What to bake in July — a summer baking guide

July is the best baking month of the summer, and it's not close. Berries are at their peak and their cheapest, stone fruit is arriving, and even a modest supermarket punnet of strawberries tastes like it means it. If you bake seasonally just one month a year, make it this one.

What's in season right now

Strawberries are at their absolute peak — sweet enough that they barely need sugar. Raspberries and blueberries are close behind and hold their shape beautifully in bakes. Cherries hit their stride mid-month, and apricots start appearing at prices that don't sting. All of them bake well, freeze well, and forgive a beginner.

One buying tip: this is the month to buy more berries than you need. Spread the extras on a tray, freeze until solid, then bag them — frozen at their July best, they'll outbake fresh imported berries in December every time. (Don't wash them until you use them; moisture is what turns berries mouldy in the tub.)

Five bakes for July

1. Strawberry muffins

The fastest way from punnet to bake — one bowl, about 35 minutes start to finish, and chopped fresh strawberries folded through a soft vanilla batter. A good first bake of the month, and a very good way to use berries that are one day past their best.

2. Blueberry scones

Warm from the oven in half an hour, and blueberries are the best-behaved berry in a scone — they hold their shape instead of bleeding through the dough. Work the dough as little as you can get away with; scones reward laziness.

3. Raspberry brownies

Fudgy chocolate with sharp little pockets of raspberry — the tartness cuts the richness, which is exactly what you want when it's warm out. Fresh or frozen raspberries both work; drop them in straight from frozen so they don't smear.

4. Lemon & lime tart

Sharp, cool from the fridge, and somehow exactly right at the end of a hot day. This is the one that feels like a restaurant dessert but is honestly just pastry, citrus, eggs and cream behaving themselves. Make it the day before — it's better chilled overnight.

5. Vanilla layer cake with strawberry buttercream

The July showstopper: light vanilla sponges layered with a buttercream made on real strawberries. If there's a birthday, a barbecue or literally any excuse this month, this is the cake for it. Assemble it in the coolest part of the day — buttercream and a 26°C kitchen are not friends.

Baking in a warm kitchen — three quick rules

Chill more than usual. Pastry, cookie dough and anything with a high butter content softens fast in July. When in doubt, put it back in the fridge for 20 minutes; cold dough holds its shape, warm dough spreads.

Buttercream late in the day. Make and use buttercream in the morning or evening rather than mid-afternoon heat, and keep the finished cake somewhere cool. If the buttercream goes soupy, ten minutes in the fridge and a re-whip brings it back.

Trust the bake, not the clock. Ovens fight the room less in summer, so bakes can finish a few minutes early. Go by the signs — springs back, skewer clean, edges pulling away — rather than the timer alone.

Want the recipes?

All five bakes above are on the site — members get every one of our 2,200+ recipes for £2.99 a month. And if you'd rather own them outright, our new Summer Bakes Book collects 24 summery recipes — berries, stone fruit, citrus and showstoppers — for £6.99, yours to keep in EPUB and PDF.

Happy July. Get the oven on before it gets too hot to argue with.