Funfetti Birthday Cake Doughnuts

These are the best doughnuts I have ever made! They may be close to the best doughnut I have ever had, or at least right up there. This is saying a lot because I love doughnuts. AKA I eat and try loads of them, whenever I get a chance.

These make the perfect alternative to cake, when you plan to celebrate a birthday at 10AM. Although, I am not above eating cake for breakfast some people are. Put cake in a doughnut form and BAM you've got yourself breakfast. All those eating cake for breakfast haters think they aren't eating cake, but they are. Tricky.

This recipe is awesome too, so easy. I made these before work, managing to fry and photograph them and then drive 20 minutes to work. There was only a little bit of rushing, but then again I lolly gag a lot.  Doing things like taking pictures with my phone instead of my camera. Ending up with a better pictures on my phone actually. Can you tell which one it is? 

The hardest part about making them for me was getting the oil to the proper temperature. I think it is my lack of patience, turning the heat to high does not save you time. It just makes you have to wait for the oil to cool back down, lame.

In addition to being easy, these just taste  and look amazing. Not too sweet. A little bit crispy on the outside and moist on the inside. Other recipes I have tried in the past tend to be dry or have a weird filmy-skin on the outside. Yuck. Come one who doesn't love rainbow sprinkles, too cute. They are even good a several hours after frying, if they last that long! They won't last that long though, trust me. 

xo

April

Adapted from Spoon Fork Bacon
Ingredients:
1 quart vegetable oil
Doughnuts:
1 tablespoon vegetable shortening
1 egg yolk
1/2cup granulated sugar
1 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 cup (3 ounce) jimmie sprinkles
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup whole milk
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
Glaze:
1 cup powdered sugar
1-2 tablespoons whole milk, depending on desired consitency
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Sprinkles

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oil to 365F
2. Whisk together the shortening, egg yolk and sugar, until well combined.
3. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, sprinkles and salt. Combine the milk and vanilla, in a measuring cup.
4. Alternate adding the flour and milk to the sugar mixture until the dough just comes together. 
5. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead until smooth, 3 to 5 minutes.
6. Lightly flour the surface and roll the dough out to 1/2 inch thick.
7. Use a 2 to 2 1/2 inch circular cookie cutter, glass, or mason jar lid to cut out the doughnuts. Use a small piping tip, 1/2 inch, to cut out doughnut holes.
8. Carefully drop 3 to 4 doughnuts into the oil frying for 2 1/2 minutes, flipping the doughnuts after 1 minute.
9. Drain on paper towels and repeat until all the doughnuts have been, re-rolling the scraps to make more doughnuts.
10. For the glaze: whisk all the ingredients together, until smooth. Dip each doughnut top into the glaze, topping with sprinkles. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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.