Cake sliced,spread with pastry cream and sliced fruit,topped with the other half of the cake and refrigerated, covered with saran all day or over night...cut into serving size pieces and topped with whipped cream.
You can make home made angel food, or pound cake or use a cake mix or buy the cake.
For the pastry cream you can make it or use a cooked vanilla pudding mix or use an instant pudding mix....and you can whip heavy cream for the topping or use cool whip.
You will have to slice the fruit, however.
pastry cream recipe
Pastry cream
2 1/2 T. flour
1/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 T eau d'vie...or liquor that blends well with the fruit youa re going to use.
2 tsp butter.
Mix sugar and salt in a heavy pan,beat in egg yolks, gradually whisk in milk, cook and whisk over low heat until bubbles break surface.....boil 1 minute stirring constantly. Remove from heat ands tir in vanilla and liquor. lay plastic wrap on the surface of the cream and chill.

Here are a couple that are pretty simple, but elegant.

Grilled Pineapple with Rum Dulce de Leche
Recipe courtesy Gourmet Magazine

2 (14-ounce) cans sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup dark rum
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 ripe pineapple, preferably golden
Vanilla ice cream, as needed
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Pour condensed milk into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate and cover with foil. Put pie plate in a roasting pan and add enough hot water to pan to reach halfway up side of pie plate. Bake milk in middle of oven until thick and golden, about 1 1/2 hours. Carefully remove pie plate from pan and cool completely.

Add rum and vanilla to milk, whisk until smooth, and season with salt. (The dulce de leche may be made 2 days ahead and chilled, covered.)

Prepare a grill or grill pan. Cut the pineapple lengthwise through leaves, keeping leaves attached, into 4 wedges. Grill the pineapple wedges, cut-side down, until just charred, about 2 minutes on each cut side.

Divide the wedges among plates, put a scoop of ice cream next to each, and drizzle with the dulce de leche.

My notes: I prefer to slice the pineapple into rounds or half-rounds. So much eaier and it goes farther. It's rich so you don't need to serve a quarter pineapple to each guest.

At the last picnic I brought a couple watermelons. Easy to keep, transport, tasty and it surprised me how well they went over. People lined up waiting for it to be cut up. Not much easier. Would be great with a BBQ too. I'd also go with some cookie bars and/or brownies. Raspberry bars are great and easy too.

This is easy and fun and you can use other fruits or even a combination.

STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE PIZZA

You can double the dough part for thicker cookie crust.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 8oz. package of cream cheese, softened
1 14oz. can sweetened condensed milk
1/3 cup lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
4 Tbsp cornstarch
1/2 cup water
2 Qts strawberries
Combine flour and powdered sugar; add butter, mixing well. Pat dough out in a 14 inch pizza pan; bake at 350F for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.

Combine cream cheese, condensed milk, lemon juice and vanilla; mix well and spread on cooled crust. Chill.

Combine sugar and cornstarch in a large saucepan; add water, mixing until smooth. Cook over medium heat until thickened (about 5 minutes) stirring constantly. Add strawberries. Cool completely.

Spread strawberry mixture over cream cheese layer; chill, cut into wedges to serve.

Nancy

I love to grill fresh peaches.
Just drizzle a little oil on them and sprinkle with sugar, cut side down and grill until they have grill marks.
They are great!! You can actually use any fruit.

Linda

Do you like Banana Pudding?

Simple and no baking.

Amaretti Ice Cream Balls
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray, 2007

24 amaretti cookies
1/4 cup amaretto liqueur
2 pints vanilla ice cream
Chocolate sauce
Whipped cream

Crush cookies by hand or in plastic bag. Place onto a sheet pan. Dampen the cookie crumbs with the liqueur. Scoop ice cream balls onto the sheet pan and roll around until covered.
Place the balls into a serving dish and top with chocolate sauce and whipped cream.

Creamsicle Liqueur Dessert
Recipe courtesy Rachael Ray

1 pint vanilla ice cream
4 ounces orange liqueur, such as Cointreau or Grand Marnier
1 orange, zested
4 thin slices navel orange, for garnish

Scoop vanilla ice cream into dessert cups. Top each cup with 1-ounce orange liqueur. Garnish with orange zest and slices of orange.

Except for watermelon, you folks have a lot higher skill level for "easy" than me, lol! For me, easy would be fruit crisp. Grease a big casserole pan. Mix whatever fresh or frozen fruit you love with some sugar, TBLSP cornstarch or couple of flour, dash of lemon juice and cinnamon, if cinnamon sounds good to you. Top with a mix of butter, brown sugar, flour, oatmeal and more cinnamon until it's crumbly. Bake at 350 until fuit is bubbly and thick and topping is browned. Servie with vanilla ice cream. If you want to go fancier with the dish, top the fruit with a wet biscuit dough and call it cobbler. Bake as directed. My favorite dessert most of the time, but especially in the summer. I do cherry raspberry, peach raspberry, blueberry, plum . . .

Can't wait to get back to MI and make some yummy crisp or cobbler with Michigan's great produce. This weekend, while still in PA, I'm making cherry raspberry cobbler with raspberries from my tiny raspberry patch.

Thank you all very much. Gosh so many great responses and recipes/suggestions. When I get home from work tonight I'll go through this helpful list. Everything sounds good:) Probably the final determination will be just how much time I end up having now that I have only a few days to prepare for the family's arrival.

Again thanks!

Kate

Watermelon.

Jim

I second the grilled peaches. Using a suggestion from the CF I "discovered" them a few years back and serve them with vanilla ice cream. Always a hit, but I have to say that those Amaretto ice cream balls sound awesome!

I don't think there is any great sin to purchasing desserts. I put out the brownie bites from Costco, or sliced pound cake, also from Costco, with fruit. Make dessert a buffet with DIY shortcake and brownies. And lots of fruit. Finger food is good, as in the watermelon and other melons, blueberries, strawberries, grapes, whatever else fresh fruit that you can find.

I'd try Jojoco's summer torte, it looks delicious and simple, I plan to make it this weekend with sweet cherries.

Summer Torte by Marion Burros

1 stick butter, softened (I always use unsalted)
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup flour; sifted
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs
pinch of salt
fruit of choice; sliced into wedges (I used about 7 plums. Peaches, nectarines,strawberries all work great and in combination)
cinnamon sugar for top

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter and add sugar. Beat well. Add eggs and beat. Mix together flour, baking powder and salt. Add to batter. Mix. Spoon globs to greased 9 or 10 inch springform. Use a knife to spread batter to cover entire pan. Arrange fruit on top. Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar (amount depends on the sweetness of the fruit).
Bake for 45 min.

Some ice cream to go with it would be good too.

Pictures are at the "summer torte" thread...

Annie

Here is a link that might be useful: Summer Torte

Kate this is really good and simple:
Peaches and Cream Pie
Slice 4-5 peaches and place in the bottom of a keebler chocolate pie crust
Mix one small pkg. of instant vanilla pudding (you can use sugar free, I can't tell the difference)with one cup of milk.
Whip 1 cup of heavy whipping cream until stiff. Fold pudding with cream and pour over peaches. Refrig. until ready to use.
Enjoy,
Gina

I agree with lpinkmountain -- nothing is much easier than fruit crisp and everybody likes it. Blueberries are the easiest fruit to use -- just pick over, rinse, drain, and use. Or use frozen blueberries. This is a recipe I copied from the Cooking Forum. It's from Annie, but it's also in Ann T.'s cookbook and has been posted by others. It's delicious. It's not "fancy," but I love rustic fruit desserts. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Annie's Grandma's Blueberry Crisp
3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, unsweetened
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup quick oats
1/3 cup butter, softened
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 375. Arrange berries in ungreased square baking dish (8 inch) and sprinkle with lemon juice.

Combine remaining ingredients until crumbly. (I use a pastry blender; grandma used two knives). Crumble topping over berries and bake until topping is lightly browned and berries are hot, about 30 minutes. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

Grilled fruit IS very yummy if you will be grilling other things. But do have to keep separate! :) Veggie me doesn't have a grill, but my mom used to broil peaches topped with a dollop of sour cream and brown sugar, which would caramelize. It was one of our favorite "desserts."

Well everyone thank you so much. I can see that my new problem will be deciding which recipe to use of the many great ones here. I really appreciate all the options.

Again thanks all.

Kate

what about a trifle?

1 large package vanilla pudding
1 large package chocolate pudding
few sliced bananas
1 bag oreos (crushed)
cool whip

thin layer of crushed oreos on bottom, layer of chocolate pudding, layer of sliced bananas,thin layer of cool whip, thin layer of oreos, then layer of vanilla pudding, oreos, rest of bananas and top with cool whip.

As long as everything is layered it looks really nice and is soooo yummy

I like to serve Fruit Kebobs ...just skewer melon, cantalope,kiwi,pineapple anything of your choice and serve with a nice dipping sauce....Ususally goes over very well and can be done in advance....Display on a platter maybe lined with tropical leafs

I have made this recipe seveal times with fresh and frozen fruit. I have used several different berries, all of it delicious.
The recipe came from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from All Recipes.

Here is a quick and easy recipe I have made several times. Blueberry Crumb Bars
Adapted from AllRecipes.com

Recipes like this make me wonder why I donÂt use AllRecipes.com more. After seeing a blueberry crumb bar on another site, I immediately wanted to make them but the first recipe seemed overly fussy. I knew there was a simpler way to do it, and lo and behold, All Recipes had it. Once I swapped the shortening for butterÂof courseÂand dolled it up with some lemon juice and lemon zest, they were just as heavenly as the 176 commenters promised theyÂd be.

I could imagine easily swapping another fruit or berry for the blueberriesÂIÂm especially thinking something tart like sour cherries or cranberries in the fall (IÂd use orange instead of lemon with cranberries). But if you have blueberries on hand, do not miss a chance to make these.

These are easiest to cut once chilled, and store even better in the fridge than they do at room temperatureÂsomething unusual for cookies!

Yield: I cut these into 36 smallish rectangles

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9Ã13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. (This took an extra 10 to 15 minutes in my oven.) Cool completely before cutting into squares.

COCONUT CAKE

I made three of these cakes for the 4th and everyone loved them!

Simple to make, and you can make the cake 2-3 days ahead of time and place in the frig. Very delicious!

Grease & flour a 9X13 inch pan

Preheat your oven to temp direction on box mix

1 box DH yellow cake mix (I use butter recipe)
2 Cups Sugar
1 1/2 cups whipped cream or whipped topping
16 ounces sour cream
12 ounces coconut

In a bowl mix the sugar, sour cream, whipped topping, and coconut. Mix well and chill thoroughly.
Bake the cake per cake mix directions. Allow to cool about 10-15 minutes before adding the icing.

With a skewer poke holes all over top of warm cake and pour icing mixture over cake while still in the pan.

Allow to sit about another 10 min or so, cover and refrigerate 1-3 days before serving.
Again, the beauty of this cake is that it is so easy to prepare and you will get raves!

I served this with a large bowl of strawberries, blue berries and, blackberries.

Hope you have a great time with your guest~

So many amazing suggestions! I really want to thank everyone so much. I have absolutely no idea how to pick one:) But I GREATLY appreciate everyone taking the time to share your wonderful suggestions with me.

Thank you very very much.

Kate

There's only one solution Kate, make them all as the summer goes by! You'll just have to throw more parties, lol! I know lots of other people are going to find themselves in the same predicament this summer and will appreciate the ideas. I know I often get invited to a summer do, and because folks know I cook, make jam and bake, (and have zero grilling experience, lol!) they like me to bring dessert.

If I haven't made it clear before let me do so now, all of your suggestions were awesome! I'm saving this thread for what I know will be good use over this summer as lpinkmountain notes:)

Last night was our party and I ended up making for dessert: Banana Cream Pie, White Chocolate and Cranberry Cookies, the Chocolate Banana Bread that I made and had waiting in the freezer and a friend provided two dozen wonderful oatmeal raisin cookies. No one could move after supper due to being stuffed with food and I was very pleased with that.

Thank you kindly everyone.

Kate