16 Easy 4th of July Desserts to Bring to Your Family BBQ
There’s always room for the last course.
Greg DuPree
On America’s birthday, we celebrate by spending time with friends and family, watching a firework spectacular, and chowing down on some good food, of course. You can expect the spread to be filled with chips, dips, hot dogs, some burgers, and a few salads to boot. But the best is saved for last, and that’s dessert. Pies, cakes, and tarts—oh my!
Any dessert is a Fourth of July dessert if it’s eaten on Independence Day, but we all know this holiday calls for particularly patriotic, summery recipes—aka anything involving fruit, especially mixed berries. If you’ve been assigned dessert duty for the family potluck, we’ve got your back. We covered the basics with your cakes, cobblers, and crisps, but we threw in a few wildcards, too, just to keep ‘em guessing. Keep reading for a list of easy 4th of July desserts to bring to your Independence Day celebration!
Related: 16 4th of July Side Dishes That Will Complete Your Celebration
Sheet Pan Pavlova With Berries and Mangoes
We’re enamored by the work of art that is this fruity dessert, but we’re even more pleased with the fact it only requires one sheet pan and 20 minutes of prep time. Well, you’ll need a hand mixer, mixing bowl, and about four hours for baking and cooling, but we promise it’s super easy and worth the wait. The end result is basically a refreshing fruit salad atop a sweet meringue.
Honey Whole Wheat-Strawberry Clafoutis
This French-inspired dessert features a whole-wheat flour crust, but the real star is the strawberry-honey duo. Fresh strawberries are broiled to bring out their natural flavor, and a generous amount of honey adds sweetness to a simple but satisfying batter. It’s pretty, quick to make, and adds a patriotic pop of red to the dessert table.
No-Churn Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream
You can elevate practically any dessert by adding a scoop of ice cream on top, and it’s surprisingly easy to make your own. With just a few simple ingredients—and a full nine hours to let it freeze—you’ll have creamy, scoopable strawberry ice cream to enjoy on its own, or alongside any other dessert you bring to the party.
Heavenly Coconut Pound Cake
Heavenly indeed. Bringing a bundt cake to the BBQ adds visual interest, since it offers a fun shape, but this one also offers the pleasing taste and texture of coconut. It’s made with a soft pound cake, which has been around since the 1700s—just like America. Plus, the white coconut glaze would complement a red, white, and blue dessert table perfectly.
Watermelon Mojito Granita
Adult slushies, anyone? Granita is a frozen dessert you can drink. It’s traditionally made from fruit and water, but this version combines watermelon with rum. The red hue and refreshing fruity flavor is on brand for both summer and Fourth of July, but these drinks contain alcohol, so they’re for adults only. Given how colorful and fun-looking they are, it’s gonna be difficult to have just one.
PB&J Ice Cream Sandwiches
Forget store-bought ice cream sandwiches and make these instead. They use store-bought cookies, so they’re not entirely homemade, but they taste like it. Each cookie is dipped in freeze-dried strawberry pieces, which is both fun and festive for the occasion. While the adults are slurping back those granitas, these will keep the little ones satisfied.
Lemon-Blueberry Cake
It’s beautiful, delicious, and in true Fourth of July fashion, it’s mostly red, white, and blue (well, and yellow). This no-bake cake is perfect if you’re short on time, or planning to bring multiple dishes to the gathering. Fresh blueberries, lemon slices, and mint leaves add refreshing fruity flavors, while a package of vanilla sandwich cookies add crunch and convenience. The bulk of this super easy but stunning dessert comes from a couple pints of lemon sorbet, so this recipe is for the resourceful who also love a good presentation.
Related: 7 Summer Desserts Starring the Season's Best Produce
Frozen S'mores Cake
Sitting around the fire pit making s’mores is a great way to make memories in the summer. Bring back the nostalgia with this make-ahead cake. You’ll need to start making it the day before, but that’s probably for the best since the day of will be jam-packed anyway. You only need a few s’mores staples—whipping cream, marshmallow creme, graham crackers, chocolate gelato, and others. While this dessert doesn’t actually contain any cake ingredients, you’ll freeze the whole thing so it’s sliceable (and craveable).
Mixed Berry Biscuit Cobbler
Kelsey Hansen
If you have 15 minutes to whip up something delicious, you can make this confection. You’ll only need six simple ingredients—berries, flour, sugar, salt, butter, and heavy cream. The prep work couldn’t be simpler, and you can finish getting ready for the July Fourth festivities while it’s in the oven. When the timer dings, you’ll have a warm berry cobbler with a perfectly golden, crispy top that’s just begging to be topped with a scoop of ice cream.
Sheet Pan Apple Crisp
Apples are technically a fall fruit, but on America’s birthday, we eat apples. It’s no apple pie, but who has the time for that anyway? This dessert recipe calls for most of the ingredients for apple pie without the hassle. Pop everything onto a sheet pan, bake until golden, and enjoy the smell of apple-buttery goodness wafting throughout your whole house. You’ll also appreciate the easy clean-up for this sheet pan recipe.
Summer Berry Trifle With Elderflower Cream
Berries and cream! There’s something extremely patriotic about mixed berries and cream. If you want to bring more red, white, and blue to the BBQ, this trifle is the dessert to make. It takes 15 minutes of light prep work as you layer elderflower liqueur-infused cream with cookies and fresh berries, but looks like you paid a professional to get the job done. Just keep this colorful stunner away from the kiddos—it’s so easy, you could make a non-alcoholic version for them.
Cherry Coconut Dump Cake
The secret to an easy but crowd-pleasing dessert is a good ole’ dump cake. It doesn’t sound glamorous, but it sure does look it. This one makes use of in-season cherries (or you can use frozen) and coconut. Serve with a scoop of ice cream for an impressive dessert that no one will know only took you 15 minutes to throw together.
Peach Cobbler Trifle
What is a trifle, you ask? It’s an English-inspired dessert that consists of layers of fruit and cake. Sometimes alcohol is involved in these deconstructed cakes (like in the berry-elderflower one), but this one is non-alcoholic—just full of sliced peaches, pound cake, heavy whipping cream, and three types of sugar. Hope your guests have a sweet tooth!
Plum Tart
Peak plum season is during the summer, so you’re in luck. This is arguably the easiest dessert recipe we dug up, with only three ingredients required and super minimal prep. Simply score a sheet of puff pastry with a knife, scatter plum slices in the middle, and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until golden, and voila! A reddish-blue tart that’s summery and sweet with a bit of tartness is just what your celebration needs.
Related: Follow This Easy BBQ Plan—and Handy Food Calculator—for Your Best Backyard Party Yet
Chocolate Caramel Ice Cream Pie
Usually, making pie is a labor of love. But this one? You can make it in your sleep, because no baking is involved. You’ll freeze layers of Nutella, chocolate ice cream, and caramel ice cream on a cookie crust until it’s solid. Topping with chopped hazelnuts and caramel syrup is optional, but highly recommended for the full experience. It’s on the more decadent side, but with a table filled with berry-based desserts, a dose of chocolate is warranted.
Lemon Pots de Crème
Want to add a little extra sunshine to your gathering? Try making these Lemon Pots de Crème. Each one is packed with zesty lemon flavor and topped with sweet, blueberries for the perfect summer treat.
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