Baked Carrot Cake Donuts

Whenever there's an opportunity to celebrate cake, I'm in.
Happy National Donut Day 2015 !

1 cup flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
1  1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ginger

2  1/2 tbsps butter, melted and cooled
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup shredded carrot
1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Mix the dry ingredients together and set aside.
Mix the wet ingredients together and combine with the dry.

Spray donut pan with cooking oil and fill about 2/3 full.  The small ones took 1 tbsp and the large ones took about 2  1/2 - 3 tbsps to fill.

Bake at 350 F for 8 minutes for both the small and the large donuts.

Frosting
4 oz cream cheese
2 tbsps butter, room temperature
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup icing sugar

When the donuts have cooled, cream the butter and cream cheese together.  Add the vanilla then gradually add the icing sugar.

Spread liberally on the donuts and garnish with more shredded carrots and chopped walnuts.

There's always someone who wants sprinkles though.

Cranberry Lime Cake Donuts

I never knew this.  The first Friday in June is National Donut Day!  Wikipedia says the event was created by the Salvation Army in 1938 to honour the men and women who served donuts to soldiers during the first world war.

So to recognize National Donut Day I made these citrusy cake donuts.

 Donut ingredients:

1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 tsp. lime juice
1  2/3 cups flour
1  1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh (or frozen) cranberries
zest of one lime (divided in half)

Preheat your oven to 350F and prepare donut pans with cooking spray.

Cream the margarine and sugar together in a bowl, then add vanilla, eggs and 1/2 the lime zest.

Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and ginger together and alternatively add the milk and dry ingredients to the bowl, ending with milk. Now mix in the lime juice. Fold in cranberries.

Fill donut pan about 2/3 full.  (I might have filled them a little more than that)

Bake small donuts for 9 minutes and large for 12 minutes.

While waiting for them to cool, prepare the glaze.

Glaze ingredients:

3/4 cup icing sugar
2 tbsps lime juice
the other 1/2 of the lime zest
Red or pink food colouring

Sift the icing sugar and mix the lime juice in.  Set aside 2 tbsps of glaze in a small ziplok bag. Dip the cooled donuts in the glaze and sit on a rack so the extra glaze can drip off. Sprinkle with remaining lime zest.
Add a little red food colouring to the reserved icing and squeeze it around in the ziplok to mix.  Snip a small corner off and drizzle over the donuts.

The glaze will set in a couple of hours.

This recipe makes 9 large and 12 small donuts.

Happy National Donut Day!

Adapted from http://www.laurenslatest.com/cranberry-orange-cake-doughnuts