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
I made my fruit pizza in a heart shaped cookie pan for V-Day, it was PERFECT!
What a sweet idea, Angela!
Would a pizza stone work? Or should I just try my rectangular cookie sheet? Not sure which is more important, the shape or the material of the pan.
Hi Rachel, we’d recommend sticking with the cookie sheet. You can either shape it into a rectangle or shape it as a circle as best you can. It won’t spread too much!
I made something like this In junior high. The difference was a peach glaze that went on top. I don’t 100 percent remember but I know it was the juice from cmamed peaches maybe corn starch, maybe something else. Would you have any ideas for this leach glaze that goes on top?
Hi Danielle, sounds delicious! You could use the glaze from our fresh fruit tart, using peach preserves. Let us know if you give it a try.
I love this recipe. I have a question: can you use the cookie dough to make shaped cookies? I am searching for a delicious cookie recipe to cut out for Christmas cookies; my current recipe tastes like cardboard in a day. TIA.
Hi Carrie, This is our favorite cut out sugar cookie recipe! You can see how we make the same recipe as Christmas cut outs.
Can I make this in a pie dish/ I love cookie cakes. Abigail
Hi Kim, the recipe as written will be a bit thick for a pie dish, but feel free to use any leftover for a few cookies on the side. We’re unsure of the best bake time, but keep a close eye on it and use a toothpick to test for doneness.
I uselly don’t comment recipes, but you go girl! I was thrill by the cookie with the perfect texture and taste. My favorite summer fruit dessert by far!
The fruit combined with the cookie and frosting was so delicious!!!!!
This came out better than we expected! Crunchy cookie like biscuit with a tasty cream and a blank canvas to decorate however you like. This was very good and we hope to make it again!
This recipe was so easy to follow, quick and fun to make. Can’t wait to taste it
My fruit pizza turned out really well! I followed the instructions carefully and it ended up being pretty easy. I decorated mine with strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries. I made this for a family Fourth of July party and everybody loved it!! It was gone by the end of the day! 🙂
Delicious! Huge hit at brunch today! Love the cream cheese frosting. Perfect combo of tartness and sweetness.
This recipe was so much fun to make and even more fun to eat! I used strawberries, kiwi, cherries, and blueberries. I added almond extract to the icing which was so delish!! My kids gobbled it up. We took my mom some, and she was licking her lips and fingers after! This is definitely a new favorite!
This was a fun and easy way to enjoy seasonal luscious fruit and crispy cookie base. The cream cheese “sauce” was so good!
Delicious!!! Great summery dessert!
Such a fun dessert to create, perfect for a crowd and devoured in minutes! Thank you 🙂
We love this fruit pizza! The crust bakes perfectly every time. Sally’s tweaks to the frosting were lovely…it’s the perfect amount and the tang of the cream cheese pairs perfectly with the sweetness of the cookie and the fruit. A family favorite around here for sure.
Made this with ingredients I had on hand. Turned out so good! I only had 1/3 less fat cream cheese and 2% milk for the frosting. I don’t have anything to compare it to but my family thought the whole thing was amazing. My daughter said this has “Crumble” cookie vibes!
This was delicious and refreshing! I loved everything about this recipe. The cookie crust is soft and flavorful, the cream cheese frosting is perfectly sweet, and the fruit is fun because it’s so customizable. I cut it into slices before putting on the frosting and fruit and then customized a few slices to give away. It looked fresh and the fruit pieces were whole. A must try for summer or anytime! Easy to make too!
Big fan of this recipe! I made it for a dinner party and had just enough left over for my roommate. Topped with blueberries and sumac, it was delicious!
I altered the recipe a bit to suit my toppings/taste. I sweetened the frosting and didn’t use a pizza pan – it turned out well!
I made this for some college friends and everyone was suitably impressed! I used a 9×9 in. square pan—it worked well, but the bake time was a little longer. My favorite part was the frosting, I loved the tangy cream cheese flavor! My only complaint is that the recipe made A LOT of frosting—I put it on the fruit pizza and a pan of cinnamon rolls and still had leftovers.
This recipe was super kid friendly, which I appreciated! I made mine in mini tart pans so each of my sons could decorate their own. Absolutely delicious! We used strawberries and blueberries to keep it simple, but I’m interested in trying again with different fruits.
Loved this one! Instead of a pizza pan I used a 9-inch tart pan to keep things contained, and got a bonus fancy edge!
I decided to make these into mini pizzas and they came out great! The cookie is delicious and the frosting is just the right sweetness. I added some almond extract to the frosting for soem extra flavor and it was delicious. Super easy and fun process
Did you roll the dough out and use a cookie cutter? How long did you bake for?
Is it necessary to chill the dough?
I love this recipe, its a family favorite in my house! I do the topping a bit differently, just a tub of marshmallow fluff and 8oz of cream cheese!
My family loved this! And I loved squeezing in a few more fruits in their diets! I am currently in the middle of a kitchen remodel, but I was easily able to make this in a larger sized toaster oven. It was the perfect dessert recipe to make given I had limited kitchen tools! Can’t wait to try it again when I have a kitchen to use!
So delicious and incredibly easy to make, especially doubling in size for a sheet pan. The hardest part was cutting up the fruit! My kiddo had so much fun helping me to decorate. This would be an impressive hit at any summer bbq!
This was such a fun recipe to make! I like that you can be creative with the different flavors of frosting
I’m going to try with cream cheese and marshmallow fluff. Which is my go to fruit dip. It’s amazing!!
So good! I love everything about it. Made it on a cookie sheet becuse i didnt have the right pizza pan and it turned out great. Might make it in my tart pan next.
This was such a delicious recipe. I served it to a group who enjoys a good fruit pizza and they fell in love
This was delicious and easy! My 4 year old said the texture was her favorite part! We will definitely make it again!
Loved it! Light and refreshing!
This was a fun recipe to make with my grandson! It was also delicious!
Loved this one! Instead of a pizza pan I used a 9-inch tart pan to keep things contained, and got a bonus fancy edge!
Thanks for this great idea!
So much fun to make! And easy, which is definitely a bonus. Can’t wait to taste the finished product!
Can you use frozen fruit ?