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!
I originally published this recipe in 2014 and have since added new photos, a video tutorial, and more helpful success tips. I also made a few improvements to the recipe, which are reflected in the printable recipe below.
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. Out of our entire list of desserts for a BBQ cookout and 4th of July desserts, fruit pizza is usually the first one I recommend.
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 dessert recipe, 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!
One reader, Sarah, commented: “I made a double batch for my niece’s graduation party. I’ve never had so many raves reviews for a dessert before! I did one with your frosting recipe here and one with your strawberry buttercream. Thanks for another winner—I’ve followed you for ages and you’ve never steered me wrong! ★★★★★“
Another reader, Severina, commented: “THIS WAS AMAZING!! My daughter turned 2 and isn’t the biggest fan of cake. She adores fresh fruit, so I figured what better than a fruit pizza in place of a birthday cake. It was a huge hit among the family and, most importantly, the birthday girl!! This recipe was super simple and turned out perfect. I will be making this fun summery recipe every chance I get! ★★★★★“
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 brick-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!
Pastry cream would also be a fantastic alternative to the cream cheese frosting—as would my strawberry buttercream frosting. 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 & Ice Cream Cake
- No-Bake Cheesecake (and mini no-bake cheesecakes)
- Strawberry Cream Cheese Pie
- Berry Cobbler or Berry Galette
- No-Bake Greek Yogurt Fruit Tart
- Strawberry Shortcake Cake
- Triple Berry Pie
See Your Fruit Pizzas!
Many readers tried this recipe as part of a baking challenge!
Print
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 (spooned & leveled)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup (8 Tbsp; 113g) 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 ounces (226g) full-fat brick cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 3 Tablespoons (43g) 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 3 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) 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.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Glass Mixing Bowl | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Nonstick Pizza Pan or Baking Sheet | Icing Spatula
- 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.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Yum!! This was superb, light, and a fun way to use some of my garden’s strawberries and raspberries. I was surprised by the chewiness of the sugar cookie. Would make a great dessert for a summer bbq!
Perfect level of sweetness! I have found previous recipes for fruit pizza are too sweet. This one was perfect!
Great recipe! I’ve seen other fruit pizza recipes but they use the refrigerator cookie dough, which really isn’t my thing. I was so happy to find this one!
I made it this weekend and it was a big hit! It was so easy to make and it was just the right amount of sweetness.
I’ll definitely be making this many more times!
Lovely recipe and really easy to make and follow. Cream cheese frosting was a bit runny but i think that’s because British cream cheese has a lower fat content than American. Still tasted amazing
This cookie pizza was so yummy! I made it for a small party and everyone loved it! I actually doubled the cookie recipe to make a really thick sugar cookie (baked for about 26 minutes) and it was great! I would definitely make this again. It’s a great summer dessert!
I also made the cookie dough a few days before the party, put it in the freezer and let it thaw over night before the party. I made the frosting a day prior too and it made it so easy the day of!
Delicious! Fun twist with the sugar cookie crust. My kids loved it and it was easy for everyone to help bake and decorate!
Thank you so much for this recipe! My husband requested fruit pizza in lieu of a birthday cake, and this proved to be a huge hit with both of us.
I did swap out the cream cheese for a lower fat option in a vague attempt at making a very slightly healthier dessert. It still worked great.
Weird question, can this be made, assembled, and frozen, then thaw individual pie es as needed?
Such a fun recipe for a BBQ!
This delicious treat was super easy to make and so yummy! The berries really shine in this recipe. I made it with raspberries and strawberries, but am looking forward to trying other fruits as well!
This recipe is fun to make, especially with little kids. It tastes great. The cookie had a bit of crunch on the outer edges, but was nice and soft inside. The frosting is just the right amount of seeet.
Thank you for another fun recipe! My toddler and I enjoyed working on this together. Easy and delicious. I think I would add a little more confectioner’s sugar to the icing next time for my ultra-sweet tooth. : ) Thanks Sally!
So easy and sooooo delicious! I had a ton of fun making this and, even better, so did my kids!
I made this recipe for the July Baking Challenge, and I was pleasantly surprised! Everything was so easy to make. The cookie was perfectly soft, but still “study” enough for the fruit toppings. I’m not usually a huge fan of cream cheese frosting, but this was great – at one point I was just dipping strawberries directly into the mixing bowl! Next time, I think I would try adding some lemon zest and/or juice to make the frosting pop a bit more.
This recipe was really easy even for someone like me who struggles with decorating. I found you can use an air bake pizza pan if you scrape beneath the pan with a butter knife before and after baking to get the excess crust out of the holes
We had a family bbq and the teenagers (Jackson & Riley Lane ) who are 15 yrs and 18 yrs of age loved the idea of a baking challenge. The whole process was fun to watch and great to eat. It was a fun addition to a family day of activities.
I love baking recipes from Sally because she always give lots of options and different ways to still make the recipe, even if you do not have everything that is required. I did not have a pizza pan but I was able to use a spring foam cake pan that seemed to do the trick! The cream cheese frosting is not as sweet as other fruit pizza recipes and it goes so well with the sugar cookie crust and fruit. I had fun decorating the “pizza” for a Fourth of July treat!
I have made fruit pizzas before, but none just like this! The sugar cookie isn’t too sweet, the frosting isn’t too sweet… just perfect! Had fun decorating with the fruit!
Has anyone baked this using parchment paper? I usually use parchment for all of my cookies, but wondering if using it for this would make it too crunchy and hard?
Hi Michelle, lining your pan with parchment paper shouldn’t be an issue.
Has anyone ever tried making individual fruit pizzas with small cookies instead of one big pizza cookie? Could I use the same recipe and reduce bake time?
Yes, you definitely can!
I made a double batch for a party tonight – kids and adults alike raved over the soft cookies and just-sweet-enough frosting. I made individual cookie-sized pizzas and set up a build-your-own fruit pizza station, and it was a hit! Each batch made about 16 cookies (1.5 Tbsp scoops) and I baked for about 14 minutes until just golden brown around the edges. Perfect. ♥️
Also! The leftover cream cheese frosting is amazing on graham crackers when your cookies inevitably run out!
Simple and tasty. I made thisnin a 9-inch round cake pan and it turned out great!
Tasty! The combination of the tangy frosting with the fruit and crust was spot on and not too sweet, which we really appreciate!
Absolute best recipe for fruit pizza I’ve ever tried. The cookie texture was perfect and taste was out of this world. Frosting was the right level of sweetness to bring it all together. Definitely adding to my list of all time favorites.
This recipe was a breeze! Ended up making it in a pie dish so it had a little bit of a thicker crust, but turned out great! It was well liked and requested for our beach vacation next month. I used kiwi, strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries for my fruit
The cookie base was so soft and delicious! The icing was tangy and sweet but not too much of either. I made this for the 4th of July and used strawberries and blueberries to decorate. Delicious!
This recipe was excellent!
I served it last night to my guests and got a thumbs up for a repeat dessert. I have made her sugar cookies and they were such a hit I was excited to see the crust was a sugar cookie. The cream cheese sauce of course was excellent and then topped with some favorite fruit. I highly recommend this especially for a hot summer day.
This recipe was so easy to make but full of good flavor from the sugar cookie base to the cream cheese filling and most important the resh fruit on top. This truly was a fruit pizza. Loved by all. Will definitely make again. Thanks for another baking challenge that was sure to please.
Sally, thank you for this recipe. My mom makes a “pizza dessert”, we call it, with a butter/shortening crust, which is fantastic, but I wanted to give your recipe a try. I loved your recipe and made it for my husband and me for our anniversary. I made your crust as directed, and I baked it for 15 minutes (I might take a minute off next time, but I also live at 6,000 ft). For the frosting, my mom’s frosting is similar to yours, except in place of butter, she uses 2-3 tablespoons of sour cream, which is what I did in addition to using 1/3 reduced fat Philadelphia Cream Cheese (block style). I loved this recipe, blending an oldie but goodie with a newbie (for me). Thank you very much for your lovely recipe. Now, I have two wonderful “pizza desserts”! Good job, Sally!
This so sooooo good!!! Easier to make than what I thought it would be. Im not a big fan of cream cheese icing, but that cream cheese mixture was super yummy. Even ate the extra fruit I had with the bowl scrapings for breakfast! ha ha
This will be a regular dessert for me to bring to events.
Loved how soft and chewy the sugar cookie was! It paired so well with the cream cheese frosting and fresh fruit.