These light and fluffy chocolate cake doughnuts are dipped in a vanilla glaze. These super moist doughnuts are so easy to make and are made without yeast. Plus, they only take 5 minutes to prepare and you don't need a mixer to make them!
As much as I love fried doughnuts (like these brioche doughnuts with a chocolate filling) there is nothing better than a baked doughnut! Baked doughnuts are so much easier to make and are the perfect homemade treat.
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Tell me about this recipe:
- These chocolate cake doughnuts are based off of my maple doughnuts. They're made with melted butter, buttermilk and light brown sugar.
- This recipe makes just 9 doughnuts, which I think is the perfect amount! You could double the ingredients if you want to make more for a crowd.
- Each doughnut is dipped in a homemade vanilla glaze.
Ingredients Needed
The printable recipe card with the full list of ingredients and instructions can be found at the bottom of this post.
- Flour: I'm using all purpose flour for these baked doughnuts.
- Nutmeg: Adding a little bit of ground nutmeg will give you that bakery style doughnut taste
- Buttermilk: I love using buttermilk to make my donuts extra moist, but you can replace it with sour cream if you don’t have buttermilk on hand
How to make this recipe
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. In a medium jug or bowl, whisk together all of the dry ingredients.
Step 2: In a small jug, whisk together your buttermilk, vanilla extract, egg and melted butter.
Step 3: Pour your wet ingredients into your dry and fold, making sure there are no flour pockets and the batter is smooth. Just note that this batter is quite thick!
Step 4: Grease your donut pan with butter or baking spray. I found the easiest way to fill the donut pan was to use a piping bag. I use a large circular tip and piped the batter into each cavity, filling it three quarters of the way. Use a small spoon or offset spatula to smooth the top and make it even. Bake for 11-13 minutes. They should be springy to the touch. Let them cool for 5 minutes before taking out each doughnut and letting it cool on a cooling rack. Regrease three of the cavities and pipe in the remaining batter, baking again.
Step 5: While your doughnuts are cooling, whisk together all of your glaze ingredients. If your glaze is too thick, you can add more milk. If your glaze is too thin, add more sifted confectioners' sugar.
Step 6: Dip each doughnut top into the vanilla glaze and place on a cooling rack set over a paper towel to dry.
Recipe Tips:
- I highly recommend using a weighing scale and measuring out your ingredients the metric way. It makes a huge difference to your baking and is the most accurate way to bake!
- I make sure that all of my ingredients are at room temperature before I start the recipe, so pull out all of the ingredients an hour or two before you start baking.
- Use a pastry brush to properly grease every donut cavity – this way no donut bits get stuck to them when baking! I use softened butter but you could also use a baking spray.
- I use a piping bag or ziplock bag with one corner cut off to pipe the donuts into the pan. You could also use a spoon to spoon out the batter but that might be a bit messier.
Frequently Asked Questions:
I use a Wilton 6-donut pan for this recipe. Because it makes more than 6 donuts you will have to let them cool slightly before removing them from the pan and baking the next batch.
A regular doughnut is made with a yeasted dough while a cake doughnut is made with a leavener (like baking soda or baking powder), similar to how a cake is made. Regular doughnuts are fried in oil while cake doughnuts are usually baked in the oven.
While cake doughnuts aren't fired in oil, making them slightly healthier! But don't forget that these cake doughnuts are made with butter and sugar, so they definitely aren't the healthiest treat.
Keep the doughnuts in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. You can freeze these doughnuts, just place in a freezer bag for up to 3 months. Allow it to defrost overnight in the fridge.
Try these doughnut recipes next!
Have you made this recipe? Make sure to tag me on Instagram @alpineella and leave a review below if you have! If you want more baking ideas, you can follow me on Pinterest.
Recipe
Baked Chocolate Cake Doughnuts
Equipment
- Doughnut Pan
Ingredients
Donuts
- 125 grams all purpose flour
- 25 grams cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 56 grams unsalted butter melted
- 106 grams light brown sugar
- 113 ml buttermilk room temperature
- 1 eggs room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Vanilla Glaze
- 125 grams confectioners' sugar
- 2 tablespoon milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch salt
Instructions
Donuts
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Grease a donut pan with butter or baking spray.
- Whisk together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Combine buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract.
- Pour buttermilk mixture into dry mixture and fold in until all incorporated. Make sure there are no flour pockets.
- Pipe the batter into the cavities, filling each ¾ of the way. Bake for 11-13 minutes, until golden brown and springy to the touch. After 5 minutes take out each donut and let cool on a wire rack, before pouring the next batch in. I like the re-grease the pan before I refill it.
Vanilla Glaze
- Combine all ingredients together in a medium bowl until completely smooth. Dip each cooled doughnut in and let dry on a cooling rack above a paper towel.
Carol Jean says
I made your recipe today and they came out perfect. Thank you!
Ella says
So glad you enjoyed it!
Mark Bakerman says
I have used the recipe four times and it delivers consistently. One hint if you find you have neither butter milk nor sour cream, you can approx butter milk by splashing white vinegar into the room temp milk and letting it stand for five minutes or so. Learned this for making pancake batter! Also a hint about storage a Tupperware container is better than a plastic bag and in either case keep the glaze and apply when ready to serve not when going to storage first!
Susan says
I was craving a donut but didn’t want to go out for the 20 minute drive to get a decent one so I made these. Easy recipe. Has a very nice soft texture. These are not dense. Definitely taste the nutmeg. If it’s not your thing, I would omit or half the amount. I don’t mind it but overpowers the chocolate a little. I might try with a little espresso powder next time. And I glazed mine w a chocolate glaze because chocolate.
Ella says
I LOVE the idea of adding some espresso powder!
Susan says
What a great recipe! My grandsons (who love the ones from a main donut/coffee store) said they were better than the ones they usually get.
Definitely will be making these again as they were super easy!
Thank you for the wonderful recipe.
Amanda says
These were great! I made them with my girls and they came out perfect. I sometimes don’t love the texture of cake donut recipes I have tried because they can be too light, but these were a great density for a donut!
Ella says
Thanks so much for your review!
Maegan says
For the sub of sour cream in place of buttermilk, is it also 226ml of sour cream?
Ella says
Yes! The batter will be slightly thicker if you use sour cream
Brian Boroff says
I just made these with my six year old - so easy and delicious! Thanks also for posting ingredients in grams.
Ella says
Thank you so much for your review, glad you liked them!
Jackie Doherty says
I made these and they were delicious. They taste great with or without the glaze. I highly recommend this recipe!! 🍩🍩
Ella says
Thank you so much for your review!
T says
Would love to make this but don’t understand all the grams amounts thanks 😊
Ella says
Hi there. If you just click 'US customary' above the ingredients in the recipe card, you can see cup measurements.
Wendy says
Can I use a muffin pan??
Ella says
I haven't tried it with a muffin pan, but I would suggest baking them in a muffin pan at 350 but you will need to bake them slightly longer, probably 18-20 minutes.
Judy says
We baked these in a greased muffin pan at 350 for 16 minutes, and they were not exactly donut-shaped, but otherwise perfect! (Your timing may vary depending on your particular oven.) After cooling for five minutes, we used an apple corer to cut a hole in the center of each donut before carefully loosening the edges and tipping out from the pan. We drizzled a little glaze on the "donut holes", too. Delicious recipe!
Ella says
Thank you so much for your review! Love the idea of using an apple corer to cut a hole in the middle!
Tiffany says
I've seen people use large muffin pans then put a ball of tin foil that they spray with Pam in the center to make the donut hole. I'm not sure how well this works since I haven't tried it myself, but for some it might be worth trying out if they really want the shape without buying a new pan.