Baked Cake Doughnuts

For Christmas I got a doughnut pans from my parents and Ladders, my roommate. They both clearly know me and my love to doughnuts too well! Because it is a new year, these almost qualify as healthy too. There is no frying involved, which makes them fairly quick and less messy.

I made these before going to a birthday dinner for my fellow blogger's, Kelsey, sister. She gave them a thumbs up on taste, eating both for breakfast! I thought they were a tad dry, but good. Overall they are delicious, but no replacement for a fried doughnut. As a doughnut connoisseur I may be being over critical. 

I put the batter into a plastic baggie and snipped the end to pipe it into the pan. It worked wonderfully. I didn't have any problems with them overflowing or being too misshapen. Most importantly, if in doubt, under bake them. They will continue to cook a bit outside the oven.  I struggled with how to get cinnamon sugar to stick without dipping them in butter first. I made a vanilla glaze after getting frustrated with the sugar.

Ingredients:
1 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg, less if using freshly grated
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup buttermilk
3 eggs
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1/2 cup melted butter
Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. In a large bowl combine, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and flour in a bowl.
2. In a medium bowl, combine buttermilk, eggs, maple syrup and butter. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. 
3. Put the mixture into a plastic baggie and snip off the end, pipping it into the doughnut pans. Bake for 7 to 10 minutes. Remove doughnuts from pan and let cool.
4. For cinnamon sugar: brush doughnuts with melted butter and then dip in a mixture of sugar and cinnamon. 
5. For vanilla glaze: combine 3/4 cup powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon milk and 1 teaspoon vanilla, dipping the doughnuts into the glaze to coat.