This Rainbow Fruit Pizza is a yummy make-ahead dessert recipe featuring natural rainbow colors in healthy fruit, on top of a sugar cookie crust with cream cheese frosting! This is the perfect natural rainbow recipe to celebrate Pride, or for any occasion that demands rainbows for an extra fun and delicious treat without food dye – it’s great for a summer potluck or party!
It’s Pride month! I’ve seen a ton of fun rainbow cakes, rainbow cupcakes, rainbow cookies, and other colorful treats, but I wanted to make a fun recipe to celebrate Pride featuring natural rainbow colors, rather than relying on food dye.
Enter: RAINBOW FRUIT PIZZA! A gorgeous spectrum of ALL the colors of the rainbow decorated in concentric circles on top of a cream cheese frosted sugar cookie crust. And yes, it’s just as delicious (and fun to make!) as it sounds!
I made this recipe specifically to celebrate Pride month, which is celebrated during the month of June to celebrate love in all forms, commemorate the Stonewall Uprising, and recognize the impact that members of the LGBTQ community have had around the world.
And while rainbows are great, it’s also important to note that the LGBTQ community still faces so many obstacles with achieving equality all around the world and that Pride has also become opportunistically commercialized by so many companies. That’s why I’ll be donating 100% of ad profits from this Rainbow Fruit Pizza recipe post to LGBTQ organizations during pride month every year.
Let’s make a rainbow fruit pizza!
What fruits to use for the rainbow
You’ll need all the colors of the rainbow to truly make this a rainbow dessert.
- RED: I used strawberries. Raspberries also work.
- ORANGE: I used canned mandarin oranges (LOVE those things!). Or use fresh clementines or oranges, diced apricot, or sliced pleaches.
- YELLOW: I used diced mango. Starfruit or golden kiwi would also be fun!
- GREEN: I used kiwi, but green grapes will also work.
- BLUE: Blueberries here for me, but if you can find them, concord grapes also have a vibrant blue tone that would work great.
- PURPLE: This was a challenge to find, but blackberries sliced in half is the way to go! You may also be able to find a plum that’s purple, or red grapes will also work since they look almost purple.
How to make Rainbow Fruit Pizza
- First, make the sugar cookie crust. Mix the dough, then place it on a parchment covered pizza pan. Cover with plastic wrap and use your hands to press down and form a circle shape (this allows you to form the circle without cooling the dough first and rolling it out). Then bake and allow to fully cool (I stick it in the fridge on a wire rack to hasten the cooling process).
- While the cookie crust is baking and cooling, make the cream cheese frosting. Mix cream cheese, salted butter, and powdered sugar together in a large bowl. Once the crust is cool, frost the crust with the cream cheese frosting (you may have some left over).
- Finally, decorate! Add concentric circles of each rainbow color fruit in the order of the rainbow. I began in the center with red strawberries, and worked my way out with orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. Feel free to start with whatever color you want.
Remember to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! It’s actually a perfect make ahead dessert because it’s easier to slice when it’s cool. When you’re done assembling place in the fridge (no need to cover or anything) and it will stay good for 24-48 hours!
Sure! Just use a gluten-free flour substitute at a 1:1 ratio and it should be good to go.
I love butter and used a lot in this recipe but it can be halved in the cream cheese frosting and you should be good to go. You can also just use plain cream cheese in place of the frosting if you want a healthier, lower in sugar version.
LGBTQ organizations to donate to for Pride Month
If you’re an ally to the LGBTQ community and have the means, I encourage you to put both your money AND this rainbow fruit pizza where your mouth is and donate!
Whether it’s $5, $20, or a recurring monthly donation, anything helps and is a concrete way to act. Here are some of my favorite organizations to donate to.
- The Trevor Project helps LGBTQ youth with suicide prevention and crisis support.
- Out Youth offers a safe place for LGBTQ youth to feel loved and accepted for who they are.
- National Center for Transgender Equality is a social justice advocacy organization fighting for life-saving changes for transgender people.
- Human Rights Campaign is a grassroots organization that fights for equality for the LGBTQ community by enacting political change.
- GLSEN works to ensure LGBTQ students can learn and grow free from bullying and harassment.
I personally have been making a monthly recurring donation to The Trevor Project for over a year, and recently did a lump donation split up between the other organizations for Pride month. And there are so many more organizations out there!
And I’ll let you in on a secret: it’s been my favorite thing lately to respond to hateful, unkind, or unaffirming comments on social media lately with a donation and a quick response of “I donated $5 for this comment to LGBTQ organizations. Happy Pride!” I highly suggest it as the most satisfying and effective way ever to shut down bullies and trolls.
Other fresh fruit dessert recipes
- Meyer Lemon Bars
- Strawberry Chia Pudding
- Old-Fashioned Peach Cobbler
- Easy Apple Crisp
- Blueberry Almond Cake (from Butter be Ready)
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Rainbow Fruit Pizza with Sugar Cookie Crust
Equipment
- Pizza Pan (such as cast iron)
Ingredients
For the Sugar Cookie Crust:
- 1/2 cup salted butter (or unsalted – see notes)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla)
- 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
- 8 oz. cream cheese (the block kind, not spreadable)
- 1/2 cup salted butter (or unsalted – see notes)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
For the Rainbow Fruit Topping:
- 1/4 cup Red fruit – sliced strawberries (or raspberries)
- 1/3 cup Orange fruit – mandarin orange slices (canned or fresh, or sliced peaches or apricots)
- 1/3 cup Yellow fruit – diced mango (canned or fresh, or starfruit)
- 1/2 cup Green fruit – halved and sliced kiwi (or halved green grapes)
- 3/4 cup Blue fruit – blueberries (or concord grapes, seeded and halved)
- 1 cup Purple fruit – halved blackberries (or red grapes, which actually look kind of purple!)
Instructions
- Preheat oven and prepare baking pan. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 14" circular pizza pan or stone with parchment paper (or grease the pan).
- Make the sugar cookie crust dough. In a large bowl, make the dough for the sugar cookie crust. Beat together the butter (1/2 cup), sugar (3/4 cup), and egg for 2-3 minutes using an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add the almond extract (1 teaspoon), baking powder (1/4 teaspoon), and kosher salt (1/4 teaspoon). Mix together until combined. Add the flour and mix until everything is just combined.
- Form and bake the sugar cookie crust. Place the dough in the center of the prepared circular pan. Place a piece of plastic wrap over it. Use your hands to press down on the dough and form a circle shape, leaving about 1/2" of room at the edge to allow for expansion. Peel the plastic wrap off and bake at 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes (longer for a more well-done crust). Allow to cool completely (I placed mine on a wire rack and stuck it in the fridge for a while to speed up the cooling process).
- Make the cream cheese frosting. In a large bowl, mix together the cream cheese (8 oz.), salted butter (1/2 cup), and powdered sugar (1 1/2 cups) with an electric mixer on high speed until smooth and well-mixed.
- Frost the cookie crust. Once the crust has cooled, use an offset spatula or silicone spatula to spread a layer of cream cheese frosting over the crust, leaving a little room at the edge. You may have some frosting left over, depending on how big you made the crust and how thick of a layer you want (you can freeze any leftovers for later!).
- Decorate! Start in the center with strawberries (red), and work your way out in concentric circles with the mandarin oranges (orange), mangoes (yellow), kiwis (green), blueberries (blue), and sliced blackberries (purple). Feel free to switch up which fruit you start with or decorate in different patterns for different occasions!
- Slice and serve. The fruit pizza is easier to slice when it's cool, so I recommend refrigerating it for about 30 minutes prior to serving.
Notes
- If using unsalted butter in the sugar cookie crust and/or the cream cheese frosting, add 1/4 teaspoon more salt to each.
- Decoration options: This rainbow fruit pizza recipe can be used as a base for other fruit color combinations and decoration patterns – feel free experiment with your favorite kinds, seasonal fruits, or any fruit you have around the house you need to use up!
- If you don’t have a 14″ circular pizza pan, you can just use a rimmed baking sheet and form a rectangle shaped fruit pizza. You can also form the sugar cookie crust in a parchment-lined oven safe 12-inch skillet – but cook it for longer, as it will be thicker.
- Make it gluten-free by substituting a GF flour substitute at a 1:1 ratio.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Allison
Elizabeth, I haven’t made this recipe…yet! I have made severals of your recipes and I apologize for not leaving reviews/comments. I love how easy they are to make and the easy to use slider for adjusting the serving amounts.
But, I want to say “thank you” for your support, intelligence, and courage, in supporting everyone in the LGBTQ community.
As a transexual woman, having been married to a woman before my transition and then married to a butch lesbian after my transition, I love when people understand that we are just like any other person…a regular human being who deserve to be treated and accepted as…a regular human being. I love your response to haters, that you donate to LGBTQ organizations in response to their unintelligent comments.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thank you so much for your kind words, Allison, and for sharing your story! Happy Pride!