A summer garden lunch rarely needs a complicated pudding. When strawberries, apricots and cherries are at their best, the cook's real job is to stay out of their way. The following ideas are built for warm afternoons: quick to assemble, forgiving if lunch runs long, and happy to sit on a shady table while the conversation carries on.

Start with fruit that needs almost nothing

Buy fruit you would happily eat on its own, then taste it before you plan the rest of the dish. A punnet of raspberries with real perfume needs a teaspoon of sugar at most; a slightly underripe nectarine needs a little heat and honey to coax it along.

For berries, a light maceration does most of the work. Halve 500g of strawberries, sprinkle over 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and a squeeze of lemon, toss gently and leave for 20 minutes at room temperature. The sugar draws out the juices and you end up with a ready-made sauce. Do the same with raspberries but use only 1 tablespoon of sugar and no lemon, and handle them as little as possible.

Stone fruit is a different job. Peaches, apricots and plums are often firm when you buy them, so either ripen them in a paper bag on the windowsill for a day or two, or roast them. Halve 8 apricots, dot with 15g of butter, drizzle with 2 tablespoons of runny honey and bake at 180°C fan (200°C, gas mark 6) for 15 to 18 minutes until the edges slump and the juices turn syrupy. Cool them to room temperature before serving; hot fruit plus cold cream is lovely, but warm is better than scalding.

The formula: fruit, cream, crunch

Almost every good summer pudding follows the same structure, and once you know it you can invent endlessly with whatever is in the fridge.

• Fruit — macerated, roasted or simply sliced, always at room temperature for the best flavour.
• Cream — softly whipped double cream, a 50/50 mix of cream and Greek yoghurt, or crème fraîche loosened with a splash of milk. Keep it barely holding a ribbon; over-whipped cream tastes greasy and sits heavily after a big lunch.
• Crunch — crushed shortbread, toasted flaked almonds, a spoonful of oat crumble, broken meringue nests or a few ginger biscuits. Add this at the last moment so it stays crisp.

Flavour the cream lightly rather than heavily: a scraped vanilla pod, a teaspoon of elderflower cordial, the finely grated zest of a lemon, or a tablespoon of icing sugar. If you are using yoghurt, add a pinch of salt to sharpen the whole thing.

Three puddings worth making this week

• Raspberry fool. Push 400g raspberries through a sieve, or crush them roughly with a fork if you prefer texture. Stir in 2 tablespoons of icing sugar, then fold through 300ml of softly whipped double cream. Spoon into small glasses and chill for at least an hour. Serve with shortbread.
• Roasted apricots with vanilla cream. Use the roasted apricots above, spooned into shallow bowls with their syrup, topped with cream whipped with vanilla and a scattering of toasted flaked almonds. A few basil leaves torn over the top sounds odd but works beautifully.
• Peach and raspberry layers. Slice 4 ripe peaches into a bowl with 150g raspberries, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. Layer with Greek yoghurt, crushed ginger biscuits and a drizzle of honey in four glasses.

If you have blackberries or cherries, use them in any of the above. Cherries benefit from a splash of something sharp, and blackberries need a touch more sugar than you might expect.

Styling a pudding for the garden table

Garden lunches are eaten with the sun in your eyes, so keep the presentation simple and generous. Shallow bowls beat deep ones because the fruit stays visible, and clear glass shows off the layers. Chill the glasses in the fridge for 20 minutes before you assemble and wipe the rims with a damp cloth afterwards.

Colour matters more than precision. A pale cream against deep red raspberries, or golden apricots against white yoghurt, looks immediately appetising. Leave one or two berries whole on top for a focal point, add a single mint sprig, and let the syrup pool naturally rather than wiping it away. Edible flowers such as borage or nasturtium are lovely, provided you know they are unsprayed. A jug of cream on the side is never a mistake.

Getting ahead and keeping things cool

Work out what can be done in the morning. Macerated fruit keeps for up to 4 hours at room temperature, or overnight in the fridge if you bring it back to room temperature before serving. Whipped cream holds well for 3 to 4 hours in a covered bowl in the fridge. Assemble layered puddings no more than 2 hours ahead, and add the crunchy element at the very last minute.

If you are eating outside in real heat, keep everything in the shade and stand the serving dish on a tray of ice, or simply bring the puddings out from the fridge as you clear the main course. Even a simple bowl of strawberries with a jug of cream, served with a little ceremony, feels like exactly the right ending to a long, lazy lunch.