Easy Cake Mix Donuts (+ 3 Delicious Glazes)
Grab a boxed cake mix and make these Easy Cake Mix Donuts featuring 3 delicious glazes including vanilla, chocolate, and maple icing, and colorful, 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)
Hey everyone!
I’m so excited to share today’s fun recipe creation with you – Easy Cake Mix Donuts.
These cake mix donuts are absolutely delicious, easy to make, and one of our family’s favorite desserts to make together.
We love cake mix donuts, because they’re super simple to make using only a few ingredients, and best of all – these cake mix donuts can be made any time of the year, with any cake flavor, and decorated any way you desire!
This post was originally shared in October 2020, and the original photos show how my boys and I first made cake mix donuts for the Fall/Halloween season using these fun, spooky sprinkles.
I’ve since updated the post to include a step-by-step video tutorial over here, as well as additional photos with easy cake mix donut decorating ideas for all seasons, holidays, and occasions.
If you want to learn how to make easy cake mix donuts with cake mix, then keep reading below and make sure you grab the recipe for my 3 delicious cake mix donut glazes.
Don’t forget to subscribe to my Youtube channel here for weekly recipes!
Baked Cake Mix Donuts
As much as I love a traditional fried donut and my delicious biscuit donuts, I’ve grown to absolutely love the taste of warm, freshly baked cake mix donuts.
They’re sweet, delicious, soft, and the flavor possibilities are endless!
Can you use cake mix to make donuts?
Are you wondering if you really can use a boxed cake mix for donuts?
YES, you absolutely can!
Just as boxed cake mix can be used for cake mix cookies, cake mix bars, poke cakes, and a TON of other delicious box cake mix desserts, cake mix is the perfect ingredient for making simple and delicious donuts in a flash!
Check out this post on how to make box cake better.
Are Cake Mix Donuts and Old Fashioned Donuts the same?
This is probably the #1 question most people ask regarding cake mix donuts, and the answer is no, they are not the same.
Cake mix donuts are not the same as your typical yeast-based donuts which have a denser texture, but instead have a soft, fluffy, cake-like texture which is delicious!
They are also a lot easier and less time consuming to make since you don’t have to fry them and can make them quick and easy using these super affordable donut pans.
Are Cake Donuts Healthier Than Regular Donuts?
Because they are baked instead of fried, cake donuts are healthier than regular donuts.
Cake mix donuts also tend to have less sugar, fat, and calories since they are not as large and don’t have a fruit or cream filling.
Do keep in mind no donut out there is necessarily “healthy”, so moderation is always key. 🙂
Why Cake Mix Donuts are THE BEST
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.
Check out my post on how to make box cake mix desserts better over here.
What cake mix flavors can I use?
- Vanilla
- Chocolate
- Funfetti
- Red Velvet
- Lemon
- Strawberry
- Spice Cake
- Carrot Cake
- Any other flavor you like!
If desired, you can also easily enhance the flavors of the cake batter with different extracts like vanilla, lemon, coconut, and hazelnut.
Delicious Glaze and Topping Ideas
And when it comes to glazing these delicious cake mix donuts, our personal favorites are vanilla, chocolate, and maple, but the possibilities are endless!
Here’s just a few other ideas:
- Caramel
- Cinnamon Sugar
- Peanut Butter
- Cream Cheese
- Strawberry
- Lemon
- Cookies and Cream
Top them off with some fun sprinkles, nuts, chopped up candies, or fruit, and you have yourself some incredibly delicious cake mix donuts!
Can I Decorate Cake Mix Donuts for Holidays/Occasions?
Absolutely! These cake mix donuts are great for making for holidays and special celebrations, and can easily be made with holiday or seasonal themed colors, flavors, and sprinkles.
Here’s just a few ideas:
- Christmas – red/green icing and sprinkles, peppermint flavor, hot cocoa flavor
- Winter – blue/white, snowflake sprinkles
- Halloween – jack o’ lanterns, monster donuts, bright colored sprinkles, candies
- Fall/Thanksgiving – pumpkin/spice cake mix, leaves, apples/apple cider flavor
- Valentine’s Day – red velvet, heart sprinkles, red, white, and pink icing
- St. Patrick’s Day – green, four leaf clovers
- Spring/Easter – pastel colors/sprinkles, flowers, bunnies/chicks
- Fourth of July – red, white, and blue, stars/stripes, fireworks
- Birthdays – confetti cake mix, birthday sprinkles, favorite candy
Helpful Tips for Making/Decorating Your Cake Mix Donuts
1. Buy these awesome non-stick donut pans.
They’re super affordable and super easy to clean, and you will use them again and again!
2. Use this cake piping bag to fill your donut pans.
It saves so much time, hassle, and mess! Simply snip off the end and pipe into your pan. It makes filling your pan a breeze!
3. Don’t overfill your donut pans with batter.
If you overfill, 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.
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4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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 accidentally discovered it looked better the other way. 🙂
7. Add sprinkles or toppings while the glaze is still wet.
This helps ensure your toppings will “stick” and not fall off everywhere. Also let your donuts firm up before serving/placing in an airtight container.
These rainbow sprinkles are my absolute favorite, and I also use them in my birthday cake muffins.
Cake Mix Donuts FAQ’s
I’ve received several questions and comments regarding issues with your donuts turning out too soft/falling apart, and most often this isn’t an issue with my recipe, this has to do with baking.
Please follow my tips and guidelines listed both in the recipe and below to avoid any issues with this.
Help! My donuts are too soft/why did my donuts fall apart when I tried to get them out of the pan?
This problem can be the result of a couple different things.
A. Under baking your donuts and
B. Removing them from the pan too soon.
How to avoid this issue – Fool-proof tips:
1. First off, make sure you fully bake your cake mix donuts until they are done.
One way to tell when the donuts are done is they will have pulled away from the sides of the pan, the edges will be a light golden brown, and the middle will be spongy (and bounce back) to touch.
2. DO NOT REMOVE FROM THE PAN until they are cool to the touch.
Typically I let mine cool in the pan for 5-10 minutes, but this is just a guide and you might need to let them cool longer.
3. Lastly, use a spoon or butter knife to go around the edge of the donut pan and underneath the donuts to gently remove them from the pan.
You also want to make sure you spray your pan liberally with non-stick cooking spray before baking them so that they don’t stick.
How to Make Cake Mix Donuts with Cake Mix – Step-by-Step Recipe
Below, I’ve included a list of all the ingredients and kitchen tools you’ll need to make these cake mix donuts.
I’ve also provided a step-by-step overview of how to make them from start to finish.
Recommended Ingredients:
- 1 Box Cake Mix (Any Flavor)
- Egg
- Oil
- Milk
- Vanilla extract
- Powdered Sugar
Optional Ingredients Depending on Glaze Choice:
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
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.
FYI – 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 5-10 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling 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.
Easy Cake Mix Donuts Recipe
PrintEasy Cake Mix Donuts (+ 3 Delicious Glazes)
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!
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 18 1x
- Category: Breakfast, Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
Cake Mix Donuts
- 1 box cake mix, any flavor (I used a yellow cake mix)
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup oil (I use light olive oil, but you can use any neutral-flavored 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 donuts are a light golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 5-10 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
More Pastry Recipes You’ll Love:
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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Tried these with chocolate cake mix (the only cake mix available here is all ‘super moist’), and though they look like donuts, when they cooled they were hard like cookies! Very strange. Verified the temperature with a thermometer, so I’m guessing either: a) baking for just under 15 minutes was too long, and b) using soy milk instead of dairy maybe didn’t help.
Hi, Fred – it sounds like they were unfortunately overbaked. Baking times can of course vary depending on your oven and the age of it, so it’s best to start at the lowest recommended time first and you can always add additional minutes if needed. I’ve made this recipe in several ovens over the years (with varying ages) and they typically only take around 10 minutes, so I’d recommend trying that if you make them again.
These sound delicious! Thank you for the recipe. All I have is almond milk. Would that be okay to use in place of the regular milk?
Thank you! Yes, you should be able to use any kind of milk. Hope you love them!
Made first time with cake mix and crumbled slightly but teens still loved, 2nd time used a pound cake boxed mix and they turned out perfect!!
Thanks Sarah! I need to try them with pound cake mix next time!
Have you tried making these with angel food cake mix?
I haven’t but I’m sure that would taste good!
Made these today with my 3 year old granddaughter. While they were very tasty, they didn’t really taste like donuts more like very light cupcakes. She loved them.
Thanks Donna – I’m glad you and your granddaughter enjoyed them! As I shared in the post – they are a cake consistency and not like yeast-based donuts, but still delicious and a fun treat to make with kiddos!
Mine needed to bake for 15 minutes to not fall apart when picking them up. I learned from the first batch.
Hi Pattie, Thanks for sharing. Every oven is different so baking time will of course vary. Hope you enjoyed them!
Hi, Shay. My website DOES have a jump to recipe button at the very top of my page. Also I don’t just endlessly write words for the fun of it, I write it to provide tips, guidance, and help to my audience and beginner bakers who have questions on the recipe they’re making.This is MY job and I work very hard to provide helpful content for my audience that I’ve worked extremely hard to build up over the years. I’m sorry that you had or are having a bad day, but that doesn’t justify you giving my recipe a one star review when you clearly didn’t even make it. Good luck to you.
Can you freeze donuts if you don’t put glaze or frosting on them and how long can they be frozen for? Is it like freezing a cake or cupcakes?
Yes you can – it’s just like cake or cupcakes. You can freeze them up to 3 months in a freezer safe bag or container. Just make sure you allow them to cool completely before freezing them so they don’t stick together.
Hi I made these for my Mom for Mother’s Day and she loved them. They were delicious, very light and fluffy.
Thank you, I’m so glad to hear that! Hope you all had a wonderful Mother’s Day!
As with several others, my donuts came out very tasty, but fell apart easily. I suspected that this was because the cake mix I used was “moist” (which, of course, is what you want your cake to be most of the time). So instead of cake-like donuts, I ended up with donut-like mini-cakes. For my second batch, I switched to a pound cake mix (in this case, Betty Crocker) and followed the recipe as listed otherwise. This batch came out so much better – much more like the denser consistency of chat cake-like donuts should be and wonderfully tasty.
It’s also possible that cutting back on milk to maybe 1/2 Cup instead of 3/4 Cup might work with the moist or super-moist cake mixes. Might try that in the future.
Thanks for sharing these tips, Paul. I had never thought to use a pound cake mix but that’s a great idea. Glad you enjoyed yours!
Thank you Paul M. I used “Very Moist” cakemix that might explain my issues.
Can I use cake icing to decorate these instead of making the glaze/icing?
Sure you can glaze them or coat them however you like. I bet that’d taste yummy!
Do you think these could be made with unsweetened applesauce instead of the oil?
Thank you!
Yes, you can sub applesauce at a 1:1 ratio or you can do half oil and half applesauce for better results. Enjoy!
Flat donuts! 🙁
Sorry your donuts turned out flat. Maybe try filling your donut pans with more cake batter next time and that should help.
These were so easy to make! But the glaze seemed to soak into the doughnuts – how did you get that gorgeous layer of icing on the ones in your pictures?!
Thanks Lee! Did you let your donuts fully cool before glazing them? If you try glazing them and they’re still warm, they will soak into the cake rather than lay on top. Also, did you add more milk to your glazes? If your glaze is a thinner consistency this will also result in a glaze that is more transparent that doesn’t set up. Next time, I’d recommend letting the donuts fully cool, and add a little milk at a time to reach the perfect glaze consistency that isn’t too thick or thin. Regardless, hope they tasted wonderful!
Yes, they’d cooled overnight. I must have just included a bit too much liquid in the glaze. But yes – they are absolutely delicious, and I am happy to have a cake mix doughnut recipe in my arsenal for something quick and easy!
I only have ONE donut pan that yields 6 donuts. How do I divide the ingredients?
Hi Rose, it would be pretty difficult to halve the recipe since it calls for a cake mix. I would recommend just making multiple batches using the same pan.
Mine came out of the pan ok, but we’re very delicate had to pour the icing. I used. Moist cake mix and I think that’s what did it.
Could you use gluten free cake mix in place of regular cake mix?
Hi, Kim! I haven’t personally tried it with a gluten free cake mix, but I think it would work just fine. If you try it, let us know how it turns out!
I just made them and they didnt cool for 12 min, still in thenovern and they got all puffy.
They look like mini cakes
Sounds like you might have overfilled them (I did this the first couple times too). Hopefully they still tasted good though!
Can you store the batter? I only want to make a few at a time. Thank you.
Hi, I wouldn’t recommend it since it has egg in it. It would probably only be good for a day or two, refrigerated. The donuts unglazed can be frozen for up to 3 months in a freezer safe bag though.
These look amazing! Going to give them a try this morning! How many donuts does one cake mix make?
Thanks Julia! It will make around 18 donuts. Hope you love them!
You mentioned butter milk but, in the ingredients you just mentioned milk. What do I use? Thanks
Hi Donna, I’m not sure what you’re seeing but buttermilk isn’t used in this recipe, just milk. Let me know if you have any other questions!
I had a different recipe from somewhere else that needed buttermilk instead of regular milk. Perhaps you saw it the same place I did? I deleted the e-mail with the recipe and found this one while looking for the buttermilk one
Do I ignore the ingredients asked for in my cake mix, ie 2 eggs, butter and milk….. And use the recipe that you use using just the cake mix, little bit confused, new to making Don nuts, thanks
Hi Thomas! Yes, you will use the ingredients and amounts I list in the recipe card instead of the ones listed on the cake mix box. Hope that helps clear it up and I hope you love them!
Thanks,
I understand now
Do these taste different from just baking the cake mix ? I noticed the recipe calls for what’s different on the box, so do these changes give a more donut taste ? I’m so excited to try !
Yes, they are more soft/airy than if you were to bake as directed on the box, but less chewy than a traditional yeast donut. Hope you love them!
Where’s the recipe for cream cheese glaze?
I just used regular icing glazes for this recipe, but you can probably use my cinnamon roll cream cheese icing over here: https://www.kindlyunspoken.com/one-hour-cinnamon-rolls-recipe/
I want to try these but is it the same recipe even if I used a chocolate cake mix?
Yes, absolutely! You can use any cake mix for this recipe and adjust your glazes/toppings as desired. With a chocolate mix, some vanilla icing and crushed up Oreo would be delish. Enjoy!