Making strawberry glaze is quick and easy. Only 2 ingredients are needed for this recipe that you can flavor and adjust for sweetness depending on what you use it for. It's perfect for glazing cakes, scones, donuts, and pastries to enhance the fresh strawberry flavor and add an eye-catching topping. It lasts a lot in the refrigerator and can be frozen.
An eye-catching glaze that's quick to prepare
Strawberry glaze icing is a very simple way of dressing or enhancing loaf and bundt cakes, scones, and cookies.
This homemade strawberry topping relies on natural flavors, so you know it'll taste amazing. It uses strawberry puree and powdered sugar, an ingredient that can't be substituted.
Use fresh fruit when strawberry season hits, but know it works fine with frozen ones, so you can make it year-round.
It's great for when you have a small number of leftover strawberries or very ripe ones that have seen better days. Blend them with sugar and freeze them for later use.
Don't mistake it for the clear and bright red strawberry glaze used as a topping for ice cream and cheesecake. There's a huge difference in technique and appearance between them.
Uses for strawberry glaze
- Plain cakes: powdered sugar glaze is a staple in this blog and one of my favorite ways to spruce up simple cakes like the strawberry pound cake below. Other cakes that go well with it are lemon bundt cake, orange sour cream cakes, vanilla poppy seed cake, and even a chocolate bundt cake if you like to try a different combination.
- Scones: drizzle it over them and create an eye-catching pink icing as we do for the fresh strawberry scones below. Other flavors that go well with this icing are orange scones and lemon scones.
- Cookies: some are great with a light drizzle of this icing, like the lemon shortbread cookies or pistachio snowballs.
- Donuts: dip them in it and have beautiful doughnuts. Lemon, plain, chocolate, and orange, are all flavors that go well with this glaze. Find more donut recipes here.
- Pastries: breakfast danish (like the strawberry danish braid) and croissants taste and look gorgeous with this glaze.
- Breakfast and brunch staples: if you like very sweet mornings, you can use it on waffles and french toast instead of syrup. I find it too much sweetness. But your palate might be very different.
Ingredient list
Just two ingredients are needed to make this berry glaze.
- Strawberries: when in season use fresh strawberries if possible. Frozen berries also work but they have more water content so the flavor is sometimes weaker.
- Powdered sugar: there is no alternative or substitution for it. Also called confectioners' sugar or icing sugar, you can easily buy it online.
Quantities are listed on the recipe card towards the end of this post. The Ingredients page has more details and lists the brands we use.
Variations & substitutions
Strawberries pair well with several flavors and they can be added to this easy glaze recipe.
- Citrus: lemon, orange, and lime, all pair very well with strawberries. My rule is that if the strawberries are very sweet (usually seasonal ones) I use lemon or lime juice. If they taste more acidic, I use orange or tangerine juice that adds sweetness.
- Alcohol: a tablespoon of champagne, golden rum, Cointreau, or Grand Marnier is wonderful if you want a boozy strawberry puree.
- Flavorings: add a few drops of pure vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, fresh mint, or fresh basil, to add another layer of flavor depending on what you're using it for.
- Other berries: substitute the strawberries for blackberries, raspberries, or blueberries.
How to make a strawberry glaze
It's simple, you have to make a plain strawberry puree (no sugar) and mix it with powdered sugar.
Both a regular blender and an immersion blender will render perfect results for the puree. A food processor most times won't completely disintegrate the fruit, so I don't recommend it. Unless you want a chunky mixture.
Vintage Kitchen Tip
Super smooth puree: if you want a seedless perfect puree, you can sieve the blended strawberry mixture. You'll have to be patient, especially if using a very-fine mesh sieve, as the seeds are there but quite disintegrated.
Immersion blender
Break up strawberry pieces with the immersion blender and process them until completely smooth and no chunks remain.
I find this is the best and easiest way to do it because you process directly in the bowl you're using.
Regular blender
In terms of easiness, it's similar to the one above, but the puree is harder to take out of the jar afterward. Add strawberries to the blender jar. Blend until completely pureed.
Kitchen notes
- Organization: read the recipe first and make sure you have ingredients at the right temperatures, equipment needed, and enough workspace. This will make the process so much easier!
- Frozen strawberries: you can use them straight from the freezer. If they have too much ice around them (something that happens when they've been frozen for a long time) thaw them a little to release some of the icy water, not the juices. The strawberry itself will still be pretty frozen.
- How thick or thin do you like it? Add more or less strawberry puree until you have the desired consistency.
- Storing: it keeps for weeks in the refrigerator, well covered, or in an airtight container. And a month in the freezer. If refrigerated, stir it vigorously before using it so it's smooth again.
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Strawberry Icing or Glaze (for cake, donuts)
Ingredients
- ¼ cup strawberries, hulled and cut into pieces
- OR 2 to 3 tablespoons of strawberry puree if you already have it made
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- To make the puree, process ¼ cup strawberries until smooth and fluid. I use an immersion blender.
- Mix 2 tablespoons of strawberry puree with 1 cup powdered sugar in a bowl and check to see the consistency. It should be like thick honey. Add more strawberry puree to adjust depending on whether you want a thicker glaze or thinner icing.
- It's best to use at room temperature. Store in the refrigerator in an airtight container or well-covered.
SONYA says
This is exactly what I wanted! Simple and delicious!!
F. D’Amore says
Can you leave a cake or donut with this glaze/icing outside or does the cake or donut with the glaze/icing need to be refrigerated?
Paula Montenegro says
Hi, it depends on how long you leave it out and the temperature of the space. After a day or two it's best to refrigerate them, covered so they don't dry up too quickly. Cakes and donuts benefit, moisture-wise, from being covered in glaze.