Disastrous Donuts

Friends,

I am still in shock. A mad attempt to fill donut cavities with a would-be Cinnamon Roll Donut Recipe turned quickly into smoke and cinnamon topping oozing out of my precious BabyCakes Donut Maker.

The Horror! The Absolute Donut Horror!

Sigh. Fortunately no one (other than my appetite, and that ever-sensitive ego) was hurt by this event. As much as I love my little Donut Maker, I have come to the realization that not every donut can be made in it; some require the stability of a donut pan. See, with a donut pan, one can move calmly and easily with the preparation of a donut batter. The pan is not hot to the touch, like the donut maker will be once it has preheated and stares at you mockingly, just ready to burn you and/or your precious donuts.

For multi-step donuts, as these Cinnamon Roll Donuts were, there is no mad dash to fill the donut pan with one liquid before quickly grabbing the second to pour over it. Over filling a donut pan just results in ugly, misshapen donuts, which can most likely be fixed by a little knife-work and a generous dollop of frosting or a simple glaze. Over filling in the donut maker means be prepared to witness smoke and oozing liquids that result in over-baked donuts, and a sad baker.

Baking, for me, should be relaxing. It's fun. It's delicious, and it brings smiles to the faces of the friends I share my sweets with each day. This was neither fun nor delicious, and stamped quite the unattractive scowl on my face while I scraped burnt cinnamon sugar off the Donut Maker.

Lesson Learned? Absolutely. The donut maker may sound like a shortcut, but it's not one that's actually going to alleviate stress or result in a better end-product. Take the plunge; invest in a few multi-sized donut pans, and bake away. I know I will.

Until next time,

Happy Baking!

I Demand More Donuts!

Hello everyone!

So good news: guess who got a new camera! Yep, I did. So be prepared to be blown away with high-def photos! (By high-def I mean photos that are just so much clearer than the ones I have been taking with my iPhone). After getting the new camera, I thought I just had to test it out, and what better way than with more donuts?

Since I did vanilla donuts for Father's Day, I thought I'd take my mom's tastes into consideration this time, and do chocolate donuts. I found a chocolate donut recipe in my nifty little BabyCakes Recipe Book (which comes with the Donut Maker) and got to work.

I am going to become so obsessed with this donut maker; I just know it. These only take 4 minutes! Well, it takes more like 30 minutes if you add in the prep time. Oh and before I forget, if you plan on trying this recipe (or any recipe that requires piping batter) you need to take this tip on filling the pastry/Ziploc bag from LovefromtheOven, using the glass to hold the bag open is genius.

Now, be prepared for a multitude of adorable donut photos!

So there you have it: more delicious donuts in under an hour. If you don't own the Donut Maker, I would suggest buying the donut pan, which might be more efficient since it has 24 donut molds as opposed to the 6 in my donut maker. As far as taste, I am much more inclined to vanilla donuts with chocolate frosting, but these were pretty good. My mom swears they are amazing, so I would take her word over mine since shes the chocolate donut aficionado.

BabyCakes Chocolate Donuts with Vanilla Frosting

1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder (I used Hershey's)
1 egg
1 tbsp baking powder
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

1. Whisk together all dry ingredients in one large bowl.
2. To the dry ingredient mixture, add the egg, buttermilk, oil and vanilla. Using a hand mixer, blend until just smooth.
3. Fill donut pan/maker cavities with approximately 2 tbsp of batter.
4. Cook 4-5 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cool and then frost or coat with powdered sugar

Vanilla Frosting

1/4 cup melted butter
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp warm water

1. Blend melted butter with powdered sugar.
2. Blend in vanilla.
3. Blend in warm water until it reaches frosting consistency.

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins

I know what you are all thinking...donut muffins? Yes, there is such a thing, and apparently it's quite a big deal on the blogosphere (and by blogosphere I really just mean the baking blogs I follow). As soon as I saw a recipe for them on my FoodGawker App, I just had to try them. I mean really: donuts are awesome, muffins are awesome, donut muffins therefore must be uber awesome (and they were!).

The recipe I decided to use comes from KokoCooks and I have to say, they turned out pretty amazing. It's a simple enough recipe, though the slight lumpiness of the batter worried me (they turned out fine though). The only suggestion I would make, and this really depends on how much you like cinnamon, is to add some cinnamon to the batter in addition to rolling the muffins in the cinnamon sugar. I absolutely love the spice and can't get enough of it, but if you're indifferent, then just stick with the cinnamon sugar. It's delicious either way; trust me.

If you aren't a fan of cinnamon at all, then just go onto Foodgawker and search "donut muffins" and there are a good dozen recipes for just plain sugar donut muffins, chocolate donut muffins, and even (gasp) sugar donut muffins filled with caramel. These are definitely going to be a new staple in my kitchen. :)

Cinnamon Sugar Donut Muffins
from KokoCooks and adapted from BakingBites
makes 12 muffins

¾ c sugar
1 large egg
1 ½ c all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ c vegetable oil
¾ c milk
1 tsp vanilla

for cinnamon sugar:
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp cinnamon


1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and grease (in my opinion heavily) a 12-cup muffin pan.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the egg and the sugar until pale yellow (roughly 1-2 minutes). In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg. 
3. In another bowl, combine milk, vegetable oil and vanilla.
4. Pour dry ingredient mixture over the egg mixture and stir until just combined, then add liquid ingredients, again stirring until just combined (batter will be slightly lumpy).
5. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full and bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. While cooling, mix together sugar and cinnamon. While muffins are still warm (not hot) roll them in the cinnamon sugar and then let cool completely on a cooling rack.

Father's Day Donuts

Happy Belated Father's Day!

As I mentioned, I had originally planned to make a double chocolate layer cake for my Dad as his gift, but the pastry gods were not having it. The cake was extremely dry, so what was I to do?

Luckily, I had just acquired the BabyCakes Donut Maker!

What better way to solve the problem than to whip up some for dear old dad..who happens to LOVE glazed donuts. Since I am a complete newbie when it comes to donuts, I decided it would be best to stick to one of the recipes that was included in the kit.

The recipe was for Sour Cream Donuts with a Vanilla Glaze, which stressed not to over beat the mix. I was successful in mixing, although filling said donut maker proved to be another adventure entirely.

Turns out spooning the batter in is not the most efficient manner in which to fill the donut maker. So, next time around I was ready with a Ziploc bag filled with the same batter. Oh, and did I mention these donuts cook in all of 4 minutes?!

Ah, now that is more like it! Isn't it adorable? But, more importantly, it's delicious! I decided to coat the slightly overcooked first batch in powdered sugar, while glazing the second and third batches. The results = awesome. Also, since these are baked as opposed to fried, the calorie count isn't quite so bad. They are also tiny, so these are a much better (and more cost effective) alternative to Dunkin Donuts.

BabyCakes Sour Cream Donuts with Vanilla Glaze (makes about 2 dozen donuts)

1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.
2. In separate bowl whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour liquid ingredients over dry ingredients. Using a mixer on medium speed, blend until smooth.
3. Fill each cooking reservoir with about 2 tbsp of batter.
4. Bake about 4-5 minutes or until donut springs back when touched.
5. Glaze or coat with powdered or cinnamon sugar.

Vanilla Glaze

1/4 cup melted butter
1 1/3 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
2-2 1/2 tbsp hot water

1. Combine melted butter and powdered sugar, stirring until well blended. Stir in vanilla.
2. Blend in hot water until smooth.