Layered Fruit Salad with Orange-Vanilla Syrup and Sweetened Cream Cheese Filling

Happy Good Friday! Easter is so early this year. This Sunday I'm meeting with some of my favorite peeps for Easter Brunch. The meats and main dishes are being covered by other folks, so I've committed to bringing fruit salad. But not just any fruit salad--it's Easter so it has to be super special. I've got a big beautiful glass bowl and have combined two of my favorite fruit salad recipes to create something worthy of Easter Brunch.


Layered Fruit Salad with Orange-Vanilla Syrup and Cream Cheese Filling

Ingredients
1 Cantaloupe, peeled, seeded and cut into bite-sized chunks
6 Kiwis, peeled and diced
1 lb Strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 lb Red Grapes, slices lengthwise
1 lb Green Grapes, sliced lengthwise
1 qt Blueberries, Blackberries, or Raspberries (choose 1 or mix all 3)
1 20-oz can Pineapple Chunks, drained
Juice of 1 Orange
Zest of 1 Orange
1 C Sugar
1 C Water
Caviar of 2 Whole Vanilla Beans or 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
1/8 tsp ground Nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground Cinnamon
16 oz package of Cream Cheese, softened
2 Tb Milk
3 Tb Confectioner's Sugar
1/3 C chopped Walnuts (optional)

***You can use whatever fruit you'd like.

Method
Combine sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla bean caviar, orange juice, orange zest, and water in a saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15-20 minutes, until thickened. Allow to cool, then refrigerate until cold.

In a bowl, combine and beat Cream Cheese, Milk, and Confectioner's Sugar until fluffy.

In a high-sided glass bowl add cantaloupe, then berries (blackberries, raspberries, blueberries), then strawberries and walnuts. Pour half of the cold vanilla-orange syrup over the fruit, then spread the cream cheese mixture over. Add the grapes.

In a separate bowl, toss the kiwi fruit with the remainder of the vanilla-orange syrup. Layer the kiwi fruit with the main mix, then add the pineapple.

Cover and chill for at least an hour.

If you want to dress things up a bit, top with lime wedges, orange or strawberry slices, or fresh mint leaves.

Update: This salad was the bomb.com. It was huge, I ended up eating it for a couple of days afterwards and it was still delish. I suggest making sure the cream cheese is whipped until its super fluffy--I didn't whip mine enough. Also, it took me an hour to prep this thing even though I made the syrup beforehand--all of the fruit has to be sliced and that takes forever, so heads up! It's so worth it.