16 summer cake recipes

No-bake summer cake with angel food cake suspended in strawberry gelatin and fruit cocktail, chilled in a fluted mold. A retro dessert that's refreshing and light.

Chocolate summer fruit cake with whole wheat flour, fresh stone fruit, coconut, raisins, and walnuts, soaked in a hot buttermilk glaze. A dense, fruit-packed sheet cake for seasonal baking.

Fresh raspberry pie with a cinnamon-laced double crust made from butter and shortening. Cornstarch thickens the bubbling berry juice into glossy filling, brightened with lemon zest.

Fresh raspberry pie suspends 5 cups of raw berries in a glossy raspberry gelatin glaze inside a graham cracker crust. No-bake summer dessert that lets the fresh fruit shine.

Glazed plum bundt cake with chopped fresh plums, walnuts, cinnamon, and a warm brown sugar glaze. A late-summer fruit cake with juicy plum pockets and a tender, oil-based crumb.

Fresh raspberry sour cream cake bakes whole berries and chopped walnuts into a tender tube cake. Topped with whipped cream and sugared raspberries for a summer dessert table centerpiece.

Old-fashioned peach gingerbread upside-down cake: molasses-spiced gingerbread baked over fresh sliced peaches, then topped with butter-glazed peaches and a preserves brush. Late-summer dessert perfection.

Tender zucchini bundt cake spiced with cinnamon and studded with nuts, crowned with tangy lemon cream cheese frosting. Elegant from-scratch dessert for summer gatherings.

Granny's boiled fruit cake: an old-fashioned eggless, butterless loaf made by simmering raisins with sugar and shortening, then folding into spiced flour. Plump, moist and Christmas-ready.

Quick sweet pickles for canning, eight pounds of cucumbers in a sugar-vinegar brine spiced with allspice, celery seed, and mustard seed. A big-batch summer canning project.

Quick fresh-pack dill pickles canned in pint jars with mustard seed, dill heads, and a hot vinegar brine. The classic American summer canning project, no fermenting required.

Sugarless cake leans on simmered raisins for natural sweetness instead of refined sugar, with oats, cinnamon, and a touch of artificial sweetener. Diabetic-friendly snack cake that still tastes like dessert.

Simple walnut raisin cake with brown sugar and warm spices, simmered then baked low and slow for moist tender squares ready in an hour.

Renaissance pizza layers a slow-simmered carrot-onion tomato sauce with sauteed broccoli, cauliflower, and mushrooms on a rectangular cake-flour crust. Fully vegetarian.

Rich boiled fruit cake with currants, raisins, and sultanas simmered in sugar water with mixed spice and ginger before baking. A dense, moist British classic.

Spice cake made with amber ale, mixed dried fruit, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The fruit simmers in beer before baking for a dense, malty, pub-inspired dessert.