Grab a boxed cake mix and make these Easy Cake Mix Donuts featuring 3 delicious glazes including vanilla, chocolate, and maple, and fun sprinkles. They’re so yummy and simple to make and both kids and adults will love them!
Easy Cake Mix Donuts (+ 3 Delicious Glazes)
Happy Tuesday everyone! I’m so excited to share today’s fun recipe creation with you – Easy Cake Mix Donuts. They’re absolutely delicious, easy to make, and my boys and I had a blast making them together this past weekend.
Since we’re in the Fall/Halloween season, we decorated ours with these fun spooky sprinkles to fit the occasion, but these cake mix donuts can be made year round with any cake flavor and decorated any way you desire!
Baked Cake Mix Donuts
As much as I love a traditional fried donut, or my delicious biscuit donuts, I’ve grown to absolutely love the taste of baked cake mix donuts after purchasing these pans earlier this year.
These donuts are of course not the same as your typical yeast-based donuts, but instead are a soft, delicious, cake-like texture. Because they are baked instead of fried, they are not only healthier, but are also a lot easier and less time consuming to make than fried donuts.
I think my favorite part about these cake mix donuts is that you can easily make them with any boxed cake mix flavor and glaze to satisfy whatever flavor you’re craving.
These cake mix donuts can be made with vanilla, chocolate, funfetti, red velvet, spice, carrot cake, and more, and glazed with just about any flavor you can imagine. You can also easily enhance the flavors of the cake batter with different extracts like vanilla, lemon, coconut, and hazelnut.
And when it comes to glazing these delicious cake mix donuts, our personal favorites are vanilla, chocolate, and maple, but you could also do a caramel glaze, cinnamon sugar, or peanut butter. Top them off with some fun sprinkles, nuts, chopped up candies, or fruit, and you have yourself some incredibly delicious donuts!
Recommended Kitchen Tools:
- Donut Pans (Set of 3)
- Large Mixing Bowl
- Electric Mixer
- Whisk
- Measuring Cups & Spoons
- Cooling Rack
- Piping Bags
- Large Baking Sheet
- Parchment Paper
How to Make Cake Mix Donuts
Mix
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and spray your donut pans with non-stick spray. Place your cake mix, egg, oil, milk, and vanilla extract into a large mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer or whisk, until well combined.
Fill
Next, place your donut batter into a large piping bag or large plastic Ziploc bag, snip off the corner, and carefully fill each donut cavity 3/4 of the way full. This method is so much easier than trying to spoon in the batter one by one, and will save you a lot of time, hassle, and mess.
Bake/Cool
Place your donut pans into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cakes are a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Mine baked perfectly at 10 minutes. Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely (about 10-15 minutes).
Glaze
While your donuts are cooling, prepare the vanilla, chocolate, and maple glaze by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and whisking together. Place each glaze in a shallow bowl for easy dipping. Each glaze should be a pourable icing consistency, but not runny. If it is too thick you can always add more milk, until desired consistency is reached.
For easy clean-up, place parchment paper on a large baking sheet and place under the wire rack that the donuts will sit on. Place the top side of your donuts into the glaze for a few seconds and let excess drip down into the bowl before flipping and placing on the wire rack for the glaze to set.
Decorate
If desired, add sprinkles, chopped up candies, or nuts on top of your donuts while the glaze is still wet. These cake mix donuts are so easy to make and kids will really enjoy helping with this step. You can easily personalize donuts for holidays, birthdays, or any other special occasion.
Helpful Tips for Making/Decorating Your Cake Mix Donuts
- Do yourself a favor and buy these non-stick donut pans. They’re affordable and super easy to clean, and you will use them again and again!
- To save time, hassle, and mess, place your donut batter into a cake piping bag or plastic ziploc bag, snip off the end, and pipe into your pan. It makes filling your pan a breeze!
- Be careful not to overfill your donut pans with batter, otherwise you will lose the hole and intended donut shape. Ideally you only want to fill them until they are 3/4 of the way full.
- Place your donuts on a wire rack over a parchment paper lined baking sheet. This will allow the donuts to cool and once you glaze them, it will ensure all the excess glaze falls onto the parchment paper for an easy clean up.
- Make sure you let your donuts cool completely before glazing them. If you try to glaze them while they are still warm, the icing will melt/seep into the cake and won’t firm up.
- For a prettier glaze, glaze your donuts with the top side up. We originally started glazing them with the bottom side and my youngest son accidently discovered it looked better the other way. 🙂
- After glazing your cake mix donuts, add sprinkles or toppings while the glaze is still wet, and let them firm up before serving/placing in an airtight container.
Easy Cake Mix Donuts
Print
Easy Cake Mix Donuts (+ 3 Delicious Glazes)
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 18 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
Grab a boxed cake mix and make these Easy Cake Mix Donuts featuring 3 delicious glazes including vanilla, chocolate, and maple, and fun sprinkles. They’re so yummy and simple to make and both kids and adults will love them!
Ingredients
Cake Mix Donuts
- 1 box cake mix, any flavor (I used a yellow cake mix)
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 3/4 cup milk
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- sprinkles, if desired
Vanilla Donut Glaze:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1–2 tablespoons milk
- 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
- Optional: food coloring
Chocolate Donut Glaze:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1–2 tbsp milk
Maple Donut Glaze:
- 3/4 cup powdered sugar
- 1–2 tbsp milk
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 3/4 tsp vanilla extract
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F and spray your donut pans with non-stick spray.
- Place your cake mix, egg, oil, milk, and vanilla extract into a large mixing bowl and mix with an electric mixer or whisk, until well combined.
- Next, place your donut batter into a large piping bag or large plastic Ziploc bag, snip off the corner, and carefully fill each donut cavity 3/4 of the way full.
- Place your donut pans into the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the cakes are a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely (about 10-15 minutes).
- While your donuts are cooling, prepare the vanilla, chocolate, and maple glaze by combining all the ingredients in a bowl and whisking together. Place each glaze in a shallow bowl for easy dipping. Each glaze should be a pourable icing consistency, but not runny. If it is too thick you can always add more milk, until desired consistency is reached.
- For easy clean-up, place parchment paper on a large baking sheet and place under the wire rack that the donuts will sit on.
- Place the top side of your donuts into the glaze for a few seconds and let excess drip down into the bowl before flipping and placing on the wire rack for the glaze to set.
- If desired, add sprinkles, chopped up candies, or nuts on top of your donuts while the glaze is still wet.
Notes
- Leftover donuts can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week
- Leftover icing can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks
Keywords: cake mix donuts, easy cake mix donuts, baked cake mix donuts, baked donuts, oven donuts, cake donuts, boxed cake mix donuts, easy donuts, donut glaze
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I hope you enjoyed today’s recipe for my Easy Cake Mix Donuts with 3 Delicious Glazes! Do you love cake mix donuts too? Let me know in the comments below!
Thanks for stopping by! – Cara
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