This perfect Orange Glaze is packed with fresh orange flavor (thanks to zest and juice), not too sweet, and easy to make! We experimented with different methods and ratios to find one that was thick enough to hold up, easy to drizzle, and had the perfect mouthfeel. Spoiler alert... we figured it out! It's the only method we'll use from now on.
Making weekly sweet treats for a large family taught us pretty quickly what makes a recipe worth the effort. A glaze needs to be packed with flavor, thick enough to stay put, and not overly sweet. Once we figured out how to master it, we used that same technique in a raspberry glaze, lemon glaze, and maple glaze. It works equally as well in those recipes.
This orange glaze is the one we use on this truly delicious orange cake. A bakery special, if ever there was one.
Recipe Notes from Danielle & Misty
The biggest problem with most glazes is that they taste like pure powdered sugar, are too thin, and disappear into the baked good. We fixed all of those problems!
We searched for years, and after much trial and error, we know what works.
- Not too thin: Heavy cream and a little butter give this glaze its creamy consistency and help mellow out that intense powdered sugar taste.
- Packed with flavor: The essential oils in the orange zest add a punch of fresh orange flavor without making it too thin. Too much juice can make a glaze runny, so we use the zest to bring in plenty of orange flavor while keeping the consistency just right.
- It stays put: The worst is putting a glaze on a cake only to look an hour later and realize you can barely see it anymore. This one stays right where you put it.
- No cracking: The butter does more than cut through the cloying sweetness of the powdered sugar. It also gives the glaze a little flexibility, so it stays smooth instead of cracking like many powdered sugar icings.
Perfect icing for my orange bundt cake!! I've been searching and I finally found the right one!! Thank you!!
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ - Susan
Ingredients for orange glaze
A full list of the ingredients is in the recipe card below, but here are a few noteworthy tips:
- Heavy cream: The fat content in cream gives this orange glaze its creamy consistency and cuts the sharp powdered sugar taste. You can substitute with half and half, but I don't recommend using milk because it doesn't have enough fat to yield the same results.
- Fresh orange zest: The essential oils found in the colorful part of the skin is what gives the most intense fresh flavor. The fastest and easiest way to zest your oranges is with a microplane. Do it before juicing the oranges.
- Fresh orange juice: Since we need zest, I find it best to just juice the oranges after the zest has been removed. I find this hand held juicer makes easy work of the job.
- Butter: Salted butter is the standard in our kitchen, but unsalted will work as well. The important part is to use butter that's really soft, but not melted. That gives the glaze the right consistency and helps everything blend together smoothly.
Helpful kitchen tools
How to make orange glaze
This orange cake icing is as easy as they come… just put all the ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth! For a thicker glaze, start with 2 tablespoons of cream. For a thinner glaze, add more cream 1 teaspoon at a time until you reach the desired consistency.
Tips & Tricks
- Pick good oranges: Fresh orange juice and zest are key to making a flavorful orange icing, so start with great oranges. Avoid oranges with thick skin - these are almost always bland and not as juicy. Instead, choose oranges that are brightly colored, smell fragrant, and have a thin, healthy peel.
- Warm them up: If your oranges are hard, try microwaving them for about 10 seconds, then roll them on the counter firmly with your palm. This should release more juice.
- Don't substitute the cream: It helps with the creaminess, mellowing the sweetness, and keeping it from soaking into your desserts.
- Help it on the edges: When pouring or drizzling the orange glaze, add a little extra to the edges wherever you want it to drip down the sides.
More recipes
Looking for other recipes? Try these:
Recipe
The Best Orange Glaze (Orange Icing for Cake)
Equipment
- handheld juicer optional
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon butter softened
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2-3 tablespoon heavy cream or half and half
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a bowl, starting with 2 tablespoon of heavy cream. Mix until well combined and smooth. I like to use a whisk. If needed, add more cream 1 teaspoon at a time until desired consistency is reached.1 tbsp butter, 1 cup powdered sugar, 2-3 tbsp heavy cream, 1 tbsp orange zest, 1 tbsp orange juice, ¼ tsp vanilla
- Use on cakes, pound cake, cookies, cinnamon rolls, scones, or other baked goods.
Notes
- Pick good oranges: Fresh orange juice and zest are key to making a flavorful orange icing, so start with great oranges. Avoid oranges with thick skin - these are almost always bland and not as juicy. Instead, choose oranges that are brightly colored, smell fragrant, and have a thin, healthy peel.
- Warm them up: If your oranges are hard, try microwaving them for about 10 seconds, then roll them on the counter firmly with your palm. This should release more juice.
- Don't substitute the cream: It helps with the creaminess, mellowing the sweetness, and keeping it from soaking into your desserts.
- Help it on the edges: When pouring or drizzling the orange glaze, add a little extra to the edges wherever you want it to drip down the sides.
Add Your Own Notes
Nutrition
All nutrition information is provided by a third party and is an estimate only. Use your own nutritional calculator for more specific measurements.
Linda F says
Even though I substituted some ingredients to be dairy free, it was a delicious icing.
Danielle says
So glad to hear that it worked even with the substitutions! We love hearing feedback like this! Thanks!
Ann Halvorsen says
I had a few oranges left that needed to be used and so I made two orange cakes. I felt they needed an icing as they looked boring. So I ended up here I have just made the icing and drizzled on the cakes. They look fantastic and I got a thumbs up from the husband and son. Winning 🏆 icing was superb.
Misty says
So glad you enjoyed it, Ann! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Christine says
I had to scroll forever to get to the ingredient list. Then before I could write it down, a huge marijuana add came up blocking everything. I could not get it to go away. Finally, I went back a page and there it was. Almost immediately another recipe flooded the screen. This platform makes it very unpleasant. I'm going to make your recipe now. I'll let you know how I like it. Thanks for listening.
Danielle says
Hi Christine! I am so sorry this was frustrating for you! We have all ads like that blocked from our site, so I will immediately contact our ad provider and get them to remove any other such ads. So grateful that you let us know! We work hard to make sure our ads are not intrusive. I tried to replicate your experience myself on both desktop and mobile but it all looked good from here. So sorry though! And last, just a little tip, at the very top of our pages there is a button that says "Jump To Recipe". If you click that button there is no scrolling at all. You can skip all the middle if you want to. I hope that helps! And Happy Thanksgiving!
Stephanie says
Easy and soooo delicious! Drizzled the glaze over an angel food cake. Out of this world!
Jo says
I haven't tried this recipe yet, which is why I'm not leaving a rating. I have a question: Should I use salted or unsalted butter?
Danielle says
No worries! We only use salted butter, but with this small amount it probably won't matter. Hope that helps!
Nicole says
This orange glaze is delicious! The best I had
Misty says
We're so happy to hear that, Nicole! Thank you for taking the time to share 🙂
Rose Seabron says
Looks delicious, can’t wait to try will let you know what my family and I think about this great recipe!
Sincerely, Rose Seabron
😊😊😊😊👍
Misty says
We hope you love it!
Cheryl says
My mom used to make an orange cake with the rinds of the orange for the cake and rinds for the frosting. But I can’t find her recipe
Buck says
Easy, tasty and dresses the cake nicely! I used mandarin juice in it for my mandarin pound cake. Very good!
Buck says
I wanted to add that I put hot tap water in a little larger bowl that I was mixing it in and set my mix bowl in it to help melt the butter and loosen it up a little. Worked great! And I used half and half.
Misty says
So glad you enjoyed it. Mandarin pound cake sounds delicious!
Morgan says
I love using this glaze on my Christmas bread pudding. It's my daughter's favorite!
Misty says
So glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for taking the time to share with us.
Zina says
Simple. Perfect. I used one tablespoon of milk coz i was out of cream and it was perfect.
Misty says
Thank you for taking the time to share. We're glad you enjoyed it!
Susan says
Perfect icing for my orange bundt cake!! I’ve been searching and I finally found the right one.!! Thank you!!
Danielle says
So glad it was just what you needed! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment.
Charles Wilson says
I'd give this more than 5 stars!
Danielle says
What high praise! Thank you so much for taking the time to comment!