Lemon Glaze

If you’ve ever eaten a sweet treat and wished it had just a bit more oomph, this brilliantly simple lemon glaze recipe will be your new friend. Made with just three ingredients—two of which are lemon juice and lemon zest—you can drizzle this sweet and zingy citrus glaze over nearly any baked good with excellent results.

I love lemon icing on sour cream pound cake, big soft ginger cookies, doughnuts, fruit salad, brownies and shortbread. With this recipe for lemon glaze, you can turn just about anything into the lemon dessert of your dreams.

Lemon Glaze Ingredients

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• Confectioners’ sugar: The key to making a smooth lemon icing is confectioners’ sugar, which is simply granulated sugar milled to a much finer consistency. No confectioners’ sugar? No problem! You can easily make powdered sugar yourself.
• Lemon juice: The amount of juice in each lemon is slightly different, but on average you’ll get around 2-1/2 tablespoons per fruit. For this recipe, make sure you have two lemons on hand.
• Lemon zest: Make sure to zest your fruit before you squeeze it. Give the lemons a quick rinse before starting, and use a light hand so that you remove the aromatic yellow peel but as little of the bitter white pith beneath as possible.

Directions

Step 1: Make the glaze

Josh Rink for Taste of Home

In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners’ sugar, enough lemon juice to reach the desired consistency and the lemon zest. Continue whisking until the sugar fully dissolves.

How to Use Lemon Glaze

Josh Rink for Taste of Home

• Cakes: Try drizzling this lemon glaze recipe for cake over a pretty gingerbread bundt cake, strawberry pound cake or our contest-winning moist chocolate cake.
• Cookies: A touch of glaze is excellent for glamming up cookies, mainly because sprinkles and colored sugar will adhere to the glaze while it’s wet. Try our recipe for lemon glaze with Scottish shortbread or a white chocolate macadamia cookie.
• Fruit salad: Elevate your sliced fruit with this tangy topping. Try it on fresh fruit salad with pomegranate or a refreshing tropical fruit salad. A little chiffonade of mint goes beautifully with the lemon.

Lemon Glaze Variations

• Try other citrus: This recipe for lemon glaze works beautifully with any other citrus fruit. You can make this glaze with limes, grapefruit, oranges, deep-red blood oranges, tangerines or even yuzu. Just imagine the dessert you’ll be glazing and match it up with the best citrus for the job!
• Use some color: Lemon icing is an excellent vehicle for food coloring, so don’t be afraid to divide up a batch and get playful. Yellow is an obvious choice, but you can turn it into any color.
• Add sprinkles: If you want sprinkles to stick to your sweets, add the sprinkles just after applying the glaze and before it dries. Any edible cake decorations would also work.

How to Store Lemon Glaze

Store our recipe for lemon glaze in the refrigerator for up to four days. If stored in a container with airspace, the surface could dry out and become crackly, so lay a piece of storage wrap across the top of the glaze before sealing. For the best results, store the dessert glaze in a zip-top bag, press out the air and close.

Lemon Glaze Tips

Josh Rink for Taste of Home

Should you glaze a cake when it’s hot or cold?

It’s best practice to apply this lemon glaze recipe after a cake or other dessert has cooled. Heat will make the glaze extra runny, and it could soak into the dessert or simply run right off instead of remaining on top.

Why is my lemon glaze grainy?

There are a few reasons lemon icing can be grainy. Make sure to use confectioners’ sugar, which dissolves more easily at room temperature than granulated sugar, and enough liquid. If the glaze is super thick and grainy, try thinning it with more lemon juice. If it seems to be the right consistency, stir longer until the sugar completely dissolves.

How can you thin out lemon glaze?

Add more lemon juice until you get the preferred fluidity. If you’re out of lemon, you could use milk, cream, another fruit juice or water.