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This cream cheese glaze recipe is thick and perfect for drizzling! It works for muffins, breads, cakes, and more.
Want to add a bit of pizzazz to muffins, cakes and more? Try this easy Cream Cheese Glaze! Just 3 ingredients make a bit of kitchen magic, transforming in minutes into a thick, glossy glaze with a tangy sweet flavor. The glaze is endlessly versatile: try it on cakes, pound cakes, quick breads, muffins, cupcakes…and even donuts. Here’s how to do it!
How to make cream cheese glaze
This cream cheese glaze is ideal for drizzling over carrot cake muffins or a zingy lemon blueberry loaf. Even better, it comes together in just 2 minutes with 3 ingredients!
- Warm 3 tablespoons cream cheese in the microwave or stovetop. Warming it makes it easy to stir into a glaze.
- Stir with ½ cup powdered sugar and ½ teaspoon milk until a thick icing forms. It will feel very thick at first, but keep stirring and it will form into a thick drizzle. That’s all there is to it!
Make a bigger batch if desired
The ingredient quantities listed in the recipe below work as a modest glaze for 12 muffins or 1 quick bread loaf. But want more density of glaze? You can make a larger batch: use ¼ cup cream cheese, ¾ cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon milk. This works well and provides more solid coverage.
A tip for drizzling
Are you drizzling this cream cheese glaze and want a decorative pattern? Here’s a tip: use a fork! Using a fork to drizzle the glaze results in the best zigzag pattern. While using a spoon seems intuitive, it makes a very thick drizzle that’s not quite as elegant looking.
Ways to use cream cheese glaze
This cream cheese glaze recipe works on a variety of baked goods! Here are a few ideas for how to use it:
- Cakes: Use on pound cake, loaf cake, or angel food cake. If you think you’ll need more glaze, make the larger batch listed above or even double the recipe.
- Muffins or cupcakes: Try it on carrot cake muffins, blueberry muffins, pumpkin muffins, and more.
- Quick breads: Add it to quick breads like banana bread, zucchini bread, apple bread, lemon blueberry bread, strawberry bread, or pumpkin bread.
- Donuts: Try it on easy baked donuts or mini donuts.
More glaze recipes
There are so many ways to make a simple glaze! Here are a few more to try:
- Go for zingy Easy Lemon Glaze
- Try Vanilla Glaze
- Opt for Easy Chocolate Glaze
This cream cheese glaze recipe is…
Vegetarian.
Cream Cheese Glaze
This cream cheese glaze recipe is thick and perfect for drizzling! It works for muffins, breads, cakes, and more.
- Prep Time: 3 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 3 minutes
- Yield: ⅓ cup 1x
- Category: Drizzle
- Method: No Cook
- Cuisine: Dessert
- Diet: Vegetarian
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons cream cheese
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon milk
Instructions
- Place the cream cheese in a glass measuring cup or bowl and microwave for about 20 seconds until warm. (Alternatively, warm it in a small saucepan over medium low heat on the stovetop).
- Stir in the powdered sugar and milk and mix until a drizzlable glaze forms.
- Use a fork to drizzle it over muffins or quick breads. (If making the baked goods in advance, store them un-iced and refrigerated or frozen; add the drizzle directly before serving.)
Notes
*The quantity listed works as a modest glaze for 12 muffins or 1 quick bread loaf. For a larger quantity of glaze, use ¼ cup cream cheese, ¾ cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon milk.
I would like to make this glaze for a German chocolate Bundt cake I have made. Do you think it would work well on that
This should work well, I would make at least double this quantity! I would also add the glaze about 20 to 30 minutes before serving.
Let us know if you have any questions!
Does this glaze harden after it dries? I want to use it on pumpkin spice cookies I make but I want it to get hard when it dries.
It does harden! However, it becomes soft during storage — so you can refrigerate the cookies, or I’d recommend the glaze on these cookies for something that’s hard over time: https://www.acouplecooks.com/pumpkin-cookies/