I have no shame in admitting donuts are my all-time favorite food. I truly don’t know that I have ever turned down a donut in my life. Cake, traditional yeast, jelly-filled—I adore them all. I’ve been on a mission to perfect homemade donuts. Sure, there are plenty of donut shops that have already perfected the art, but once you try a homemade donut, there’s no going back. My strawberry frosted cake donuts are warmly spiced, perfectly dense and are cascaded with a thick strawberry-vanilla frosting that’s topped with freeze-dried strawberries to amp up that berry flavor. Eat them for breakfast, a lunchtime treat, or post-dinner dessert—or all three…no one’s judging you here.
What to Notice
- All dough is different. This dough is intended to be sticky. Don’t be tempted to add more flour to the mixture to firm it up. Use flour on your counter and on your hands and donut cutter when cutting out your donuts and if the dough is firm enough to hold a donut shape, it’s perfectly fine.
- Frying can be tricky no matter how seasoned of a cook you are. Look at the coloration of your donuts as they fry. You want these to be a deep tan, not to develop any burnt bits. Use your eyes and sense of smell to flip these before the one-minute mark if they look to be getting done quicker than that.
- Donut frosting (we’re not talking about glaze) should be nice and thick. Because the strawberry mixture might yield a different volume for everyone, you may need to add more powdered sugar to get the right viscosity. After you’ve whisked all your ingredients together, hold up your whisk and watch how your frosting drips off. Is it dripping really quickly? It’s probably more of a glaze consistency then, gradually add more powdered sugar. You want it to be a nice, slow molasses-ey drip that takes its sweet time. Add more powdered sugar until it achieves that consisten
Servings: 10 Donuts
Ingredients
For the Donuts:
- 4 ounces unsalted butter softened
- 5 ounces granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 6 fluid ounces buttermilk at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk powder
- 15 ounces all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 inches of canola oil for frying
For the Strawberry Frosting:
- 2 cups frozen strawberries whole
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 3.5 cups powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon milk powder
- ½ teaspoon rose water
- 2 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 teaspoons unsalted butter melted
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream
- A pinch of kosher salt
For Topping:
- About ½ cup freeze-dried strawberries crushed
- White jimmies sprinkles
Instructions
Get Set Up:
- Cut 10, 4×4-inch squares of parchment paper, stack them and set next to your dough.
- Line two baking sheets with paper towels and place cooling racks on top of them. Place these next to your stove where you’ll be frying.
Make the Frosting:
- Sift the powdered sugar and milk powder into a large bowl and set aside.
- In a small saucepan, add the frozen strawberries and sugar and bring to medium heat. Let the strawberries cook and breakdown for about 7 minutes, using a wooden spoon to help break them up. Reduce the heat to low and let the mixture simmer for about 5 minutes until it thickens slightly. Place the strawberry mixture into a fine-mesh sieve over the powdered sugar. With a rubber spatula, press down the strawberries to squeeze out as much of the liquid into the powdered sugar as you can, even scraping the bottom of the sieve.
- Add the rose water, vanilla, salt, melted butter, heavy cream and whisk until smooth.
- Set the frosting aside until you’re ready to frost your donuts.
Make the Donuts:
- In a large bowl, combine your dry ingredients and set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together your butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add your eggs, one at a time until incorporated, then add your vanilla. With the mixer on low, drizzle in the buttermilk. Finally, slowly add the dry ingredients until just combined, don’t overmix. The dough will be sticky and that’s perfect.
- Sprinkle some flour on your counter and dump out your dough. With floured hands, turn the dough onto itself a few times in a sort of folding manner. Pat it down into a rectangle that’s about ½ an inch thick. Let this rest while your oil is heating up.
- In a medium-to large pot (enameled cast-iron works really well) heat your oil to about medium on your burner. Attach your candy thermometer and let the oil reach about 360-370 degrees. Once it does you may need to turn down your burner to maintain temperature.
- Once your oil is at temperature, dip your donut cutter in flour and cut out your donuts, transferring each onto their own piece of parchment you prepared. Reroll all the scraps of dough so you get 10 donuts (to get 10 you’ll need to also re-roll the donut holes). Now, carefully place a donut, parchment and all into your hot oil. I like to fry these one at a time to keep the temperature as even as possible. Fry each donut for about a minute on each side, then use a spider to transfer to your prepared cooling rack to let the excess oil drip off.
- Let your donuts cool completely before frosting. To frost them, dip each donut into the bowl of frosting, twirl and twist upright. Decorate with the crushed freeze-dried strawberries and jimmies. These are best eaten the same day they’re made!
