Vanilla Cake Donuts

I do not know what prompted me to decide to make donuts tonight, but I thought it sounded like a good idea. I think I read somewhere that cupcakes are out and donuts are in. I have been seeing recipes for homemade donuts all over Pinterest lately and a lot of stores are now carrying the donut pans.

Back home in Iowa they have Casey's General stores all over. Which is a gas station/country store. They have the best cake donuts I have ever had. Whenever I go home to visit family we always have to stop and get one....and breakfast pizza, but that will be another story.

The donut itself came out pretty good. I mean it is hard for a baked donut to pose as a fried donut you get at a bakery. I would probably use a different frosting recipe next time I make them as this one was not as sweet as I would have hoped. They sure looked great though!

Vanilla Cake Donuts:
Adapted from Cluense at Hubpages.com

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
2/3 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
8 teaspoons butter, melted
2 teaspoons vanilla

Frosting:

2 cups confectioners sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Spray a donut pan with nonstick cooking spray.

In a small bowl combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well.

In another bowl combine buttermilk, sugar, eggs, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Combine wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until smooth.

In a large resealable ziploc bag, pour all the batter. Snip off a corner of the bag. Pipe batter into donut pan, filling each section 2/3 full. Wipe off any excess batter from pan. Batter will make 12 donuts so you will have to do 2 batches.

Bake for 13 minutes, until cake bounces back. Allow to cool in pan for 3 minutes. Once cooled invert donuts onto cooling rack to cool at least another 2 minutes.

For the frosting combine sugar and milk until smooth.

Once donuts are cooled, dip one side of them into the frosting mixture. Sprinkle with your favorite toppings before frosting hardens.