Vanilla Glazed Donuts

    I can't stop making donuts! I love to make them and they're shockingly easy to make. However, as I come up with more and more donut recipes, I just realized that I don't have a recipe for the simplest and foundation of all donuts: vanilla! So, I immediately started working on a plain donut recipe. 

    As I started working on this recipe I started wondering, what's the difference between cake and a cake donut? I started comparing cake and donut recipes of several different flavors. I came to the conclusion that they're essentially the same except donut batter is a little thicker than cake. In most of the recipes I looked at, the dry ingredients were pretty much the same while there was more oil, butter, water, and/or milk in the cake recipes. 

    After I figured out that difference I felt that I could make a recipe by combining my apple cider donut recipe and a basic cake recipe that I had liked. Luckily, It turned out! To make my version of a plain cake donut I started by beating together the eggs, sugar, and room temperature butter. Once those were thoroughly combined I added the vanilla and milk and mixed again. While my wet ingredients were mixing, I started on all of my dry ingredients. 

    I mixed together my flour, baking powder, salt, and a pinch of cinnamon. When they were thoroughly combined, I folded my dry ingredients into the wet. I made sure not to over mix my batter and left it a little lumpy. This batter was a little thicker than the other donut batters I had worked with, I think it was because I decided to use room temperature butter instead of melted. The donuts still turned out amazing without melting the butter but it mixed in better and was easier to manage when melted. 

    Since this batter was thicker, I really struggled to spoon the batter into the baking pan. Since I did not want to break out the reusable piping bags (I don't have a dishwasher and they are a HUGE hassle to hand wash) I filled a plastic baggie with the batter and cut one of the corners. I used that to pipe the batter into my pan. As you can see in some of my pictures, I overfilled some of the spots. To avoid this, make sure you don't cut a hole too big in your plastic baggie/piping bag.

    Once all the donuts were piped, I baked my donuts at 350 degrees F for 13 min. Usually I only need to bake my donuts for 10-12 minutes, but since my pan was so overfilled, the donuts took a little longer to cook. While my donuts were baking I made a simple chocolate glaze using powdered sugar, unsweetened cocoa powder, and milk. I let the donuts cool for a bit before I glazed them so that all the glaze wouldn't melt off.

    Another topping option is Powdered sugar. You can either brush the donuts in a light coat of butter before you coat the donuts in powdered sugar or just cover them straight out of the oven while they're still warm. I find it easiest to put the powdered sugar in a ziplock baggie and put the warm donuts in a few at a time, then gently shaking the baggie to coat the donuts. However, you can also put the powdered sugar in a bowl and spoon the sugar on top of the donut. Make sure to shake off the excess powdered sugar before serving. 

    This staple donut shop flavor was super easy to make and is super easy to modify with different flavors of toppings. Leave a comment if you try this recipe! What flavor donut should I make next?