16 Juicy Blackberry Recipes to Celebrate Peak Berry Season

Summer is the prime season for locally grown fruits, especially ripe, sweet berries. Whether you picked up a few quarts at the farmers market or stained your fingers picking your own, here are 13 ways to make blackberries shine. Featuring frosted cakes, jewel-toned cocktails, cool ice cream, and old-fashioned blackberry cobbler, these blackberry recipes are perfect for any party, potluck, or an evening with friends.

Old-Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

There's nothing simpler than a fresh fruit cobbler—just a pinch of starch and sugar to bind and sweeten the best summer fruit, all bubbly and thick beneath a golden biscuit crust (and maybe a dollop of whipped cream, if you're lucky). It's one of the easiest bakes around, and even less-than-perfect blackberries can make a stunning dessert.

Old-Fashioned Blackberry Cobbler
Blackberry Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

Serious Eats / Vicky Wasik

This cake's pretty purple color and fruity flavor come from fresh blackberry purée, which acts like buttermilk to make the cake itself tender, tangy, and light. Paired with tangy cream cheese frosting, it may just become your new favorite dessert.

Blackberry Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting
Blackberry Ice Cream

Serious / Vicky Wasik

Celebrate summer blackberries at their peak with this intensely flavored and pretty purple ice cream. Ripe blackberries are cooked down on the stovetop with sugar to concentrate them, then strained to remove seeds. A touch of cinnamon amplifies the fruits' natural aroma.

Blackberry Ice Cream
Blackberry, Grapefruit, and Sage Infused Water

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Sweet ripe blackberries, tart grapefruit, and woodsy sage come together for a refreshing and balanced infused water.

Blackberry, Grapefruit, and Sage Infused Water

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Blackberry Mint Kombucha

Serious Eats / Amanda Suarez

Here, adding fruit and a small amount of sugar for the secondary fermentation results in a refreshingly fizzy kombucha.

Blackberry Mint Kombucha
Blackberry and White Chocolate Layer Cake

Serious Eats / Mimi Ritzen Crawford

Here, a lemon layer cake is filled with blackberry jam and encased in rolled wafer cookies and white chocolate for a summer dessert that's a showstopper at any festive occasion.

Blackberry and White Chocolate Layer Cake
Blackberry-Thyme Crumb Cake

Serious Eats / María del Mar Sacasa

Blackberry preserves get an unexpected exclamation point with fresh thyme and lemon zest in this crumbly, buttery cake that's a cinch to make.

Blackberry-Thyme Crumb Cake
Lemon Ginger Blackberry Swirl Ice Cream

Serious Eats / Max Falkowitz

This ice cream pairs a bright, slightly spicy lemon-ginger base with a dark, sweet, and tart blackberry swirl.

Lemon Ginger Blackberry Swirl Ice Cream

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DIY Blackberry Liqueur

Serious Eats

Blackberry liqueur, also known as crème de mûre, is a summer must! It has the brightness of berries and the richness of a sophisticated liqueur all rolled into one.

Blackberry Liqueur
Blackberry Brown Sugar Frozen Yogurt

Serious Eats / Max Falkowitz

Using brown sugar instead of white here adds a subtle caramel molasses note to frozen yogurt. It also enhances the dark, rich flavor of blackberry purée. A pinch of clove adds more spice.

Blackberry Brown Sugar Frozen Yogurt
Apple Blackberry Thyme Jam

Serious Eats / Lucy Baker

This sweet, tart, herbaceous jam pairs well with hearty whole grain breads and bran muffins, but it can also be used as a glaze for pork tenderloin. Pulse the blackberries in the food processor a few times to coarsely purée them.

Apple Blackberry Thyme Jam
Blackberry Pistachio Icebox Cake

Serious Eats / Max Falkowitz

This cake is studded with blackberries, pistachios, and pomegranate molasses in between layers of tea biscuits and rose water–infused whipped cream. It's sweet and creamy like an icebox cake should be, but tart berries and nutty pistachios keep things interesting for an easy but delicious warm-weather dessert.

Blackberry Pistachio Icebox Cake

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Blackberry Gin and Tonic

Serious Eats / Kelly Carámbula

The sharp, tart flavor of a classic gin and tonic is a perfect pairing for ripe blackberries. Blackberries and lime form the backbone of this simple summer sipper.

Blackberry Gin and Tonic

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16 Juicy Blackberry Recipes to Celebrate Peak Berry Season

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