Old-Time Cake Doughnuts

The last issue of Taste of Home had a section on “DIY (Do-it-yourself) Doughnuts.” After trying the recipe for the yeast doughnuts, Alyssa thought I should also make the cake doughnuts so she could analyze the difference between the two different types of doughnuts. Bart tends to prefer cake doughnuts while I tend to prefer yeast doughnuts. I obligingly made the batch of cake doughnuts. My summary? Both types of doughnuts are very delicious. The yeast doughnuts are easier to make (the dough is much easier to work with), but each type of doughnut has its place. With this batch, I had fun trying different toppings for the doughnuts. Joshua enjoyed sampling doughnuts this past week and is now dreaming about opening a doughnut shop!

Ingredients

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
3/4 cup 2% milk
Oil for deep-fat frying
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Confectioners’ sugar glaze, vanilla frosting, and toppings as desired (coconut, chopped nuts, sprinkles, etc.)


Directions

In a large bowl, beat butter and 1 cup sugar until crumbly, about 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Combine the flour, baking powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, salt and nutmeg; add to butter mixture alternately with milk, beating well after each addition. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours (I recommend refrigerating overnight—the dough is much easier to work with cold).

Turn onto a heavily floured surface (I recommend only rolling out 1/3 to ½ the batch at a time, leaving remaining dough in the fridge); pat dough to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 3-1/2-in. doughnut cutter. In an electric skillet or deep-fat fryer, heat oil to 375°.

Fry doughnuts, a few at a time, until golden brown on both sides. Drain on paper towels. Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon; roll warm doughnuts in mixture. Alternately, you can dip warm doughnuts in glaze, then frost and/or dip in toppings as desired.

Yield: about 2 dozen.