How to Make Ready Made Frosting Into a Glaze

Glaze is an elegant, light substitute for frosting. We make two types of glaze; one that hardens, for cookies and cupcakes, and one that drips, for larger cakes. Ready-made frosting often has a high fat content; its use in foods that need shell-glazes is often problematic. Fats keep frosting soft. Any type of glaze can be easily made with a few ingredients but if you must use ready-made frosting, it can be used as a base for both types of glaze if you're willing to invest some time.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Can of creamy (not whipped) ready-made frosting
• Glass or ceramic bowl
• Fork
• Large spoon
• Water
• Milk
• Confectioner's sugar
• Microwave oven
• Optional:
• Flavorings

1. Soften the frosting by putting half of it in a bowl and microwaving it on full power for 30 seconds. Stir with a fork and heat on 60 percent power for another 30 seconds. Continue to heat using the 60 percent setting for periods of 20 seconds until the frosting is runny.

2. Add a tablespoon of milk (for soft glaze) or water (for a glaze that will harden a bit) and stir carefully to thin the prepared frosting. Keep the glaze warm as you stir by "nuking" it if it begins to get stiff.

3. Add no more than a teaspoon of flavoring gradually while stirring; orange juice, citrus zest, almond or vanilla flavoring. If the glaze gets too runny, add some confectioner's sugar to thicken it up.

4. Heat the glaze so that it drips and use on cakes, angel food or pound cake. If you want hard glaze for cookies, keep adding water and sugar by the tablespoon, stirring and heating gently with each addition, until the glaze is almost translucent.

5. Dip cookies or cupcakes upside-down in glaze. Add a little water and heat again when glaze begins to cool and gets thick.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the ready-made frosting without any additions by simply heating, stirring and heating until it gets runny enough to spread around the top of the cake until it drips over the edges and down the sides. Beat it well---it will have a tendency to separate. The resulting glaze will lack the sheen of the glaze that has been amended with more ingredients.
• Glaze should drop from a large spoon and "drizzle" easily. Add liquid and beat if it is too thick.
• Poke holes in the tops of cakes with a meat fork before glazing. The glaze will "anchor" itself in the holes.
• Don't get impatient. Heat glaze in short bursts, stirring vigorously as you go. Overheated glaze will separate into crystallized sugar and runny fat.

References

• Donut Glaze
• Sugar Cookie Glaze

Resources

• Cookie Icings and Glaze
• Cake Glazes

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