Colorful fruit pizza features a vibrant bounty of fruit atop a soft sugar cookie crust and thick, tangy cream cheese frosting. Choose your favorite fruits to customize this classic summertime dessert!
There’s just something so summery about a fruit pizza. Maybe it’s the bright, glossy colors… or the freshness of in-season fruits and berries… or the fact that it reminds me of a sunburst or a firework exploding in the sky. If you were to ask me to recommend a dessert to bring to a summertime BBQ, fruit pizza would immediately come to mind.
The combination of a soft, buttery sugar cookie crust with tangy-sweet cream cheese frosting and colorful fresh fruit is nostalgic AND irresistible!
Here’s Why You Need to Try This Fruit Pizza
- Completely from scratch, but easy!
- Tons of texture in each bite.
- Fun to make and decorate—a great one for kids to help.
- Endlessly customizable with various fruits + berries.
- Easy to slice and serve.
- It’s visually stunning without the need for any special decorating tools or skills.
- Slightly updated recipe is better than ever!
I originally published this recipe in 2014, but I’ve made some updates to the recipe, and want to share them with you. I also filmed a new video tutorial and you can find that in the recipe below.
This recipe was good before, but I knew it could be even better.
8 Ingredient Sugar Cookie Crust
No pizza dough or pie crust needed today! This fruit pizza’s sugar cookie crust is soft in the center with a slightly crisp edge. It’s like a thicker, larger version of classic sugar cookies. And it’s really easy.
You’ll use familiar sugar cookie ingredients: flour, sugar, butter, egg, vanilla, baking powder, and salt; plus, we’re adding cornstarch to make the cookie crust extra soft. This recipe used to call for baking soda in the cookie dough, but it really wasn’t necessary or useful, so we’re using just baking powder now. You can read about the differences on this Baking Powder vs Baking Soda page.
Success Tip: Chill the Dough for Just 20 Minutes
The easy dough comes together with a mixer. It’s quite sticky and soft because there’s so little flour, so chill it in the refrigerator for 20 minutes before pressing onto your pan. We want the sugar cookie crust to spread some in the oven, but not so much that it escapes the pan! The crust holds its shape much better if the dough is slightly cold. Then use your fingers to press the dough onto the pizza pan, shaping it into a 9–10-inch circle. (A 12-inch pizza pan works perfectly. Just make sure you aren’t using a pizza crisper pan with the little holes/air vents in it.)
Sugar Cookie Crust FAQs
- Could I use another cookie dough for the crust? Yes! You could change things up and make a chocolate chip cookie pizza as an alternative to the sugar cookie crust. I think this would be delicious with frosting + strawberries or raspberries on top. Maybe a little drizzle of melted chocolate, too? Why not!
- Can I make this without a pizza pan? Yes, you can press this crust into a 9–10-inch circle or square on a regular baking sheet or press into a 9×13-inch baking pan. You can also double the recipe for a giant 12×17-inch fruit pizza. See recipe Note.
4 Ingredient Cream Cheese Frosting
We’re using a scaled-down version of this cream cheese frosting for the pizza “sauce.” It’s smooth, creamy, and spreads with ease. You need 4 ingredients including cream cheese, butter, confectioners’ sugar, and vanilla extract. Use block-style cream cheese, not the cream cheese spread in a tub.
In the previous version of this recipe, the frosting was extremely sweet and yielded A LOT. I reduced the confectioners’ sugar from 2 cups down to 1 and 1/4 cups, and I also slightly reduced the butter. I kept the same amount of cream cheese and vanilla extract. The result is a less-cloyingly sweet frosting with just the right amount of tang to balance out the sweet crust and fruit. You could add a bit of lemon juice for a little extra zing!
My strawberry buttercream frosting would also be fantastic on top of this fruit pizza. A wonderful pop of color and flavor!
Best Fruits for Fruit Pizza
I especially like to use:
- apples, nectarines or peaches (brush with a little lemon juice to prevent from browning)
- grapes (2 colors to choose from!)
- kiwi
- plums
- cantaloupe
- mangoes
- oranges (or canned mandarin slices, drained)
- pineapple
- fresh berries like blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries
Fruits to avoid: I recommend steering clear of watermelon on fruit pizza because the water content can make the pizza soggy. Banana slices are fine to use, but they brown quickly, so brush them with a little lemon juice and serve the fruit pizza right away.
Whatever fruit you use, make sure to cut it into thin, bite-size pieces. When you slice the pizza, smaller pieces of fruit hold up better and are easier to serve (and eat). Small fruits like blueberries and raspberries are great choices because you don’t have to slice or peel them. It’s a prep-work shortcut you can always appreciate in recipes like blueberry pie.
Now Let’s Decorate!
The crust + frosting is your blank canvas, and now you get to make edible artwork! Decorate your fruit pizza in colorful patterns, get creative with elaborate designs, or simply just pile the fruit on top. You can really let your—or your child’s—creativity shine.
I usually make rings with the fruits, so that when the pizza is cut, each slice contains some of each fruit. If you’re in the USA, you could use strawberries and blueberries on top of the white frosting for festive holidays like Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day.
Here are a few more fun fruit pizza design ideas:
- Make a rainbow pizza with a stripe of each color made up of 7 different fruits. You could even tint the frosting blue with gel food coloring, and add fluffy marshmallow clouds!
- Make a sunburst design using all yellow and orange fruits.
- Create a funny face or a favorite animal—a colorful butterfly would be fun to design!
- Use small cookie cutters to cut shapes out of some of the larger, sturdier fruits, like apples, cantaloupe, papaya, or kiwi. Or simply slice up some star fruit—nature’s done the shaping for you!
More Favorite Summer Desserts
- Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches
- No-Bake Cheesecake (and mini no-bake cheesecakes)
- Ice Cream Cake
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie
- Berry Cobbler
- Strawberry Shortcake Cake
See Your Fruit Pizzas!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge!
Fruit Pizza
- Prep Time: 1 hour, 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: serves 10-12
- Category: Cake
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Colorful fruit pizza features a vibrant bounty of fruit atop a soft sugar cookie crust and thick, tangy cream cheese frosting. Choose your favorite fruits to customize this classic summertime dessert!
Ingredients
Sugar Cookie Crust
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spoon & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (115g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Topping
- 8 oz (224g) full-fat block-style cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3 Tablespoons (45g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1 and 1/4 cups (150g) confectioners’ sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3 cups (about 400g) assorted sliced fresh fruit
Instructions
- Make the crust: Whisk the flour, cornstarch, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.
- In a large bowl using a handheld mixer or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar together on medium-high speed until combined and creamy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. Once completely combined, cover the dough tightly and chill in the refrigerator for 20 minutes and up to 1 day. (Let dough sit out at room temperature for 20-30 minutes if chilling longer than a couple hours because the dough will be quite stiff and flattening onto pan will be difficult.)
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Grease a 12-inch pizza pan with nonstick spray (even if it’s a nonstick pan). Remove chilled cookie dough from the refrigerator and press onto the pizza pan in a 9–10-inch circle, about 1/3-inch thick. Bake for 17–19 minutes or until the edges are very lightly browned. Avoid over-baking. Cool crust completely before decorating.
- Make the frosting: In a medium bowl using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle or whisk attachment, beat the cream cheese and butter together on medium speed until smooth, about 2 minutes. Add the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla. Beat for 1 minute or until creamy and combined. Yields 1 and 1/2 cups (about 390g) frosting. Spread a thick layer over the cooled sugar cookie crust. Decorate with fruit.
- Cut into slices and serve. Leftovers keep well in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: Prepare the cookie crust and frosting 1 day in advance—cover each tightly and keep the cookie at room temperature and the frosting in the refrigerator. Frost and assemble the day of serving.
- Pizza Pan: Make sure you aren’t using a pizza crisper pan with the little holes/air vents in it. The pizza pan I use is this nonstick pizza pan.
- Can I make this without a pizza pan? Yes, you can press this crust into a 9–10-inch circle or square on a regular baking sheet or press into a very thin crust in a 9×13-inch baking pan. Bake time is about the same, usually a minute or two less if using a 9×13-inch pan. No need to chill the cookie dough if using a 9×13-inch pan.
- Can I make this in a half sheet/jelly roll pan? Yes, but double the crust, frosting, and fruit. Press crust into a greased 12×17-inch pan. About the same bake time. No need to chill the cookie dough if doubling and pressing into a 12×17-inch pan.
- Cornstarch: You can skip the cornstarch if you don’t have any. No need to replace with anything.
- Adding Flavor to Frosting: Feel free to add 2–3 teaspoons of fresh lemon or lime juice, plus the zest of either fruit. Alternatively, you could add 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract.
- Updated in 2022: The crust used to call for 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda (in addition to the baking powder in the recipe), but it wasn’t necessary so we no longer use it. Additionally, the frosting used to be extremely sweet and yielded a lot. I reduced the confectioners’ sugar down from 2 cups (240g) to 1 and 1/4 cups (150g). I also reduced the butter from 4 Tablespoons down to 3. The recipe above reflects these changes.
Keywords: fruit pizza
Such a great fruit pizza recipe. I have one I’ve used for years but thought I try this one because when does sally ever steer you wrong? She did it again. I loved the size of the batch. The frosting wasn’t overly sweet which complimented the fruit perfectly. I did only bake mine for 15 minutes because I wanted less brown. So delicious and will definitely be making again!
★★★★★
This recipe was so much fun to make. My grandson helped with the fruit and he enjoyed it too. Also my church family absolutely loved it. This Fruit Pizza has made it to my Thanksgiving dinner menu! Thanks Sally
★★★★★
Enjoyed this a lot. As others have stated it’s not too sweet so the fruit can really be the star. I personally underestimated the amount of kiwi necessary for the design I had in my head, so mine turned out a bit bare, which is of course no fault of the recipe. I’ll be better prepared next time I make this.
★★★★★
Made two of these for my grandmothers birthday party and everyone loved them! Very delicious and fun to make too !
★★★★★
Very easy and was fun to make with my kids. A great dessert to bring to a summer get together!
★★★★★
Haven’t eaten fruit pizza since I was a kid, and so this challenge was both nostalgic and delicious. Brought it to book club and everyone loved it.
★★★★★
This is a great tasting and super easy recipe, and I have made fruit pizzas a variety of different ways – not from scratch (Pillsbury sugar cookie dough) and a couple different gluten free recipes. This came together easily, baked up nicely (sugar cookie with some softness to it), and was a total hit. Got gobbled up. My daughter said it was the best one I’d ever made
★★★★★
We made 1/2 the recipe and baked the dough in a pie pan for 12 minutes. The quantity was perfect for two people. It was delicious. Thank you for your recipes!
★★★★★
Just made this and it was super easy and super tasty. I used almond emulsion instead of vanilla in the dough and OMGEEE delish! Thank you Sally
★★★★★
Super easy and quick dessert that was a big hit! Could have eaten the cream cheese frosting by the spoon. It was soo good. And the cookie base was chewy and delicious!
★★★★★
The part I loved the most was to decorate the fruit pizza. I didn’t use all of the frosting because I think more than half was enough for my fruit pizza. I made it for my son’s coworkers and they love it. Thanks Sally and staff for taking time to create all the delicious recipes every time.
I’ve been making fruit pizza for the 4th of July for many years, but changed it up this year and followed Sally’s recipe. My family raved about this new recipe. The frosting is not as sweet so it lets the cookie and fruit and cream cheese flavors come through. The kids gave it a double thumbs up, then proceeded to eat a doubled recipe!
★★★★★
Loved, loved, loved this recipe!! The directions (as well as the visuals) were so perfectly simply to follow which I always am thankful for! The cookie base was just the right amount of sweet and combined with the cream cheese frosting and fruit; the taste of everything together was so light and perfect! I shared this with my friends for our pool day and they loved it! Can’t wait to do this one again!
★★★★★
I made this recipe for a family dinner. I actually needed to have two, so my daughter made one with the cream cheese frosting and I made mine with Sally’s Lemon Curd. Both were wonderful! I loved how easy and fast the recipes came together and how beautiful they looked! And the grandkids help with the fruit! Thanks for this family fun recipe.
★★★★★
I am not a fan of fruit pizza, but I actually enjoyed this recipe. The cookie base tasted amazing. I was nota fan of the cream cheese frosting though. I thought it was too thin and needed to be much thicker. I made this for the Fourth of July and used strawberries and blueberries to get a red, white, and blue theme. Will definitely be using the cookie recipe again.
★★★★
Great recipe, and pretty easy! I used a rectangular 33cmx28cm pan and needed to double the dough recipe. Turned out z bit thicker than intended, but otherwise I couldn’t get it to spread without breaking. Icing was super easy, I used blueberries and strawberries to make a French flag cake for the big national holiday here.
★★★★★
Great recipe. I just want to tell you, I adore your recipes so much. They are so well written, the instructions are perfectly clear and the notes for each recipe are so helpful. I love that you give measurements in weight (grams) and in cups. I read do many recipe blogs and many are just sloppy, with bad directions or missing ingredients. Never yours! Truly first rate. Thank-you!
★★★★★
Thank you so much for your kind feedback, Cath!
I’ve been making this recipe for a few years now… I usually cook on my stoneware at 350° for 15 min amd it comes out perfect!
★★★★★
I loved making this. Crust was buttery and light. A hit for any BBQ or work party!
Our family enjoyed this recipe so much that we made a second one right away the day after we finished the first one! I used my 10-inch springform pan which worked very well to achieve the perfect size/thickness for the cookie crust. The stated bake time of 17 minutes was perfect for my oven. We topped our fruit pizzas with strawberries, kiwi, and red grapes. Thank you for such an amazingly delicious recipe that we will definitely be making again!
★★★★★
So simple to put together and was absolutely delicious. The sugar cookie base is light and holds well when cutting. The combo of icing and fruit is well balanced and mine turned out really beautiful. I was surprised, as I usually lack finesse but following the instructions made it easy for a beautiful result.
★★★★★
I made this in February, so tasty. Wasn’t overly sweet and light.
★★★★★
I too always used store bought sugar cookie dough… I was SO impressed with how this turned out!! Definitely my go to for fruit pizza from now on!
★★★★★
This was absolutely delicious! The icing had the perfect amount of sweetness and the cookie crust came out just perfect.
Spectacular recipe, and not too sweet! I was able to “minify it” and make individual servings sizes using 3” mini cake pans, and it was perfect.
★★★★★
This recipe was so simple and delicious. I used the bottom of a springform pan as I didn’t have a pizza pan and it turned out great!
★★★★★
This came together very easily. The frosting was a perfect balance to the sugar cookie. I will definitely be making it again.
★★★★★
This recipe was amazing! Before I would always use store bought cookie dough for a faster pie – never again!! This was a quick, easy recipe – and above all tasty!! Thanks so much!
★★★★★
This recipe was really delicious and came together quickly in the summer heat. I used blackberries, blueberries, and nectarine slices on my cookie pizza. I do think between the nonstick pizza pan and greasing the pan, the cookie base spread more than I had hoped. I did pop the pan in the freezer before baking for 10 minutes and will do for longer next time. I also sliced the undecorated cookie base and will freeze for future use since there is only two of us. I like the idea of making individual cookies as others have noted and may try that in the future. I added the lemon zest and juice to the frosting which shouldn’t be optional and prevented it from being too sweet and brightened the frosting. I would make this again with other fruit combinations!
★★★★★
I loved making this fruit pizza. I brought it to a Fourth of July picnic and the kids and adults both said it was amazing! You have the best recipes and they are easy to follow too! Make me feel like a professional Baker thanks again Sally for knocking this one out of the park!
★★★★★
Very simple and tasty! Made in a rectangle and trimmed off the edges so that each piece was square and there weren’t any burnt/crispy edges.
★★★★★
Super easy and fun! A great recipe to make with the kiddos!
★★★★★