Birthday Cake Baked Donuts are a colorful treat for any occasion.
This easy to make recipe will put a smile on anyone’s face! Light and fluffy buttermilk donuts are filled with sprinkles. The baked donuts are then dipped in a warm glaze and topped with more sprinkles! Make them for breakfast or dessert!
Birthday cake baked donuts were super fun to make. First of all, who doesn’t love a good donut? If you’re looking for a baked cake doughnut recipe, you’ve come to the right place. What I’m sharing here is basically a baked glazed donut recipe. Simple and easy.
These are not to be confused with my birthday cake sugar cookies. They are also covered in sprinkles and are flavored with a touch of almond extract. But we all know cookies and doughnuts satisfy two different kinds of cravings!
Have you ever woken up your favorite birthday boy or girl with donuts? Instead of buying maple bars and apple fritters, make up a batch of these fun birthday cake baked donuts and I promise it will be a birthday breakfast long remembered!
What is the difference between baked and fried donuts? Can you bake donuts instead of frying them?
A real donut is made by dropping sweet donut batter into hot oil. Although that is my preferred method of eating donuts, I don’t own a deep fryer. For that matter, I don’t often deep fry anything. Making baked donuts, on the other hand, is really not much different than making cupcake or a muffin. You prepare the batter, bake them in a donut pan, then cover with glaze.
Baked donuts are basically muffins but cuter, smaller and easier. The batter is also lighter.
For these donuts, I like to incorporate those long sprinkles right into the batter because they cook up so well. The trick with baked donuts is to squeeze the batter into the donut pan using a plastic bag. The result is so much prettier than if you try to spoon it in.
Can you make donuts without a donut pan?
Not really. You could try to pipe them onto a baking sheet, but they won’t hold their shape. You could cook them in a muffin tin, but then they would be muffins and not baked donuts. The donut pans are relatively inexpensive and easy to find on amazon. If you’re interested in making these, I highly recommend just buying the pan.
I prefer to make things interesting and use those little teeny tiny ball sprinkles on the top. They just add the perfect little crunch to the warm glaze.
When I made my birthday cake cookies, I snuck a bit of almond extract into the batter and for whatever reason, that stuff makes the end result taste fabulous!
Watch me make my Birthday Cake Baked Donuts in the video below:
Birthday Cake Baked Donuts
RECIPE VIDEO
Ingredients
Donut:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/3 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg
- 2 Tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup rainbow sprinkles
Glaze:
- 1/4 cup milk
- 2 cups confectioners' sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
- extra sprinkles to sprinkle on top
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray a donut pan with non-stick spray. Set aside.
For the donuts:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and granulated sugar together in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a larger bowl, whisk the egg and buttermilk together until smooth. Add the melted butter along with the vanilla and almond extracts, whisking until fully combined. Add the flour mixture to this wet mixture and stir until just combined. Do not overmix. Fold in the sprinkles.
- Transfer the batter to a gallon sized freezer bag. Squeeze out all the air before sealing and snip the bottom corner off so that you can pipe one fat bead of batter into each well of the donut pan.
- Bake for 9–10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove from oven and transfer to a cooling rack placed over a large baking sheet to later catch all of the icing drips and allow to fully cool to room temperature.
For the glaze:
- Combine the confectioners' sugar, milk, vanilla and almond extracts in a small sauce pan. Heat over low heat while stirring constantly just to warm the glaze and allow the sugar to fully dissolve. Remove from heat.
- Dip the top of each donut in the warm glaze and return to rack. Then, once the glaze in the pot has cooled more and begins to thicken, re-dip each donut in the glaze once again and then top with additional sprinkles before the glaze sets.
- Donuts are best enjoyed fresh but can be stored in an air tight container for a couple days if not eaten right away.
Looks good. Does Kroger carry the donut pan
Haven’t seen it there. I think I got it at Michaels or Bed bath & beyond
This is a painfully stupid question, but can you just make these in a muffin pan. I don’t have a donut pan and really don’t need another kitchen item that I don’t use often.
You sure can. They’ll turn out the same but you won’t get the same visual satisfaction because they’ll look like muffins instead of donuts.
I’ve been a bit obsessed with homemade doughnuts lately, so of course these caught my eye. I’ve made your birthday cake sugar cookies, which were so fun and delicious! I’m sure these will be as well. Thank you so much for sharing!
I dont have a donut pan
What else could I use to make these?
Thanks for any tips
You could try piping them on a sheet but they’ll probably go flat. You can use a muffin tin but then they’d be muffins.
Donuts are such an original take on birthday desserts or just for an after-dinner treat. I love the idea of adding almond extract, I’m sure it makes them taste even better! Thanks for sharing.
I am making them into mini muffins I think as a bite size treat they will be delicious. Love donuts but I am not into adding another pan to may baking supply and I have the mini muffin pan that I rarely use these days. Kroger eggs are good and I do buy them, but I have a farm down the road with duck eggs so mine are really going to pop I bet with one of those big duck eggs for the mix?. Can’t make them today but definitely making them this week to celebrate a couple friends and my July bdays. Thanks for the recipe!
Yay for farm fresh eggs!
Looks absolutely gorgeous!
Its Looks so yummy! I will try this at my kitchen as soon.
Regards
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Tried these with my kids today after finding a donut pan at aldi. I haven’t tried any other recipes yet so maybe they all taste like this but it did not remind me of a donut at all. More like a cupcake in a different shape. The glaze was not my favorite, but I have not found one yet that tastes like a glaze in a bakery. I might be just leaving donuts up to the professionals 🙂 Cute and the kids enjoyed making them, just didn’t taste like a donut.
Hi Laura, Yes – a baked donut is much more similar in taste to a cupcake or a muffin. A real donut is deep fried and there’s just no comparison.
Can you use the same recipe for a giant donut cake pan, or a round cake pan?
Hi Lucy, I think that would work but you would have to increase your cooking time by quite a bit. They are very similar to muffins, so if you compare a muffin to a loaf, it should work!
Do these baked donuts get the same crisp texture as fried donuts? I’ve inky tried one baked donut recipe and it was a pumpkin one and they were soggy once the glaze was added.
They aren’t soggy, but they aren’t as crisp as if they were fried like a real donut. They are very similar to muffins.