This homemade cinnamon glaze is perfect for drizzling over cinnamon buns, coffee cake, and more! Ready in minutes with just a few simple ingredients. As it sits, this glaze will dry into a beautiful, decorative icing that holds its shape.
One recipe every baker needs in their back pocket: A quick cinnamon glaze topping.
This thin frosting is perfect for drizzling over your favorite baked goods. Pair it with a cinnamon crumble topping on coffee cake or muffins, pour it over fresh pumpkin bread, or sprinkle it onto cinnamon scones. This powdered sugar drizzle also makes a delicious cinnamon roll glaze (or try it with our small batch cinnamon rolls!)
Ingredients
Scroll to the recipe card below for a full ingredients list with exact quantities.
This is a very simple (and very forgiving!) recipe, but we still want to highlight a few things before you jump in:
- Use fresh, high-quality ground cinnamon for best results. The more flavorful your cinnamon, the more flavorful your glaze! We love this cinnamon from Diaspora Co: it's rich, complex, and perfectly cozy.
- A tiny pinch of kosher salt helps these flavors pop. You don't need much - just use a small pinch and season to taste (we use maybe 1/16th teaspoon!)
- Melted butter gives this glaze a bit of body for a silkier texture. As the butter cools, it will help the glaze firm up a bit.
- Hot water thins this icing to a drizzle-able consistency. The heat of the water keeps the butter soft for even mixing; it also helps "bloom" the cinnamon to draw out a deeper, more interesting flavor. We heat our water to near-boiling (about the same temperature you'd use to make tea) using an electric tea kettle; you can also heat water in the microwave or just use the hottest water you get straight from your tap.
Recipe Variations and Substitutions
- Mix up the spices. Cinnamon is great here on its own, but you can play with the spice blend! Add a pinch of cloves, nutmeg, or ginger for a more robust glaze, or swap the cinnamon for pumpkin pie spice.
- Add toppings! Sprinkle chopped, toasted nuts - like pecans, almonds, walnuts, or pistachios - over the glaze just after drizzling for extra texture (they'll stick to the glaze as it cools!)
- Swap the butter for melted coconut oil. Like butter, coconut oil will firm up as it cools.
- Add a bit of real maple syrup, cream cheese, or vanilla extract for extra depth of flavor!
Instructions
Add powdered sugar (sometimes called confectioners sugar), ground cinnamon, and a small pinch of kosher salt to a small mixing bowl with your melted butter (Image 1, above). Stir everything together until the butter begins to form clumps with the dry ingredients (2).
Pro Tip: This glaze definitely has an it gets worse before it gets better phase. It will look weird and clumpy here, but don't worry! Trust the process.
Add hot water a teaspoon or two at a time (Image 3, above). Whisk or stir the mixture well between each addition (4). As the frosting begins to thin, it will also develop a richer color.
Continue adding hot water a little at a time (Image 5, above), stirring well between each addition to work out any lumps, until you have a thin, smooth glaze. When it's ready, the frosting should easily drizzle off a spoon (6).
Pro Tip: You may not need all of the hot water here! Add just enough water to get the glaze to a consistency you're happy with. Make it as thick or as thin as you like! A thinner glaze is better for drizzling; a thicker glaze is easier to spread with a spatula. Keep in mind that the glaze will thicken slightly as it cools.
The glaze will start to set and thicken fairly quickly, so we like to use it as soon as it's mixed! Use a spoon to drizzle it over your favorite desserts (try it on our brown sugar cinnamon cookies!) or baked treats.
Let the glaze sit for about an hour to firm up, then serve and enjoy!
FAQs
Yes! Make this cinnamon glaze recipe a day or two ahead of time and store it in an airtight container in the refrigerator. When you're ready to use it, microwave in 5 second intervals, stirring well in between, until it returns to a drizzle-able consistency.
Honestly, though, it takes just as much time to make this glaze from scratch as it does to microwave it if you mixed it ahead of time, so we typically prefer to just make this glaze right when we need it.
You can also freeze leftover glaze for up to 6 months.
We consider frosting to be thick and spreadable, while glaze is thin and drizzle-able. Frosting may also have additional dairy products - like heavy cream or milk - while we keep our glazes purposefully minimal and rely on hot water to thin them out. We also use this technique in our chocolate donut icing and maple glaze for donuts!
Some frostings - like our chocolate fudge frosting and maple frosting recipe - do feature the same melted butter + hot water combination we use in this glaze, although those frostings were developed to be much thicker and spreadable.
Yes - as this cinnamon sugar glaze sits, it will dry a bit and develop a very slight crunch along the outer surfaces. The melted butter is what makes this possible: It sets as it cools to room temperature, giving you a more solid texture. Once set, this glaze will hold its shape fairly well: It's great if you need to stack a bunch of scones or cookies in a container, because those pretty glaze drizzles will stay fairly intact! (You can also see this technique in action in our funfetti baked donuts recipe!)
If your glaze is too thin, add another spoonful or two of powdered sugar (keep in mind that the glaze will also thicken a little bit as it cools!) If your glaze is too thick, add another splash of hot water.
This recipe makes about ¼ cup of icing. In our testing, this was plenty of glaze for back-and-forth drizzles over everything from apple butter coffee cake (or pumpkin coffee cake!) to pancakes to banana muffins to brown sugar cookies. This recipe also makes enough to pour a thin layer over the top of a quick bread (like our pumpkin bread). If you'd like extra glaze, use the handy 1x, 2x, 3x buttons in the recipe card below to scale up this recipe for more icing!
How to Use Cinnamon Glaze
Add a drizzle of this cinnamon glaze to your favorite baking recipes! We love this glaze on bundt cakes, donuts, cheesecake, quick breads, cookies, you name it! It's good on just about any baked goods with fall flavors. Some of our favorite places to use it:
Did you make this recipe? Leave a comment and star rating below to let us know how it turned out!
📖 Recipe
Cinnamon Glaze
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 5 minutes
- Yield: Makes ¼ cup 1x
- Category: Frosting
- Cuisine: American
Description
This easy cinnamon glaze is perfect for drizzling over fall cakes, cookies, muffins, and more!
Ingredients
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
- small pinch of kosher salt
- 1 Tablespoon very hot water (you may not need it all)
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, combine cinnamon, powdered sugar, and melted butter with a small pinch of kosher salt. Mix or whisk until the butter begins to form clumps with the dry ingredients. It will look a bit clumpy and weird here - that's ok!
- Add the hot water a teaspoon at a time, mixing well between each addition, until you reach your desired consistency. You may not need all of the water.
- Drizzle glaze over cooled baked goods. Let sit for about an hour to let the glaze firm up, then serve and enjoy!
Notes
Additions and Substitutions. Use melted coconut oil instead of butter for a dairy-free/vegan version (the coconut oil will act similarly to butter and help the glaze firm up as it dries). Add a spoonful of cream cheese or a dash of vanilla extract or maple syrup for extra flavor. Mix up the spice blend by adding a pinch of ground nutmeg, ginger, or cloves, or use pumpkin spice in place of the cinnamon.
How hot should my water be? We heat our water in an electric kettle just like if we're making tea! You can also heat water in the microwave or in a saucepan on the stovetop, or just use very hot water from the tap.
How much glaze does this make? This recipe makes about ¼ cup of glaze. In our testing, this was plenty for drizzling a few ribbons over a batch of scones, cookies, muffins, or coffee cake. It's also the perfect amount for pouring a thin, uniform layer of glaze over a quick bread (like our pumpkin loaf). Feel free to scale this recipe up if you'd like more glaze!
How can I reheat this cinnamon glaze? If you make this glaze ahead of time, microwave in 5 second intervals, stirring well in between, until it returns to a drizzle-able consistency.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Tablespoon
- Calories: 84
- Sugar: 14.7 g
- Sodium: 0.9 mg
- Fat: 2.9 g
- Carbohydrates: 15.1 g
- Protein: 0 g
- Cholesterol: 7.6 mg
Jessie
I put this glaze on EVERYTHING. It's so easy to make and adds a perfect pop of sweetness to all of my favorite baking projects. Plus, I love how the glaze dries just enough to preserve a nice drizzle pattern (so I can stack scones and cookies in a Tupperware to take to friends without ruining the look!)