Summer in the Big Apple is right around the corner, and after a punishing winter with arctic temperatures and record-breaking storms, nothing sounds better than ending a fun day in the sun with a sweet treat.

But rather than a typical Mister Softee cone, NYC dessert shops are offering a slew of jaw-dropping, out-there desserts that will have tourists and locals licking their lips — or maybe pursing them in confusion.

From a towering 24-layer pickle cake to an interactive potted plant dessert that diners “water” with a can of milk tea, former pastry chef at Eleven Madison Park and owner of Lolo’s Pastry, Lauren Day, told The Post that these trending treats — which often appear to be designed for social media as much as to titillate taste buds — are “a reflection of where we are right now.”

“Social media has changed how people experience food — it’s not just about taste anymore,” said Day. “It’s about the full experience: how it looks, how it feels, and how shareable it is … Honestly, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. New York has always thrived on being over-the-top, creative and a little unexpected.”

Day emphasized that while an eye-catching sweet treat that has gone viral online can “absolutely take a bakery from being completely unknown to having a line out the door every weekend,” getting people to come in once and converting them to loyal customers are “two totally different things.”

“The focus still has to be on flavor and technique,” said Day. “People might try something because it looks wild or different, but they’ll only come back if it actually tastes good.”

Below, feast your eyes on five unexpected desserts that are sure to tickle your taste buds — and sweeten up your social media feeds.

As if a restaurant moniker like Maison Pickle isn’t out-there enough, this 24-layer pickle-fueled culinary creation may just take the, well, cake. The Upper West Side establishment’s signature dessert features two dozen layers of the creamy green frosting — complete with tiny chunks of pickle rind — and is topped with a garnish of sliced pickles.

As to why Chef Jacob Hadjigeorgis decided to make the cake 24 layers, he told The Post it hits the “sweet spot” in respect to both structure and taste.

“Thin, even layers give you the perfect balance of cake and frosting, and structurally it holds up the way we need it to,” said Hadjigeorgis. “It’s precious like 24k gold and it’s the kind of dessert you can keep coming back to every hour of the day. And let’s be honest — 26 would start to feel a little ridiculous.”

The Maison Pickle team went through three iterations of the cake — adding more and more pickles each time — before officially adding it to their menu.

“We pushed it a little further each time until it clicked,” said Hadjigeorgis. “We landed on a balance where the pickle shows up, but the vanilla keeps it smooth and approachable.”

Sam Goldberg, who runs the NYC food-centric Instagram page @respectthechain, recently reviewed the wacky dessert, giving it two thumbs up.

“We pushed it a little further each time until it clicked,” said Hadjigeorgis. “We landed on a balance where the pickle shows up, but the vanilla keeps it smooth and approachable.”

“It’s got that texture and feel of a sweet cornbread and then it’s like, you put a pickle on top of the cornbread — it really works,” Goldberg said in the vid. “It’s actually really good. It’s very sweet, which I love.”

A slice of the sweet yet tangy treat will cost curious diners $18 — though a full cake of the stuff rings in at a whopping $165.

Butter? Good. Ice cream? Even better. Ice cream dipped in butter? Apparently, it’s a Big Apple warm-weather hit.

Created by Chef Dominique Ansel (who runs Dominique Ansel Bakery and Papa D’Amour), the inspiration for it came after he and his partner took their young children to France for the first time last spring. During this trip, they visited the Isigny Ste. Mère farm in Normandy, where their bakery sources all the butter for their croissants and viennoiserie (French baked goods that lie somewhere between bread and pastry).

Being that the butter is of such high quality and allows Ansel’s staff to give their croissants a “beautiful, flaky texture and flavor” — along with a desire to create something new for summertime — Ansel decided to dip their homemade vanilla bean soft serve into a thin layer of the French butter. And thus, Papa D’Amour’s Butter Vanilla Soft Serve was born.

“We make the soft serve in small batches, so we’ll usually cap it around 100 a day to maintain quality,” Ansel told The Post. “(With) the nice balance of creamy and smooth, lightly sweet and salty, it works really nicely together.”

The $9.50 ice cream, which is topped with fleur de sel French sea salt and has a little mochi at the bottom of the cone, first went viral last August when it was released, but is still a New Yorker favorite, perhaps unexpectedly.