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How to Make a Lemon Icing Glaze

Perfect lemon icing glaze, with salted butter giving it an amazing taste.

Close up of Greek Yogurt Blueberry Lemon Bundt with Lemon Icing Glaze placed on a green checkered plate
4.71 from 108 vote(s)173 comments
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Lemon Icing Glaze is very easy to make and consists of four simple ingredients. Read on to find out how to make this great, simple lemon glaze that will be amazing on your cakes, cupcakes, and more! 

Lemon Icing Glaze on top of bundt cake in a green checkered plate

Lemon Glaze Recipe

In order to make my lemon blueberry bundt all it could be and more, I needed fantastic lemon icing. One needs to mix the icing sugar with lemon juice as the base to achieve this. I decided to add in a ton of lemon zest and a teensy, weensy bit of butter to try and give it an excellent, slick, crackly crust. This was loaded with lemon flavor; there was no taming the taste buds here! My lemon dishes have to scream lemon, then slap you in the face with flavor, and this is precisely what this glaze did.

What do you need to make lemon glaze?

  • 1 3/4 cups of confectioner sugar
  • 1/4 cup of lemon juice
  • The zest of one lemon (or more!)
  • 1 tsp of salted butter

Combine the sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a large Pyrex measuring cup—the 4-cup capacity ones are the best.

Karlynn’s Tips and Tricks for the Perfect Lemon Glaze:

  • Now, again, I use salted butter. If you want to add another layer to the lemon flavor, feel free to toss just a pinch of salt into the mix now. We all know how I think about salt in icings, such as my Buttercream Icing / Frosting Recipe. The salt is necessary to cut the sugar taste and add complexity past that overwhelming sweet rush. It’s just the tiniest pinch, depending on how salty your butter is.
  • Add in the butter, then microwave on high for 45 seconds.
  • Take out the measuring cup and whisk until smooth, making sure there are no lumps.
  • Let it sit for a few minutes, then pour it over your creation. This would be beyond amazing on scones, cakes, bundts, and, of course, anything that needs a lemon glaze.
Pouring lemon glaze icing over a bundt cake
Pouring lemon glaze icing over a bundt cake

Troubleshooting this Lemon Glaze

  1. If you have a watery glaze, you have too little icing/powdered/confectioners’ sugar. It can get really packed together in the bags it comes in, so someone who uses 2 cups of packed icing sugar is going to have a very different result from the person who uses 2 cups of loosely packed or sifted confectioner’s sugar.
  2. Don’t use lemon juice to make the flavor more prominent; use lemon zest to make it as small as possible. It works wonderfully to add that lemon flavor!

What can you use this lemon glaze on?

You can use this lemon glaze on:

  1. Lemon Strawberry Bundt Cake
  2. Lighter Lemon Blackberry Muffins
  3. Glazed Meyer Lemon Scones
  4. If you want to try another amazing icing glaze, try my Cherry Icing Glaze!

Happy Baking!

Karlynn

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How to Make a Lemon Glaze

Perfect lemon icing glaze, with salted butter giving it an amazing taste.
4.71 from 108 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Prep Time: 3 minutes
Total Time: 3 minutes
Servings: 1 batch
Calories: 868kcal

Ingredients 

  • 1 3/4 cups confectioners’ sugar
  • 1/4 cup lemon juice
  • 1 zest of one lemon
  • 1 teaspoon salted butter

Instructions

  • In a large Pyrex measuring cup, the 4 cup capacity ones are the best, combine the sugar, lemon juice and lemon zest.
  • Now, again, I use salted butter. If you want to add another layer of taste, feel free to toss just a pinch of salt into the mix now. We all know how I feel about salt in icings, such as my buttercream icing recipe. The salt is a necessity to cut the sugar taste and add some complexity past that overwhelming sweet rush. Just the tiniest pinch, depending on how salty your butter is.
  • Add in the butter then microwave on high for 45 seconds.
  • Take out the measuring cup and whisk until smooth, making sure there are no lumps.
  • Let it sit for a few minutes then pour it over your creation.

Notes

Tips and Tricks

  • Now, again, I use salted butter. If you want to add another layer to the lemon flavor, feel free to toss just a pinch of salt into the mix now. We all know how I feel about salt in icings, such as my Buttercream Icing / Frosting Recipe. The salt is a necessity to cut the sugar taste and add some complexity past that overwhelming sweet rush. Just the tiniest pinch, depending on how salty your butter is.
  • Add in the butter then microwave on high for 45 seconds.
  • Take out the measuring cup and whisk until smooth, making sure there are no lumps.
  • Let it sit for a few minutes then pour it over your creation. This would be beyond amazing on scones, cakes, bundts of course, anything that you can think of that needs a lemon glaze works.

Nutrition

Calories: 868kcal | Carbohydrates: 214g | Fat: 4g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Cholesterol: 10mg | Sodium: 40mg | Potassium: 62mg | Sugar: 207g | Vitamin A: 125IU | Vitamin C: 31.4mg
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Lemon Icing Glaze is very easy to make and consists of four simple ingredients. Read to find out how to make this great, simple lemon glaze that will be amazing on your cakes, cupcakes and more! #dessert #lemon #icing #frosting #recipe #glaze

Karlynn Johnston

I’m a busy mom of two, wife & cookbook author who loves creating fast, fresh meals for my little family on the Canadian prairies. Karlynn Facts: I'm allergic to broccoli. I've never met a cocktail that I didn't like. I would rather burn down my house than clean it. Most of all, I love helping YOU get dinner ready because there's nothing more important than connecting with our loved ones around the dinner table!

Learn more about me

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Reader Interactions

Comments & Recipe Tips Share a tip or comment!

  1. Carla Yvonne Davis says

    This is by far the best lemon glaze/icing that I’ve made!!!!5 stars

  2. Ingrid Gaunede says

    Lovely recipe. For those Australian readers, our Icing sugar (confectioners sugar) is available as both Pure Icing Sugar and Icing Sugar Mixture. The only difference is Icing Sugar Mixture has a little cornflour (cornstarch) added to prevent it forming lumps.
    Pure icing sugar is the best choice if you are making icing that is meant to set hard such as glacé icing or royal icing.
    If you used Icing Sugar Mixture in these types of recipes, the cornflour (cornstarch) in the icing sugar mixture will prevent it from setting hard and the icing will remain soft.

4.71 from 108 votes

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