Cupcakes in disguise… also known as Double Chocolate Baked Doughnuts.
Perfectly cakey and soft with extra drippy chocolate glaze. Basically, I’ll never make a cupcake again, especially since this is the very best way to eat chocolate cake for breakfast.
Sprinkles, too! This is a total no-brainer.
Other Baked Doughnut experiments include Brown Butter Baked Doughnuts and Apple Cinnamon Baked Doughnuts. I’m nowhere near done baking up these little darlings. So much more satisfying than cupcakes… but mostly kinda the exact same thing. Shoulder shrug.
You should get a baked doughnut pan. No pressure.
Pulling together the ingredients for baked doughnuts feels like taking it easy.
Just melted butter and buttermilk with a bit of flour and cocoa powder.
We use brown sugar as the sweetener for these doughnuts. I like the extra depth that the molasses adds to the chocolate.
Should you be fresh out of brown sugar, I’ve totally got you covered: How To Make Brown Sugar.
Melted and browned butter is whisked together with an egg, vanilla extract, and brown sugar. Simple!
In with the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt. No pomp or circumstance…. just in with it!
Buttermilk, too!
Cake batter! Just like that!
The doughnut molds are filled two-thirds with batter and baked up until soft and tender. While the doughnuts cool, I made the glaze.
Powdered sugar, cocoa powder, milk, and vanilla extract. What could go wrong? Like… zero things.
The chocolate glaze is glossy and juuuust pourable.
Consider it chocolate glue for the sprinkles. That’s about right.
I like to dip the bottom side of the doughnut. It makes for a more picture-perfect situation. Really though… any which way works.
Double dark chocolate! The cake doughnuts aren’t overly sweet, and the glaze adds that shot of doughnut sweetness. As with most things, I really love these doughnuts served with milky coffee. Two doughnuts. Two cups of coffee. Go on with your bad self.
You might consider sharing these doughnuts! They’ll make you (even more) popular. Chocolate and sprinkles… I promise.
Chocolate Baked Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze
makes about 10 doughnuts
recipe adapted from Shutterbean
For the Doughnuts:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 large egg
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted until just browned
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
For the Chocolate Glaze:
1 1/4 cup powdered sugar
3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
big pinch salt
3 to 4 tablespoons whole milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
color jimmies
Place a rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray a doughnut baking pan with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, and brown sugar.
In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, egg, melted butter, and vanilla extract until thoroughly combined.
Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and fold together until all of the ingredients are well combined. Scrape the bottom of the bowl to ensure that you’re not leaving any flour behind. Use a small spoon to portion batter into the prepared doughnut baking pan. Each doughnut mold should be about two-thirds full. Bake doughnuts for 11 to 13 minutes or until a skewer inserted into one of the doughnuts comes out clean. Remove from the oven. Allow to rest for five minutes before inverting doughnuts onto a wire rack to cool completely. Allow doughnuts to cool completely before glazing.
Repeat the baking process until all of the batter is turned into doughnuts.
To make the glaze, in a medium bowl whisk together powdered sugar, cocoa powder, and salt. Add 2 tablespoons of milk and all of the vanilla extract. Whisk to combine. Mixture may be thick. Add milk, a tablespoon at a time, until the glaze is thick but still pourable.
Dip each doughnut (I dipped the bottom side) into the chocolate glaze. Shake off some of the excess glaze. Return to the wire rack and sprinkle with color jimmies. Allow to rest a few moments for the frosting to harden slightly. These doughnuts are best served within two days of baking.
Megan
A tip for filling the donut pans: I take a large pastry bag and clip the end so the batter won’t drip out, and fill it up with batter. Then when I’m ready to dispense, I remove the clip and fill the trays easily, using my fingertip to stop the batter flow between donuts. So much easier than a spoon!!! So quick too!
Marie
I don’t have a doughnut pan but I do have a bundt pan and I’m going to make a cake instead and use the icing to glaze the top of the cake
Katy
They’re a hit! I found it far easier to using a pastry/piping bag to distribute batter into the doughnut mold.
Shayla Gunter-Goldstein
I just made these with two 7 year olds and they are so easy, and what a hit! We made minis, and it yields 18. Brake for 9-10 min. Great recipe! Thank you!!
Emily
Making this as a doughnut cake for my daughter’s first birthday. I’ve had to do a few test runs since I’ll need to make a few cakes… such a sacrifice. ;)
Anastasia85
Wow!! I would absolutely LOVE to try one of these. That chocolate icing looks SO tempting and the doughnuts look so light. Beautiful pictures too :)