This Independence Day, let creative freedom ring in your kitchen. Today I’ll be sharing one of our family’s favorite recipes: fruit pizza. I must give credit to my husband for initiating our love affair with these pizzas. He first started making them for work parties, and eventually had to make multiple pizzas so we could have one for our household as well.

Like all pizzas, this one starts with the crust:  a base sugar cookie. Use your favorite sugar cookie recipe, or just grab a  ready-made dough from the store. Press the cookie dough evenly across your pan, until it’s about 1/4” thick; I use a round pizza pan. Bake according to your cookie recipe until just golden. Since it’s so large, it will take a little longer than your normal cookies would.

While your base is cooling, prepare your icing as follows:

Cream Cheese Icing

• 1-8oz pkg of cream cheese softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla

Combine all ingredients with electric mixer 1-2 minutes until fluffy.

When the cookie is completely cool, spread the icing evenly over the entire surface.

Now for the fun part: simply decorate the top with fruit. You can get as fancy as you want on this step. For the 4^th of July, I’m sticking to the basic colors of the U.S. flag here by using red and blue fruits to contrast with the white icing, but you could add pretty much any fruit. Some of our favorites include: strawberries, blueberries, pineapple, kiwi, and mandarin oranges.

That’s it, you have effortlessly created an edible masterpiece sure to please any crowd. Betsy Ross, meet Betty Crocker.

Happy 4^th of July!