Homemade Strawberry Glaze or Icing (for cake, donuts)

Strawberry glaze icing is a very simple way of dressing or enhancing loaf and bundt cakes, scones, and cookies.

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.

This homemade strawberry topping relies on natural flavors, so you know it'll taste amazing.

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.

Ingredients

Just two ingredients to make this berry glaze. You can add other ingredients, such as lemon juice or vanilla extract, which is explained in the recipe card at the end of this post.

• 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. Domino powdered sugar is a very popular one.
• Optional: lemon juice, orange juice, vanilla extract, liquor of your choice.

See the recipe card for quantities.

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.

Super smooth puree: if you want a seedless perfect puree, you can sieve the blended strawberry mixture. I tried it with a very fine mesh sieve but it did not go through easily as the puree is thick. You'll have to be patient as the seeds are there but quite disintegrated.

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.