Lemon Glaze (Lemon Icing)

Posted Mar 17, 2023, Updated Feb 13, 2024

5 from 6 votes

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This lemon glaze is easy to make in one bowl with 4 ingredients. With a bold lemon flavor and hints of vanilla, this delicious lemon icing can be used top of cookies, cakes, etc.

When it comes to desserts, I am usually a chocolate person. But one non-chocolate flavor that I cannot resist is lemon (like the best lemon bars or lemon poppy seed bread)!

This lemon glaze is easy to make with 4 ingredients and is absolutely irresistible. With a rich lemon flavor and notes of vanilla, it takes any dessert from good to wow!

Use it on top of your favorite cakes (like this lemon poppy seed cake, regular poppy seed cake, etc.) and cookies (sugar cookies) and of course – these lemon cookies!

Lemon Glaze Recipe: Ingredients

overhead photo of the ingredients in this Lemon Glaze Recipe

Lemon Juice. Freshly squeezed or bottled lemon juice are both great choices.
Powdered Sugar. You can make your own refined-sugar free powdered sugar using this recipe.
Whole Milk. Heavy cream is a great substitute.
Vanilla. you can substitute vanilla bean paste for the vanilla extract.

How to Make Lemon Icing

This lemon glaze recipe is so easy to make! We’ll walk through the steps together, and don’t forget to watch the video.

Begin by measuring powdered sugar into a large bowl

powdered sugar in a bowl to make lemon icing

Then, add the lemon juice, milk and vanilla.

adding vanilla and milk and lemon juice to powdered sugar to make lemon glaze

Whisk the ingredients until the mixture is smooth.

If desired, you can adjust the “thickness” of the glaze in one of two ways:

Thin it out: add more milk.
Make it thicker: add more powdered sugar.

Serve

Use to pour or drizzle over your favorite cakes, cupcakes, or cookies. Here are some suggestions:

Use it to glaze this lemon poppy seed cake, lemon poppy seed bread, scones, or sweet poppy seed cake.
Glaze this yellow cake or vanilla cupcakes!
Spread it on top of these sugar cookies or lemon cookies.

How to Store Lemon Glaze

I suggest using the glaze as soon as you make it. You can store it in an airtight container or a piping bag, but it hardens after a while.

lemon glaze dripping off of a spoon into a bowl of lemon glaze

Lemon Glaze Recipe FAQs

What is lemon glaze made of?

This recipe has 4 ingredients, powdered sugar, lemon juice, whole milk, and vanilla extract.

Can you color lemon frosting?

Yes, you can add a drop of gel food coloring, if desired.

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