters... it's a lot to fuss with. And when you use them, the food gets stuck in the cutter - why even bother?
Don't worry, today I'm going to show you the tips and tricks I have learned for how to get the most out of alphabet cutters. Now when a last-minute, creative food idea strikes - you can make it!
TOOLS YOU'LL NEED:
- alphabet/number bento cutters ( check out yesterday's post to see all the cutters I have, where to get them, and how I store them)
- a few tools for popping the food out of the cutter, such as swizzle sticks
- a few different sizes of straws
- semi-soft food to cut out - like cheese, lightly steamed carrots, ham or turkey, cucumber, etc.
I know these small bento cutters look kind of tedious. But trust me, they are really easy to use once you learn a couple of things.
1. Use semi-soft food. Why is this important? If you are using plastic cutters you will have the best chance of success if you use food that is a little bit soft-ish ( like the foods I mentioned above). If you try to press a plastic cutting tool through a slice of raw carrot, for example, not only will it be hard to cut, but you might hurt your hand or even break the cutter. But if you place the carrot slices in a little dish, cover them with water, and cook them in the microwave for about 30 seconds to 1 minute, they will be soft enough to cut. And it will still taste good in a cold lunch. Steel cutting tools are the only ones I've found that can cut through hard foods, but they usually cost more, and there isn't as large of a selection as there is with plastic ones.
2. Get some tools to pop the food out of the cutter, because it will stick - just about every time. Here are some things I like to use:
On the left are some swizzle sticks, that I just bought at a party supply store. I use these the most because the ball on one end is perfect for pushing the food out of the cutter without stabbing a hole through it. And if the ball end is too big to fit in the area that you need to push out, then you can use the other end. Toothpicks do not work - they only poke holes through the food without pushing it out of the cutter at all.
The next one, with the panda face, is from my CuteZCute cutter set. It is also good, but the tip may poke through something really soft, like cheese.
The white one on the end, comes from my Sweet Creations Alphabet/Numbers set. It is just okay. It's mostly useful for cleaning the cutters when they get washed, but the ends are a little too sharp for pushing the food out without damaging it.
My advice - stick with a tool with a ball on the end, like a swizzle stick 🙂
3. Push the food out near the edges, not directly from the center. Sometimes when I try pushing the food out of the cutter in the center of the piece, it will break the food in half. I have better luck if I push it out from each corner or edge. I tried to show that in this photo - I hope you get what I mean:
4. Use straws to cut details. You can buy straws in lots of different sizes, and they all work great as cutting tools. Regular drinking straws, extra wide straws for drinking milkshakes, and very skinny straws for stirring coffee or hot cocoa are all perfect for cutting teeny tiny circles out - like the center of the letter A, O, P, R, D. I used a coffee stirring straw to cut the centers of the letters in my "Happy birthday" example in the main photo up at the top. You will find a lot of uses for straws - I have used them for eyes, polka dots, details on cheese snowflakes, and more. I cut a long straw into about 3 pieces and keep a stash of them in the box where I keep my alphabet sets. Here are just a few:
Here are some pics showing how I use them to cut the centers out in alphabet letters:
My favorite thing about using straws to cut food - you can squeeze the straw and the bit of food inside will just pop out! Those little cheese or carrot circles are perfect as eyes, dots, etc.
If you organize your tools, and keep them all together so they are easy to grab and use, then it only takes a couple of minutes to add a fun little message when you're packing a lunch. If you didn't see my post yesterday, here's a picture of how I store all my alphabet and number cutting tools:
I hope this post was helpful! I wish I knew this stuff when I first started packing bento lunches. If you have any questions, please leave me a comment! I promise I will answer it. You can also ask questions over on my Facebook page. And if you like Pinterest - here's a good image you can use 🙂
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