Old Fashioned Cake Doughnuts

Doughnuts are one of those foods that you wish could be healthy! lol. I love fluffy yeast doughnuts but my husband especially likes the old fashioned cake doughnuts. Cold weather started to settle in and I felt nostalgic so I thought I would make an old fashion breakfast pastry one morning..  When do I ever not feel nostalgic?!? That's what I get for being raised with wonderful smells, sounds and traditions.  They make old memories so vivid. 

I chose the cake doughnut recipes from my Better Home and Garden cookbook.

Old Fashioned Cake Doughnuts

3 cups All-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

2/3 cup milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 beaten eggs

2/3 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

cooking oil

Combine 2 cups of the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. In a medium bowl combine milk and melted butter. In a large mixing bowl combine eggs, sugar, and vanilla; beat with an electric mixer about 3 minutes or until thick. Alternately add flour mixture and milk mixture to egg mixture, beating after each addition just until combined. Stir in remaining 1 cup of flour. Cover dough; chill for 2 hours.

Chocolate Cake Doughnut Variation

Prepare as above, except omit cinnamon and nutmeg and increase sugar to 1 cup. Reduce the amount of flour that is stirred in at the end to 1/4 cup (for a total of 2 1/4 cups flour) and stir in 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder. Continue as directed. I used Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa.  It makes the doughnuts dark and rich.

 

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, roll dough out to 1/2 inch thickness. Cut dough out with doughnut cutter.  Fry doughnuts in deep hot oil (375'F) about 1 minute on each side or until golden. Drain on paper towels. You can shake warm doughnuts in a bag with sugar. I made a thick glaze. Put 2 cups of powder sugar in a bowl and add a pinch of salt, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla and enough milk to make a thick consistency but thin enough to dip the tops of the doughnuts in. Lay out of cooling rack until the glaze stiffens.

I definitely want to make sure I have enough frying oil next time.  I think that my doughnuts could have risen more if the oil was deeper instead of the doughnut touching the bottom of the pan.  They were still moist and yummy though!  I would suggest watching the chocolate ones closely while they fry because they can easily burn since they are dark to begin with.

So easy! Enjoy.