Powdered Sugar Cake Donuts: like the package but better

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Little beats a fresh powdered sugar donut, and these baked powdered sugar cake donuts are lovely little cakey gems that bake up quickly without fuss.

If you can stir, you can make these donuts that are full of homey flavor without the donut shop price or sketchy ingredients.

Taste	Texture
Nutmeg, old-fashioned buttermilk	cakey soft

Active time	Total time	Yield	Difficulty
10 min	25 minutes	12 donuts	Easy

We’ve all been there; you’re road-tripping and stop at a gas station, wanting some kind of fun treat. You know that the Hostess powdered donettes are pure trash, but man they taste good. There’s something comforting in their soft cakey texture and the reliably good powdered sugar coating. Like a McDonald’s in a foreign country, there’s something reassuring about knowing what you’re going to get.

Still, we can do so very much better making donuts at home!

Why homemade powdered sugar donuts beat the store every time

Homemade powdered sugar cake donuts: All-purpose flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, buttermilk, avocado oil, egg, vanilla, powdered sugar.

Hostess donettes: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Malted Barley Flour, Niacin, Ferrous Sulfate Or Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Water, Palm Oil, Dextrose, Sugar, Cornstarch, Soybean Oil, Glycerin, Contains 2% Or Less: Nonfat Dry Milk, Defatted Soy Flour, Color (Titanium Dioxide, Annatto And Turmeric), Sodium Acid Pyrophosphate, Baking Soda, Egg Yolk, Preservative (Calcium Propionate, Sorbic Acid, Sodium Propionate, Potassium Sorbate, Natamycin), Sodium Aluminum Phosphate, Salt, Natural And Artificial Flavor, Mono And Diglycerides, Dextrin, Soy Lecithin, Citric Acid, Enzymes, Guar Gum, Cellulose Gum, Karaya Gum.

Better ingredients: From the above list, you can see the chemistry degree you need to fully understand what’s in the Hostess variety. The homemade powdered sugar donuts in contrast have easy to understand ingredients, and you can vary your quality as much as you want. I always use organic unbleached flour, homemade buttermilk, and aluminum-free baking powder, and cleaner oils (avocado, cold-pressed sunflower).
Delicious homemade flavor: The combination of nutmeg, vanilla, and buttermilk in a cake donut is one of those old-fashioned flavors no package can replicate. It tastes like sitting on a porch swing on a cool summer evening. There’s a friendly homey quality to the taste here you can only get from real ingredients.
Easy one-bowl recipe: This is a great recipe to make with kids. You can make it in one bowl, and it takes just a couple minutes to scoop all the ingredients into the donut pans.
Choose your size: These donuts bake up equally well in mini donut pans or standard-sized donut pans.

Ingredients for Powdered Sugar Cake Donuts

Buttermilk Donuts batter

Oil, preferably avocado or cold-pressed sunflower
Egg
Buttermilk (preferably homemade)
Vanilla paste or vanilla extract
All-purpose flour
Granulated sugar
Baking powder
Nutmeg
Salt

Finishing

Powdered sugar
Butter (optional), for more flavor
Color Kitchen natural food colors
(Affiliate)
(for rainbow colors, optional)

Equipment needed

Do I have to use Color Kitchen colors for colored donuts?

No! Any kind of fruit or vegetable powder works. Red: freeze dried strawberry powder, raspberry powder, beet powder. Orange: turmeric + beet powder. Yellow: Turmeric. Green: Matcha!! Blue: Spirulina powder or butterfly pea flower. Purple: Spirulina + beet powder.

Mini Donut pans or standard size donut pans
Small cookie scoop or a spoon
Apple corer or paring knife

How to make powdered sugar cake donuts

The process for making these donuts is mostly the same as for my other baked donuts, except we’re using granulated sugar in place of the brown sugar.

mixing dry ingredients for baked cinnamon sugar donuts

mixing flour into buttermilk and egg mixture

Melt: Melt the butter in a coffee cup in the microwave. Brush three 12-cavity mini donut pans with a little bit of the butter or two 6-cavity standard donut pans.
Mix the dry ingredients: Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients.
Add the wet ingredients: Pour the buttermilk, butter, and vanilla into the well. Crack in the egg and whisk it lightly to break up the egg. Gradually, stir the flour into the wet ingredients to create a batter.
Scoop the donuts: Use a small cookie scoop to scoop a little less than 1 scoop of batter into each well of your pans. Drop the batter into the edges of each well, and then use lightly damp hands to press the dough into the pan. Do your best to leave the hole in the middle of each well visible.
Bake the donuts in a 350 F oven for 12-13 minutes for mini donuts and 15-16 minutes for regular sized donuts until the tops spring back when you touch them. Turn out the donuts onto a wire rack.
Coat: Pour powdered sugar into a bowl. Roll the donuts in the powdered sugar. For a richer flavor, dip the donuts first in melted butter and then in powdered sugar.

How to add color to powdered sugar donuts

While classic powdered sugar donuts are fun and delicious on their own, you may have a party or an event where you’d want to add some color in the mix.

For this, I love Color Kitchen natural food colors

(Affiliate)

. These powdered food colors use only natural ingredients, and since they’re dry, you won’t have to worry about clumps as you would with gel or liquid food colorings. To color powdered sugar, just mix a little of the color into a little bit of powdered sugar. You can add more of the color for a deeper color. If you use all the colors, it’s best to mix the color in a SMALL amount of powdered sugar (say 1/4 cup).

Once you mix the color into the sugar, coat the donuts in the color or dip them in butter first, then the sugar.