Mini Donuts (baked)

These mini donuts are made with a simple vanilla cinnamon cake-like batter and tossed in a cinnamon-sugar mixture. These are so cute and so fun to make!

You will need a mini donut baking pan to make this recipe, but it's so worth it! These turn out so beautiful and cute, and they are so fun to eat. These are more of a texture of a cake than a donut.

If you like making donuts, you should make our lotus biscoff donuts, sufganiyot recipe, and our bavarian cream donuts.

Jump to:

• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Expert Tips
• Faq's
• Storing
• Freezing
• Substitutions
• Variations
• 📖 Recipe

Ingredients

Before you start to make this recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.

Flour– we used all-purpose flour for this recipe. cake flour will work great as well.

Baking soda and baking powder – baking soda and baking powder help the donuts rise and spread. Make sure that your baking soda isn’t expired.

Cinnamon- gives this donut an amazing taste. You can skip it if you don't like cinnamon or are allergic.

Sugar- we used granulated sugar for this recipe. You can use caster sugar as well.

Eggs- you will need 2 large eggs for this recipe. Make sure that your eggs are at room temperature.

Vanilla extract- adds extra flavor.

Buttermilk– gives the donuts extra moisture. You can make your own buttermilk if you don’t have one on hand. Simply mix a cup of milk with a tablespoon of vinegar or lemon juice and let it sit for at least 10 minutes.

Vegetable oil – we used vegetable oil for this recipe. canola oil will work great for this recipe.

Kosher salt- you will need about ½ teaspoon of kosher salt for this recipe.

For the cinnamon sugar

Sugar- we used granulated sugar for the cinnamon sugar. You can use caster sugar as well.

Cinnamon- we used store-bought ground cinnamon.

Instructions

Step 1: Preheat an oven to 180c (350f) and prep a mini donut pan on the side. Into a big mixing bowl, add the buttermilk, eggs, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract and mix until well combined.

Step 2: Then add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, kosher salt, sugar, and cinnamon, and mix with a whisk until combined. Fold lightly with a spatula until the mixture is just combined and you can't see big lumps of flour.

Step 3: Transfer the batter into a piping bag and cut a small hole in the tip of the bag. Butter the donut pan with room temperature butter and pipe the batter into the donut pan ¾ way full.

Step 4: Bake in a 180c (350f) preheated oven for 7-9 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the donuts comes out clean.

Step 5: Remove the baking pan from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. Then remove it from the pan.

Make the cinnamon sugar

In a small mixing bowl, add the granulated sugar and the cinnamon and mix well until combined.

Assembly

Dip the donuts in the cinnamon sugar while they're warm, and place them on a cooling rack.

Expert Tips

• Use room temperature ingredients. It is important that you use room-temperature ingredients like eggs and buttermilk. This step ensures that your mixture mixes into a homogenous mixture and bakes perfectly. you don’t want to place cold batter into the oven.
• Measure your flour correctly! When measuring your flour, avoid scooping it with a measuring cup. Instead, stir the flour with a spoon to create as many air pockets as possible, and spoon it into your measuring cup. Finally, level it with a back of a knife.
• Don’t overmix the batter, you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour. This step ensures you have a moist donut and not a dense and dry donut.
• Be patient! I know it’s extremely tempting to frost this donut as it is pulled out of the oven, but let the donut cool for at least 5-10 minutes so it will be more firm and won’t crumble up, and prevent the frosting from melting.
• We highly recommend using a piping bag to pipe the batter into the donut pan. This way your donuts will turn out perfect.
• Before you start to make this recipe, measure and prepare your ingredients so the cooking process will go smoothly and easily.

Faq's

Storing

It’s okay to store these donuts at room temperature. Make sure that you store the donuts in an airtight container so they won’t dry out.

Freezing

Freeze these donuts after they are cooled completely in an airtight freezer-friendly container for up to 3 months, some people find the donuts taste better after freezing them.

our tip is not to freeze it decorated or covered with frosting, because it can ruin the decorating on the donut, we suggest freezing the donuts and decorating them when you defrost them.

Substitutions

There are a few substitutions that may be helpful for your diet:

Gluten-free - if you want to make this recipe gluten-free, simply replace the flour with gluten-free flour.

Dairy-free- you can make these donuts dairy-free by replacing the buttermilk with vegan buttermilk, the sour cream or yogurt with vegan yogurt, and the butter with vegan butter.

Variations

Topping- top these with powder sugar or a simple glaze instead of cinnamon sugar!

More donuts recipes:

Sufganiyot- Sufganiyot is a traditional Israeli Hanukkah jelly-filled doughnuts that are made with a pillowy soft dough, fried and stuffed with strawberry jelly, and topped with plenty of powder sugar.

Lotus biscoff donuts- These lotus biscoff donuts are made with an easy cake-style biscoff batter and topped with an incredibly delicious biscoff butter glaze and biscoff cookie crumbs.

Bavarian cream donuts- These Bavarian cream donuts are made with soft and fluffy donut dough, rolled with sugar, and filled with decadent vanilla pastry cream.

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