Lemon Glaze Recipe: 5 Ways to Use Lemon Glaze

A lemon glaze is a sweet and lemony topping for cakes, cookies, and other baked goods. Recipes for lemon glaze typically call for lemon juice, lemon zest, powdered sugar, and milk. The latter dissolves more easily and produces a smoother texture than granulated sugar. Other names for powdered sugar include icing sugar and confectioners’ sugar.

Many flavors (even chocolate and warm spices) pair well with a lemon glaze. Lemon and chocolate—especially white chocolate—go well together because chocolate is sweet or tart, depending on the type, and lemon is tart with a hint of sweetness. For example, consider using a lemon glaze or lemon flavoring to enhance brownies, chocolate chip cookies, or a dark chocolate tart.

Sugary and sticky with an intense lemon flavor, a lemon glaze can be the finishing touch to a number of different recipes. Here are just five ways you can use a sweet and tart lemon glaze:

1. 1. Coat donuts in lemon glaze. Make yeasted donuts or fry cake donuts and coat both sides in lemon glaze icing while they’re still warm. The glaze sticks to the donuts and creates a crackly shell. Use lemon glaze on plain donuts, lemon donuts, or blueberry donuts.
2. 2. Dip cookies in lemon glaze. Use a lemon glaze instead of royal icing to decorate sugar cookies or shortbread cookies. Mix the glaze to a thicker consistency so it sticks to the cookie instead of dissolving it into the cookie. Swirl food coloring or other flavor extracts into the glaze for different colors and flavors.
3. 3. Drizzle lemon glaze on cakes. Turn a bundt cake, vanilla cake, or pound cake recipe into a lemon bundt cake, lemon cake, or lemon pound cake with a drizzle of lemon glaze. Even sweet and spiced coffee cake benefits from a fresh lemon glaze. Use a glass measuring cup with a pouring spout to pour the glaze over the cakes. A thick cake glaze will sit on top of the cake, similar to a frosting, while a thin glaze will soak into the cake and keep it moist. A lemon glaze works similarly on cupcakes.
4. 4. Mix lemon glaze into a frosting. A fresh lemon glaze brightens up a boxed cake mix or homemade cake. Fold a lemon glaze into buttercream frosting or cream cheese frosting. Make the buttercream with unsalted butter (room temperature), powdered sugar, vanilla extract (or lemon extract), and milk or buttermilk. Add cream cheese to the ingredients to make a cream cheese frosting. Then mix lemon glaze into the frosting until it reaches the desired consistency and flavor.
5. 5. Spread lemon glaze on scones. Lemon curd is a classic spread for scones, but you can incorporate lemon flavor with a glaze instead. Pair the scones and lemon glaze with fresh whipped cream instead of the traditional clotted cream, or top them with macerated strawberries for a spin on a strawberry shortcake dessert.