Here’s a fun summer recipe that isn’t exactly as it appears.
This Strawberry Kiwi Fruit Pizza looks like a watermelon but tastes like a dessert.
This festive summertime dessert was a huge hit at our recent pool party.
Not only did everyone get a kick out of the fact that this fruit pizza looked like a watermelon, but they loved the wonderful combination of a sugar cookie crust topped with a cream cheese fluff covered in fresh kiwi and strawberries.
I was happy this recipe made two pizzas because one was not enough.
If you are hosting a pool party or are just looking for a unique dessert to bring to a summer picnic, this fruit pizza watermelon is sure to please.
It’s refreshing and sweet just like watermelon, has a slight tang from the cream cheese, and a bit of a crunch from the cookie crust. Oh, and there are bits of chocolate on it too. A dessert just isn’t a dessert without a bit of chocolate, in my opinion.
This fruit pizza couldn’t be easier to make, but be sure to top it with your fruit within a few hours of serving. The fresher the fruit, the prettier your watermelon will look.
Being our pool party was impromptu, I didn’t have much time to pull this together, so it was great that it came together quickly.
To make your own fruit pizza watermelon, you’ll first start by making two round cookie crusts.
Use parchment paper lined springform pans to make removal of the baked cookies a snap. If you use regular cake pans, you definitely want to line the pan to make sure you’ll be able to remove the cookies from the pans.
While the cookies are cooling, you can whip up some cream cheese fluff. Just beat cream cheese until light and fluffy, add marshmallow fluff and whipped topping and beat until combined. Then try to keep from sticking your finger in the bowl and eating too much of it so you have plenty to spread over both cookie crusts.
Cut each cookie in half before decorating with fruit.
Arrange thin slices of kiwi all along the edge of each cookie crust, forming the rind of the watermelon.
Most strawberries have white centers and you really want to just use the red part, so carve the bright red portions off the strawberries, leaving the white interior behind. You can snack on the interior parts or save them for a smoothie. Finely chop the red part of the berries and sprinkle over top of the cream cheese fluff.
Place about 8 chocolate chips on each watermelon half and your fruit pizza is ready to serve.
You can keep this dessert in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving, but it will look best if served soon after topping with the strawberries.
NEW VIDEO TUTORIAL
- Cookie Crust:
- 1 pkg. Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter, softened
- 1 large egg
- Cream Cheese Fluff:
- 1 block (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
- 1 cup marshmallow fluff
- 1 cup frozen whipped topping, thawed
- Toppings:
- 4 kiwi
- 2 pounds strawberries
- 32 chocolate chips
- Cookie Crust:
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Spray two 9 inch springform pans with cooking spray then line bottoms with a circle of parchment paper or non-stick tin foil.
- Combine sugar cookie mix, flour and butter and mix until the butter breaks up into small pie size pieces.
- Add the egg and mix until it forms a dough.
- Divide dough in half.
- Pat one half of dough in the bottom of each pan, spreading dough so that it ends about 1/2 inch from the edge of the pan.
- Bake for 14-18 minutes until golden brown.
- Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then remove and set on a cooling rack.
- Cool completely.
- Cream Cheese Fluff:
- Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy.
- Add marshmallow fluff and beat to combine.
- Add whipped topping and beat to combine.
- Equally divide and spread over top of cookies.
- Cut cookies in half.
- Toppings:
- Peel and cut kiwi into thin slices. Cut slices in half.
- Arrange overlapping slices of kiwi along the curved edge of each cookie.
- Wash and dry strawberries, then carve off the outer edge, keeping just the bright red fruit for the pizza.
- Cut slices into small pieces and sprinkle over the cream cheese fluff topped cookies.
- Arrange 8 chocolate chips on each cookie to create watermelon seeds.
- Refrigerate until ready to serve.
If you are hosting a pool party, be sure to check out my recipes for making a Veggie Pizza Fish appetizer and Mediterranean Grilled Vegetable Pizzas. You’ll make a splash with your party guests by serving them all of these amazing pizzas.
Embrace the beautiful weather that we are having and make some of these gorgeous and scrumptious Summer Fun Recipes.
Googly Eye Sea Creatures, Fruit Pizza Beach Ball, Goldfish Marshmallow, Peanut Butter Fudge Starfish
Starfish S’Mores, Ice Cream Cone Goldfish, Rice Krispie Treat Sand Castle, Beach Ball Pie
Items used to create this edible craft can be found on Amazon.com (commission earned for sales)
I can’t tell you how much I LOVE this! The way you placed the kiwi is BRILLIANT! I am going to the store for more Kiwi and Strawberries now. 😉
Thanks, Lisa. I’ve been seeing lots of watermelon fruit pizzas and wanted to give the idea a bit of a twist. I was so happy with how it turned out and am glad you like it enough to make it:-)
Now that is super cute! You always have the best ideas (and enough patience to see them through!)
Thanks so much, Carlee. This fruit pizza was one of the easiest things I’ve created in a long time and everyone loved it at the party. I hope you give it a try.
Your beautiful strawberry kiwi pizza has been calling my name every day since you posted the photo. Oh my – cream cheese, marshmallow fluff AND whipped topping. Better than I even imagined.
People are going to dive into this the minute they see it. It’s sooo pretty and sounds delish.
Tavette – S. Fla.
I’m so happy that my photos have tempted you. I’ve answered your questions about this treat in the comment reply below:)
Thanks for sharing this fun dessert with us at the pool party. The girls can’t stop talking about it. We all loved it and had so much fun spending the afternoon with you at the pool.
I’m always happy to share and love spending time with you and the girls. It was so nice of you to share your lovely pool with me for the day.
Oh man…..does that look & sound delicious. Of course I have a few questions 🙂
1. Does the cookie crust get moist from being refrigerated? What do you imagine would be the max time you could leave it in the refrigerator before adding the fruit? I’m wondering if it’s left un-assembled you wouldn’t have to refrigerate it. Once you add the cream cheese – it must be refrigerated.
But then – you’d be scrambling to assemble it which you kinda have to do anyway because of the fruit.
2. Would it make the fruit last longer if you put a glaze (of jelly) on top? I don’t particularly like the look of that. Bakeries do it and, to me, it makes the dessert look artificial.
Thanks, Tavette. This fruit pizza was one of the best things I’ve made in a while. Everyone loved it.
Yes the cookie does get soft in the refrigerator, but that works well so that it’s easy to cut into slices. It only takes about 20 minutes to cut the fruit and assemble the fruit pizza, so you could wait until the last minute to decorate it.
I don’t like the look of glaze and agree that it looks artificial. I think you’d loose the watermelon look to the dessert if you brushed the fruit with it, but that’s just my opinion. It would work to keep the fruit looking fresh longer, so if you really needed to make this many hours in advance that might help. This recipe makes two fruit pizzas and I made one about 5 hours before we ate it and the strawberries got very dark red. The other, I made just an hour before we ate it and it was much prettier. Either way the fruit will taste fine.
Oh my gosh, I am obsessed! This is seriously too cute! Love it!!
I always love to hear when someone really loves something I’ve created. Thanks, Erin!
This pizza looks great, Beth! I absolutely love this idea for a summer or beach themed party.
Thanks, it was a really refreshing dessert on a very hot summer day.
This is great! Kids will love it 🙂
I’ve not yet served it to young kids but the teenagers at our party loved it, as did the adults. I do think young kids will love it too! Thanks, Sarah.
Stopping in from Inspiration Mondays – This looks delicious! Now to find a vegetarian substitute for marshmallow fluff! Thanks for the ideas.
Thanks for stopping by! If you don’t want to use marshmallow fluff, you can use any type of sugar you like to sweeten the cream cheese.
What a unique dessert pizza. And so perfect for summer too… this looks fabulous!
I LOVE THIS!!! Pinning now.
I’m so glad. Thanks for pinning, Courtney 🙂
Your creativity is amazing!! I love this…I am always in awe of what you share with us at #FoodieFriDIY. Scheduled several pins, yummed, stumbled, and sharing on my Facebook page tomorrow…and featuring you at the party tonight! I like to pull out all the stops for my favorite posts! Happy (almost) Friday!
Wow, Michelle, thanks so much for all the sharing:) That is so nice of you. I hope you have a great weekend.
This looks DELISH! I may have to try this one out before summer is over! 🙂
I highly recommend this dessert. My friends asked me to make it for them again!
Just stopping by to let you know I’ve featured this tonight at the Wonderful Wednesday Blog Hop!! Come on over and check it out 🙂
Thanks so much for the feature!!! I’m off to check it out.
Hi
We dont have Betty Crocker Sugar Cookie Mix in my country.
But i want to make this dessert so much.
Is there anything i can substitute for it?
You can use any sugar cookie recipe you like. (see my other response.)
Can i substitute betty crocker sugar cookie mix for this?: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sugar-cookies-recipe
And if yes how much of it should i make??
Should i do the topping too or not???
Yes, you can use any sugar cookie dough to make the crust for this dessert pizza. I have no idea how much of the dough you will use, so I suggest you just make the entire batch of dough then press it into your pan to see how much of it you’ll need. You can make your crust as thin or as thick as you’d like. You’ll need to adjust the baking time if it’s thicker. I’d just skip the sugar topping. The fruit and fluff will make this dessert sweet enough. Have fun!
Hi, thanks for these new ideas! Pinned.
The Strawberry Kiwi Fruit Pizza Looks REALLY yummy! And sounds easy to make. Will have to try it sometime. 🙂
Thanks so much, Ashley. I hope you do give it a try. It’s a really fun dessert to serve at a summer party. Enjoy! 🙂
Hi, thanks for these new ideas. This Strawberry Kiwi Fruit Pizza recipe looks really Yummy!
Pinned. 🙂
This looks amazing! I am going to make this for a cookout I am having at my house tomorrow night! Cannot wait to see how it turns out! Thanks for the recipe!!
I’m so happy to hear you plan to make this and I hope it turns out great. Be sure to snap some pictures and send them so I can share them in my Readers’ Gallery! Have a wonderful weekend.
Looks amazing! Don’t have a spring pn, can I use a remade pie crust?
You can use regular round cake pans to make your cookies, just be sure to line them with a round of parchment paper then spray the sides of the pan with a bit of baking spray. I used the springform pans because it is so easy to remove the cookies.
If you use a pie crust, your pizza will be quite thin. It will be very difficult to pick up a slice. I would suggest you serve the dessert with forks so that you don’t have to pick the slices up to eat them.