Fake mini donuts

I love donuts. They are so pretty and come in different combinations of colors and sprinkles and toppings! But, they are far too intimidating to make for me. So I thought I’d make these fake donuts, or cake donuts, or baked donuts, or whatever you want to call them. They don’t taste like donuts, obviously. Actually, they are pretty much cupcakes in donut-form. Whatever, they are cute, right?

I made two different flavours and four different combinations. I’ll show you how!

NEEDED
Donut pan
Ingredients for your favourite cupcake batter
Sprinkles
Olive oil
Chocolate bark
Chopped hazelnuts
Confectioner’s sugar
Food coloring
Water
Cacao powder

HOW TO
Grease your donutpan. Either use a ready-to-go baking spray or brush some mel ted butter on the pan with a
basting brush.

Prepare your normal (cup)cake batter. I am always trying out and alternating between different recipes myself. I thought I’d give the Hummingbird bakery recipe a try with these. I’ll share it with you in a moment.

Fill up your pan with batter. I made a big mess as you can see. Don’t be like me.

Pop your pan in the oven and let them bake. I set the oven on 180 degrees Celsius and had them baking around 15 minutes. You might want to rotate the pan halfway. I need to do that because the cakes in the back always get baked more than those in the front. You can actually see it in the following picture.

Let them cool for a bit. Then use a knife to cut around the edges (don’t forget to do the middle part too.) You can then use your knife to slowly ease the donut out of the pan.

If you are thinking: geesh, Angie, you have quite the man-hands – that’s actually my dad helping me out. I don’t have man-hands!

Now, my donuts look kind of rough on the surface. Don’t worry if yours do, too. The surface will be covered up with icing anyway, and the bottom will look smooth.

See?

Next, round up your food colorings and sprinkles and chocolate and confectioner’s sugar.

Ohh, yummy.

And yes, my food coloring looks disgusting, I know.

If the donuts are completely cool, we can now set out to make the chocolate icing. Chop the chocolate up and put it in a bowl with a few drops of olive oil.

Like this.

I don’t have any pictures of the following processes because I forgot to take them. Forgive me, I’m new at this blogging! And in any case, I think it’s clear enough without pictures. Okay, then melt your chocolate, with about 40 second intervals and stirring the mixture in between. Then add water, confectioner’s sugar, and a bit of cocoa powder. I don’t have any specific measures, I just add little by little until I have the consistency I want. Mine was still pretty thick. I then spooned the mixture on the donut, spread it out with a knife and added the chopped hazelnut. Be quick, because the mixture sets quickly.

For the colored icing, again I don’t have any specific measures, but use the confectioner’s sugar, water, an food colooring. More confectioner’s sugar means a thicker mixture. Make sure it isn’t runny because it will just droop off the donut otherwise. I again used a spoon, but you can also dip the donut in. Once more, add sprinkles fast because the mixture sets quickly! Also, don’t forget you should be icing the right side – I mean, the rough top and not the smooth bottom. I totally didn’t forget, ofcourse. Ahem.

Then, resist digging in and let the icing on your fake cake baked donuts dry. Here we are!

HUMMINGBIRD BAKERY RECIPE FOR VANILLA CUPCAKES
120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
40g unsalted butter, at room temperature
120ml whole milk
1 egg
¼tsp vanilla extract

1.Preheat the oven to 170°C (325°F) Gas 3.
2.Put the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment (or use a handheld electric whisk) and beat on slow speed until you get a sandy consistency and everything is combined. Gradually pour in half the milk and beat until the milk is just incorporated.
3.Whisk the egg, vanilla extract and remaining milk together in a separate bowl for a few seconds, then pour into the flour mixture and continue beating until just incorporated (scrape any unmixed ingredients from the side of the bowl with a rubber spatula). Continue mixing for a couple more minutes until the mixture is smooth. Do not overmix.
4.Spoon the mixture into the paper cases until two-thirds full and bake in the preheated oven for 20–25 minutes, or until light golden and the sponge bounces back when touched.
5.A skewer inserted in the centre should come out clean. Leave the cupcakes to cool slightly in the tray before turning out onto a wire cooling rack to cool completely.

Hope you like!
xo Angie