Easy Raspberry Cake Glaze

This easy raspberry cake glaze brings pops of raspberry flavor and a beautiful appearance like a wave of pink petals cascading over your cake. Flavor it with cardamom for an aromatic experience or other flavoring like vanilla, cinnamon or citrus.

This raspberry cake glaze brings the flavor of raspberries to your sweet baked goods.

I love the contrast of tart raspberries and sweet dessert. I've previously shared my Raspberry Almond Tart and Raspberry Semolina Cake with Cardamom which also highlight the beautiful flavor of raspberries.

Besides tasting good this glaze also looks beautiful. It's like a cascade of delicate pink petals flowing over your cake.

To really amp up the raspberry flavor you can also use homemade raspberry preserves which are delicious for a lot of other uses besides cake glaze.

This recipe features cardamom as a main flavoring, but you can easily substitute another flavoring like vanilla extract, ground cinnamon, extract of citrus like lemon or orange. Raspberry is actually really versatile!

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• Ingredients
• Equipment
• Instructions
• Serving Suggestion
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Ingredients

• Powdered sugar: Powdered sugar is the base of cake glaze. You really need fine powdered sugar for this and can't substitute regular granulated sugar as it doesn't absorb the liquid the same and will result in a gloopy and grainy mixture.
• Milk: Milk is the moisture element that turns the powdered sugar into a glaze. You can certainly substitute plant-based milk if you prefer.
• Raspberry jam / preserves: Raspberry jam or raspberry preserves add raspberry flavor and a beautiful look to the glaze. Since raspberry jam has little pieces of raspberry in it, it gives that petal-cascade look to the glaze. Just keep in mind you won't get this look if you substitute raspberry syrup or jelly.
• Flavor: Ground cardamom or cinnamon, or extract of vanilla, lemon, orange etc. (optional). To substitute cinnamon, use 0.25 tsp, if substituting vanilla extract use 0.5 tsp. Orange and lemon extracts can come in alcohol or oil form. Alcohol based extracts of citrus can be substituted at 0.5 teaspoon but if using an oil-based citrus extract only use 2-3 drops and taste then add more as needed. Oil-based citrus extracts can be very strongly flavored so you don't want to overdo it.

Equipment

All you need to make this glaze is a bowl and a whisk or a fork. It helps for pouring if you have a bowl with a spout, or a large (4 cup) measuring cup with a pouring spout is also great.

Instructions

The glaze comes together in less than 5 minutes and is really best when used right after mixing (or is can form a crystalized skin that adds clumps).

Simply mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. If the glaze is too dry (i.e. if it isn't easily pourable) then add a teaspoon of milk at a time until you reach a pourable consistency.

I recommend only mixing the glaze once the cake is fully cool and ready to glaze.

Be sure to allow the cake to cool before glazing. If you glaze too soon, the glaze will just run off.

You want to glaze once the cake is fully cool for maximum adherence of the glaze to the cake. Cooling on a wire rack can speed up the process.

Serving Suggestion

This raspberry cake glaze is of course lovely on cakes. In the photo below it's served on my Raspberry Semolina Cake with Cardamom. You can also use it for strudel.

Related

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