They don’t call it the icing on the cake for nothing. For people with a sweet tooth, frostings and glazes are the best part of desserts like cakes and doughnuts. These toppings can take something from good to amazing or from homely to extravagant with their flavor, texture, and visual appeal. The recipes that follow are the crowd pleasers and stunners, the finishing touches that will elicit oohs and ahs before anyone’s even taken a bite.
Frostings are the creamy toppings we all know and love, from meringuelike Seven-Minute Frosting to satiny Swiss Meringue Buttercream to dense, rich Cream Cheese Frosting. They offer wonderful contrast in texture to the crumb of a cake, the chew of a cookie, and any chunky filling either might have.
Glazes are a more understated icing and can be used for quick breads, doughnuts, and cakes, instead of or in addition to other toppings and sauces. Think of them as diluted frostings: whereas frostings are dense and opaque, glazes are usually translucent, revealing whatever is beneath.