These Mini Donuts are adorable vanilla cake bites with a hint of nutmeg. Sweet glaze and sprinkles complete the perfect treat in one bite!
I love making these mini donuts for my family, they are soft, fluffy and have a sweet vanilla aroma that's irresistible! They are perfect for breakfast, brunch, or as a snack or dessert. Customizing them for celebrations is so easy with colored glazes and sprinkles! I especially love making bright colorful desserts like these donuts or a Banana Split Sundae Bar for birthday parties as they are just so nostalgic and fun!
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Why You'll Love This Mini Donut Recipe
These mini cake donuts are:
- Easy to make with simple ingredients!
- Baked and not fried. A baked donut is always healthier than a fried donut and easier to clean up!
- So much fun to decorate and customize for special events! You can use a simple glaze, or chocolate ganache icing and sprinkles in colors to match the theme of the event!
Ingredient Notes
- All-purpose flour
- Granulated sugar
- Baking soda
- Salt
- Nutmeg -provides that quintessential donut taste and flavor.
- Plain Greek yogurt or sour cream - this gives the donuts their soft fluffy texture.
- Melted butter- I like to use unsalted butter and then can control the salt in the recipe to my taste.
- Egg
- Vanilla extract - pure vanilla extract is heavenly in this recipe the natural flavor can't be beat!
- *optional sprinkles and food coloring for glaze
- Powdered sugar
- Milk or cream - try to avoid nonfat milk for a nice rich glaze
How to Make Mini Donuts
- Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add the wet ingredients and whisk together.
- Mix donut batter together with a silicone spatula.
- Pipe batter into mini donut pan with a piping bag.
- Bake donuts and allow them to cool on a cooling rack.
- Whisk together the glaze ingredients.
- Dip donuts into the glaze.
- Add sprinkles and allow to set.
Frequently Asked Questions
Mini donuts are fun bite sized tasty treats. Whether they are baked or fied, yeast or cake they are usually about 2 inches in size!
The easiest way to fill a mini muffin pan by using either a pastry bag or a ziplock bag with a hole cut out of the corner. Try not to overfill your pan for the perfect shaped mini donut!
Mini donuts can be cake or yeast. Typically mini fried donuts are yeast based and mini baked donuts are cake based but the opposite can also be true. If you are looking for an easy fun treat that still has the fun and whimsy of a fried donut but healthier and easier to clean up, opt for easy baked mini donuts!
Expert Tips
- This mini donut recipe is very simple, the main tip is to properly prepare your mini donut pan to ensure the clean release by using a generous amount of vegetable shortening.
- Don’t overfill the pan with donut batter. Fill only to about ¾ or you will end up with mini muffins.
- Feel free to dip these donuts in chocolate glaze or ganache or even brush them with butter and then dip them in a cinnamon sugar mixture. You can even make them into donut holes using a donut hole pan or even full-sized donuts, but you will have to adjust the baking time!
- Fresh mini donuts are best eaten the day they are made but can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 3-4 days and brought to room temperature before eating.
Variations
We love these donuts the way the recipe is written but you can create or own favorite donuts by making simple swaps or tweaks!
- The vanilla glaze on these donuts is everything but feel free to use vanilla icing or chocolate icing as a topping if you prefer!
- A maple glaze is also delicious! Just substitute maple extract for the vanilla extract in the glaze recipe.
- You can turn these into chocolate donuts by adding ⅓ cup of cocoa powder to the mixture and 2 more tablespoons of greek yogurt.
Related Recipes
If you like mini recipes you may also like my Mini Pancakes or bite sized desserts like my Bunny Cake Pops
Recipe
Mini Donuts
Equipment
- large bowl
- whisk
- silicone spatula
- piping bag
- mini donut pan
- cooling rack
- small bowl
Ingredients
Donut Batter
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt *can substitute sour cream
- ¼ cup unsalted butter melted
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- *optional sprinkles and food coloring for glaze
Vanilla Glaze
- 2 cups confectioners sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream *can substitute milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg together until combined.
- Next add the Greek yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla to the bowl and whisk until almost formed into a dough then switch to a silicone spatula to fully combine the dough. Try not to overmix just ensure there are no dry ingredients visible.
- Prepare a mini donut pan with a generous amount of vegetable shortening. (This step is very important or your donuts will stick to the pan!)
- Fill a piping bag or a zip lock bag with the corner cut out and fill each well of the donut pan to about ¾ full. Do not overfill or the donuts will resemble mini muffins.
- Bake donuts for 8-10 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.Allow donuts to rest in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer them to a cooling rack to fully cool before glazing.
- In a small deep bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, and vanilla extract until smooth with no lumps. If desired tint with a drop of food coloring.
- Place a cooling rack over a baking sheet lined with wax paper (for easy cleanup). Dip donuts in glaze allowing excess to drip back into the bowl and garnish with sprinkles if desired. Allow to set on the cooling rack and enjoy!
Notes
expert tips
- This mini donut recipe is very simple, the main tip is to properly prepare your mini donut pan to ensure the clean release by using a generous amount of vegetable shortening.
- Don’t overfill the pan with donut batter. Fill only to about ¾ or you will end up with mini muffins.
- Feel free to dip these donuts in chocolate glaze or ganache or even brush them with butter and then dip them in a cinnamon sugar mixture. You can even make them into donut holes using a donut hole pan or even full-sized donuts, but you will have to adjust the baking time!
- Fresh mini donuts are best eaten the day they are made but can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for 3-4 days and brought to room temperature before eating.
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