Radish Flowers

• Radish flowers range from simple creations made with just a few knife cuts to elaborate creations with interlocking petals. To form the simplest flower petals, carve three slices down the sides of a radish, starting at the root end and carving down to but not over the stem end. Place the radish in ice water for 1 hour so the petals will open, and drain the radishes well before placing them here and there on your food tray.

Bouquets with Tops

• Create a radish bouquet for the center of your food tray by placing radishes with fresh green tops in an empty glass vase or jar so the bottom of the radishes show through. Choose one type of radish for each food tray or make a muti-colored and multi-shaped bouquet. If possible, include round red types along with "Easter Egg" varieties in purple lavender, pink and white. Add more color with "Plum Purple" in deep magenta. "French Breakfast" is an oblong red variety with white tips, and "Icicle" is a white variety in a slim tapered shape to further dress up a radish bouquet.

Overlapping Radish Slices

• Sliced radishes in different colors work as decorations scattered artfully on a food tray, as overlapping slices around the perimeter of the tray, or in overlapping slices to form borders between other ingredients on the tray. Alternate the colors of the radish slices or use radishes with interesting colors in their flesh, such as "Watermelon," which has a greenish outer skin and a bright, pink, watermelon-colored interior.

Flora and Fauna

• Playful mice or mushrooms made from radishes adorn your food tray when you place them among the food. Using the radish stem for a nose and the root as a tail, make a radish mouse by carving two slits near the top of the radish to insert slices as mouse ears and notch out two small eyes with the tip of a vegetable peeler. Slice the bottom of the radish so your mouse will sit flat. Use a similar notching technique to create white spots on a red mushroom cap and carve off half of the radish body to form a white mushroom stem.