Old-Fashioned Cake Doughnuts (Donuts)

"There's nothing better than homemade doughnuts! I like cake donuts better than yeast donuts. This is how I make my favorite doughnuts for my family on the weekends. Real simple ingredients you already have on hand. The hardest part is letting the dough chill for an hour before frying them. You can make the dough the night before and have them ready to go in the morning, that's what I do ;) either douse them in cinnamon sugar or icing sugar or .....(you get the idea) I use a dough hook on my Stand Mixer which makes this real easy to whip up. NOTE: Prep time does not include chill time."
 
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photo by May I Have That Rec photo by May I Have That Rec
photo by May I Have That Rec
photo by Lisa F. photo by Lisa F.
photo by shanel photo by shanel
photo by Julie E. photo by Julie E.
photo by Julie E. photo by Julie E.
Ready In:
20mins
Ingredients:
10
Yields:
14 doughnuts
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ingredients

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directions

  • In a large bowl mix the sugar, baking powder, salt and nutmeg.
  • Add eggs, milk and melted butter. Beat well.
  • Add 3 cups of the flour, beating until blended. Add one more cup of flour and beat well. The dough should be soft and sticky but firm enough to handle. If you feel its necessary, add up to 1/2 cup more flour.
  • Cover with plastic wrap and chill for *at* *least* one hour.
  • Remove your dough from the fridge and begin heating about 1" of oil to 360F in a large metal skillet.
  • Working half the dough at a time, roll it out on a floured surface to about 1/2" thickness. Cut out circles using a doughnut cutter or large biscuit or cookie cutter. For the center, I actually use the cap off my martini shaker ;) to cut the holes.
  • Gently drop the doughnuts in batches into the hot oil. Flip them over as they puff and turn them a couple more times as they cook. They will take about 2-3 minutes in total and will be lovely and golden brown all over.
  • Remove from the oil and set them on paper towels or brown paper bag (that removes all the fat, you know).
  • Douse them with sugar and cinnamon, icing, chocolate dipped with sprinkles or whatever you like.

Questions & Replies

  1. Can I use almond milk instead?
     
  2. I’m wanting to make chocolate cake donuts, What measurements for the cocoa powder? Thank you
     
  3. My friend made fat, slight crispy cake donuts from the restaurant donut premixed that were fat and slightly crispy after frying, how do I get same results?
     
  4. Can I use buttermilk
     
  5. Can I print the donut recipe on my computer?
     
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Reviews

  1. These doughnuts were great! It was first time and I did all the non-frying parts with my daughter. She loved the baking process and the doughnuts when they were done. A tad strong on the nutmeg taste, so I may reduce that a bit next time; but definitely worth it. We will be making these again, for sure! <br/>A few lessons I learned while making these:<br/>1) Keep the middle hole relatively small as the doughnut tends to look kinda goofy when the hole gets too big<br/>2) I found on our gas range, that proper frying setting was around 3 1/2 or 4 (around medium-low)<br/>3) While frying, do not wait for them to turn anything darker than a LIGHT brown, as any darker and they will far to done to taste good<br/><br/>Once I got those down, they were very tasty!
     
  2. Chev V, just a fabulous recipe! I have tried all kinds of doughnut recipes, yeast and cake-like, such as this one, and this one is by far the best. The secret to success for these doughnuts is to keep the oil level and temperature just right. I followed the recipe exactly, but since I enjoy vanilla, I added 2 tsp. to the mix, as well as adding 1/2 tsp. of cinnamon. Makes beautiful doughnuts, and the recipe yielded about 22 3-inch ones for me. Thanks for the recipe!
     
  3. I have been frying doughnuts for more than 60 years using a 150 year old recipe. I made these the other day and can tell you they are delicious. A cast iron spyder is the best for frying. I use both cinnamon and sugar and plain sugar. You can also frost them. I like a chocolate glaze or maple cream frosting.
     
  4. Really like this recipe. I added 1 tsp vanilla to the mix, did use the extra 1/4 cup of flour. The nutmeg is a nice touch.
     
    • Review photo by Lisa F.
  5. These were perfect! I did not tweak a thing, I had been craving a cake donut all week and these did the trick. Don't have a pic to post because they were disappearing as fast as they could drain. I suspect someone was stashing some for work tomorrow. Thanks for this recipe, it will be a keeper.
     
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Tweaks

  1. These are not cake donuts. They are pastry donuts. You don't cut out cake donuts from dough, you make a BATTER and drop the BATTER into frying oil.
     
  2. I added 3 eggs, a pinch of ginger and 1 tsp. of Vanilla to the recipe. Made a huge difference.
     
  3. VERY bland following the recipe, so I made a few tweaks, and am now VERY close to getting the recipe perfected for our likes. I increased the cinnamon, and nutmeg to 2 t. each, added 1 t. vanilla, increased Baking powder to 4t.,used salted butter, and also used Buttermilk instead of milk. Otherwise, I left the recipe alone. Ive been making this recipe regularly for the last few weeks and altered as needed. Rather than making donuts, I dropped teaspoonfuls into the hot oil, only because the my adult children, and grandchildren like them this way, and no problems with them not frying thoroughly through. I also placed them on cooling racks with brown paper below to drain remaining cooking oil. They raised beautifully, crusty outside, moist and fluffy inside. I didnt frost or sugar them either, instead, I made up dishes of coatings, to be used as desired when eating them. Im hoping when making the next batch Ill have this recipe perfected to taste like the fry cakes my Grandma made when I was a child.
     

RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I don't think there's anything better than spending time with family and friends and enjoying delicious food together. I just love food. I love reading about food, writing about food, cooking food and.. not surprisingly, eating food. My latest passion is food-photography! I'm still learning a lot, but I'm trying to post photos with all my recipes and reviews. I read recipe books, magazines and food blogs like novels. I get such satisfaction when someone enjoys a meal or dessert that I have prepared. It is the biggest compliment to me when my family and friends rave about my cooking. There are so many terrific recipes on this site. If I'm looking for something, I'm sure to find it here. I do have stacks of my own favorite recipes which I am slowly but surely getting in my cookbooks here . I have had so many awesome reviews and fabulous photos taken of my recipes... I try to thank everyone personally .. I sincerely appreciate each and every review and or comment left. I know it takes time to photograph and upload photos - So I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for finding and trying my recipes and taking the extra effort...
 
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