KUALA LUMPUR: Birthday cakes don’t always have to be made of sponge and buttercream. For Madihah Amirah Mohd Roshdy, a watermelon does just fine.
The 37-year-old founder of “MH Fruits” creates elaborate cakes using fresh watermelon as the base, decorated with colourful arrangements of strawberries, oranges, kiwis, grapes, blueberries and other fruits.
Her two-year-old home-based business in Cheras is known for its character-themed creations and elaborate tiered designs. The results are so convincing you just might find yourself asking: “Wait, that’s all fruit?”
“When I first started the business, people heard ‘fruit cake’ and assumed I meant a butter cake with dried fruit in it. Mine is made from actual pieces of fresh fruit,” Madihah told FMT Lifestyle.
Once an office worker, now a housewife, Madihah was selling fruit platters earlier but wanted something different for her customers. That’s when she began experimenting with watermelon cakes, creating her first for her own child’s birthday in January 2018.
Madihah says she is the first in Malaysia to create character-themed watermelon cakes. She initially taught herself through online videos before attending classes and learning platter-making techniques from Buah Klub.
Among her best-selling creations is the MelonMates character series, which includes a bee with black stripes made of grapes on a yellow watermelon base, a dinosaur topped with pineapple spikes and a lion with a mane made from orange slices and mango.
Madihah also makes Barbie-inspired cakes, with a doll at the centre of a gown decorated with fresh fruit.
Beyond character pieces, she created a Jalur Gemilang-themed fruit platter in September. Her latest creation is a Formula 1 racing car, complete with kiwi slices for wheels.
“I’m especially proud of my dinosaur design. People from Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand have asked me to teach classes on it,” she said.
Each cake requires careful preparation and carving; more elaborate orders take over three hours to complete.
Madihah uses a paring knife and a Thai carving knife to shape the watermelon, which she also selects carefully when shopping. In a social media post that went viral, Madihah explained why she sometimes buys watermelons costing over RM50.
“I’m not buying watermelons simply to cut up and serve. The texture has to be very firm and crisp so it doesn’t break apart and can support the fruit skewers,” she said.
She also takes care to prevent the fruit from becoming watery. “The preparation itself takes at least 30 minutes. I wrap the fruit and put it in the chiller first before carving,” she said, adding that customers have praised her cakes for holding up well during a party.
Madihah said the only non-edible elements are the watermelon rind used for certain decorative details and the skewers that secure the fruit. Each character cake costs at least RM150, with more elaborate designs priced at over RM200.
She also makes a point of minimising waste. Any leftover watermelon is cut into cubes, packed separately and handed to the customer.
Fluctuating fruit prices remain a challenge as she cannot adjust her cake prices every day. Nevertheless, she believes using quality ingredients is essential to the final product.
Madihah runs MH Fruits herself while raising two children, occasionally receiving help from her husband. Her approach to business also changed after training for three months with the Ibupreneur programme in 2025.
The programme taught her about costing, marketing and building a social media presence. After applying what she learnt, her Instagram followers grew from 54 to 1,500, while her TikTok account has over 6,000.
Madihah now receives orders almost daily. Once, she made seven watermelon cakes all in one day. Madihah said her watermelon cakes are a hit and often disappear from the table before the traditional birthday cakes do.
Looking ahead, she hopes to create a castle cake for her daughter’s birthday, with a merry-go-round design also among her ideas.
“My big goal is for people to see my watermelon cakes as more than just cakes made from fruit. I want them to become part of a special memory for Malaysians,” she said.