Ripe & Ready: A Feel-Good Guide To Summer Baking
A refreshing guide to sustainable summer baking.
BY Bree Lauder-WIlliams ★ July 27th, 2025
Photo Credit: Bree Lauder-WIlliams
I’ll admit, I’m no Martha Stewart, but as someone who’s constantly making something, I pride myself on using my ingredients to the fullest — especially in this economy. Whether it’s reviving sad peaches, freezing extra berries or making bread from bananas on their last leg, I truly believe good baking doesn’t have to mean wasting food, money or time.
This guide is here to help you bake smarter this summer by using what’s ripe, rethinking what's considered “scrap” and keeping it delicious every step of the way.
Why Summer Is The Best Season To Bake Sustainably
When I hear the word summer, I think of long sunny days, beach trips, carnivals and outings to the farmers market. Summer is the only season overflowing with a wide variety of fruits and herbs, making it the perfect time to bake fresh and often.
With mass food production becoming a real problem, lots of people are buying more fruit than they can use, and a lot of produce goes to waste. This is why summertime is the ideal season for embracing low-waste baking.
Seasonal Stars: What’s Ripe Right Now, And What To Bake With It
Think juicy peaches, berries and floral touches like lavender or chamomile. These seasonal ingredients don’t just taste better: these options are often cheaper and more eco-friendly when you buy them in-season and locally. Here’s a quick seasonal produce guide to help you know what’s ripe, and when to use it.
Sun-Baked Treats
You can easily upgrade a basic cake, muffin or tart with fresh, in-season ingredients. Even if the recipe itself is simple, seasonal produce may completely change the flavor profile. Here are some of my favorite combinations:
Blackberry Lavender Sponge Cake: Replace the regular milk in your sponge cake with lavender-infused milk and add blackberry purée to your heavy cream prior to whipping.
Baked Peaches and Pears: Layer peach and pear slices tossed in brown sugar at the bottom of a muffin tin, top them with puff pastry and bake. Flip after baking for a golden, caramelized finish.
Zucchini Lemon Loaf: Grate zucchini and squeeze out moisture, then mix the vegetable into your batter with lemon zest for a fresh, summery flavor.
Raspberry and Rose Pavlova: Fold raspberry purée and rose syrup into meringue before baking, then drizzle more on top or mix into whipped cream.
Cool Bakes & No-Bakes
No one wants to use the oven when it's hotter than my charging iPhone outside. No-bake desserts are easy, energy-efficient —and just as delicious. These recipes are the best for using up soft fruit that won’t last another day.
No-Bake Mango Cheesecake: Pour mango purée directly into a cream cheese filling and top with fresh mango slices.
Cucumber Melon Bars: Blend cucumber and melon with coconut milk and chill until firm.
Strawberry Pineapple Sorbet: Blend frozen strawberries and pineapple with a splash of lime juice, then freeze until scoopable.
Sweet Corn Ice Cream: Simmer sweet corn kernels to infuse into heavy cream, then strain the mixture and churn for surprisingly delicious ice cream.
Scrappy Sweets
This is where you get creative. Baking sustainably isn’t just about what you buy: it’s about how you use it.
Last-minute Jams: Use bruised or overripe fruit like cherries and blueberries by simmering them with sugar and lemon juice until thick.
Scrappy Sour Candy: Turn citrus peels and melon rinds into candy by boiling them in simple syrup, drying the rinds in the oven and tossing them in sugar and lemon juice.
Homemade Syrups: Simmer fruit peels with equal parts water and sugar, then strain for a flavored syrup that’s perfect for matcha or coffee.
Soupy Stocks: Freeze onions, carrots or herb scraps for future homemade stocks.
Waste Less, Bake More: Repurposing Scraps & Leftovers
One of the easiest ways to bake sustainably is to stop thinking of leftovers as trash. A soft plum…can be cooked into syrup. A half-used bunch of herbs…can go into cookie dough. Rather than a barren wasteland, the freezer can be your new best friend!
Here’s how to stretch your ingredients:
Freeze leftover chopped fruit for smoothies or future baking.
Replant basil or mint stems in water to regrow on your windowsill.
Turn veggie scraps into broth or compost them for your garden.
Host a bake swap with friends to share your treats and reduce waste.
So, whether you're baking with bruised berries or turning citrus peels into candy, just remember that in the right hands, yours, even scraps can become something sweet.
Now go forth and bake like a college girl who needs a nightly sweet treat.
Edited by: Kacie Moschella and Madison Sherman