To make cake doughnuts from scratch, mix a stiff dough with baking powder, chill it until it firms up, roll it about half an inch thick, cut rings, and fry two at a time in oil held between 340 and 360F. It is about 30 minutes of hands-on work plus an hour of chilling, and that hour of chilling is the step most people skip.
Cake doughnuts get their lift from baking powder, not yeast, so there is no second rise to wait for. The dough gets stiff in the fridge, which is exactly what you want, because a firm ring holds its shape in the oil and a soft one spreads into a pancake. If you want the chewier, airier style, that is a yeast doughnut and a different process.
The one secret worth knowing before you start: the dough is supposed to be sticky. Leave it that way. Extra flour is what turns a tender crumb into a brick, and it is the reason most bad batches are bad.
Table of Contents
What You Need
Everything below comes from a standard pantry. Nothing needs to be bought specially unless you do not already own a doughnut cutter or an instant-read thermometer, and both are worth the money.
Dough
- 2 1/4 cups (280 g) all-purpose flour — the structure. Spoon and level it, do not scoop.
- 2/3 cup (85 g) granulated sugar — sweetness and a tender crumb, plus it browns as it fries.
- 2 teaspoons baking powder — your entire leavener. Double acting, so it works during mixing and again in the hot oil.
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda — a small partner that reacts with the buttermilk acid for a lighter crumb.
- 1/2 teaspoon fine salt — balances the sugar. Doughnuts without salt taste flat and nobody can say why.
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg — optional in the sense that the doughnuts still work without it, and a different doughnut entirely with it. Grate it fresh, the jar version tastes dusty.
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (180 ml) buttermilk, room temperature — its acid reacts with the baking soda. Do not substitute milk plus lemon juice; it is not the same and the crumb suffers.
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 6 tablespoons (85 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled 10 minutes — room temperature butter, not cold, is the switch that fixes a rubbery doughnut.
To fry
2 to 3 cups (about 1.5 liters) of a neutral oil such as canola, peanut or sunflower, poured 2 inches deep into a heavy pot. You want a wide pot so two doughnuts fit flat without touching, and you want it no more than half full of oil. Vegetable shortening works and gives the most doughnut flavor of the three, but it smokes earlier and needs closer watching.
To finish
A wire rack set over a sheet pan, a slotted spoon or spider, and either a bowl of cinnamon sugar or a quick glaze: 2 cups (240 g) powdered sugar, 2 to 3 tablespoons milk and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla, stirred thin enough to drip.
Step-by-Step: How to Make Cake Doughnuts from Scratch
Nine things happen, and only one of them takes real patience. Work through them in order and you get about a dozen doughnuts plus a handful of holes.
Step 1: Mix the Dough Until It Just Comes Together
Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg in a large bowl. In a second bowl or a measuring jug, whisk the eggs, buttermilk, vanilla and cooled butter together until smooth.
Pour the wet into the dry and stir with a spoon or spatula until no dry flour is visible, about 30 seconds. That is the whole mixing step. Do not knead, do not use a stand mixer on low, do not add flour because it looks shaggy.
It will look like sticky cookie dough and it is supposed to. Scrape it into a bowl, press the top flat, cover, and move on. Lumps come out during the chill.
Step 2: Chill the Dough for at Least 1 Hour
This is the step that decides whether your doughnuts keep their shape, and an hour is the floor. Overnight in the fridge is better if your schedule allows it.
You are chilling for two reasons. Water in the dough firms up, which means the rings hold an edge in the oil, and the flour hydrates, which means the crumb tastes less raw and bakes more evenly. The dough is ready to roll when it is firm to the touch and no longer tacky enough to smear across the counter. Poking it should leave a dent, not a crater.
Take it out of the fridge about 15 minutes before you roll, so it is workable but still cold.
Step 3: Roll the Dough and Cut the Cake Doughnut Rings
Flour a surface lightly and roll the dough to about half an inch thick. A quarter inch gives you a crisp, thin, almost biscuit doughnut. Three quarters inch gives you the plush bakery version. Anywhere in between is fine, but check the thickness in three spots, because an uneven sheet means some doughnuts brown before others cook.
Cut rings with a doughnut cutter, packing donuts, or the two wide ends of a metal measuring cup set about 2 inches apart. Press straight down and twist once so the cut comes out clean instead of stretched.
Cut holes last. They fry faster than the rings, so their smaller size is worth accounting for later. Scraps can be gathered, patted flat, re-chilled for 20 minutes and re-rolled once. Do not roll them a third time; the gluten has already been worked and the holes come out tough.
Step 4: Fry Two at a Time Until Golden
Heat the oil to 350F (175C) before you cut anything. If you have no thermometer, drop a small piece of dough into the oil: if it sinks and does not bubble at once, the oil is too cool. If it browns in under 30 seconds, it is too hot. A wooden spoon held in the oil should give off steady bubbles within a few seconds for the same answer.
Set the rack over the sheet pan and the bowl of cinnamon sugar or glaze where you can reach it before you start, because doughnuts go from done to soggy fast.
Slide the doughnuts in with a slotted spoon or spider, laying them away from you so any spatter goes outward. Two at a time, more only if your pot is wide and your oil holds temperature. Cook about 90 seconds on the first side.
Watch the top rather than the clock. A doughnut that sinks and stays down is not cooking through. Watch for the moment it floats, then look for the pale crack that opens along the top and the edges that turn a deeper gold. That crack means the baking powder has puffed the center and the interior is setting. Flip with the spider and cook another 45 to 60 seconds on the second side, aiming for an even golden brown all over.
The float, the crack, the golden edge. Those three cues mean you can stop trusting the clock entirely, which matters, because a thermometer tells you about oil and a timer tells you nothing about a 3/4 inch doughnut versus a 1/4 inch one.
Doughnut holes go in after the rings, about 45 to 60 seconds per batch, moving more often since they cook from all sides.
Lift them out to the rack, not a paper towel, and leave them there. A rack drains the bottom. Paper traps steam underneath and softens the crust you just built.
Step 5: Drain on a Rack, Then Glaze While Warm
Wait until they are warm rather than hot, roughly 3 minutes. A glaze poured on a hot doughnut runs straight off and pools underneath. On a warm one it sets into a thin shell.
Dip the top face into the glaze, or spoon it over and let the excess drip back into the bowl. Cinnamon sugar goes on the same way: press the warm doughnut into the bowl face down and lift straight up.
Eat them the same day if you can. See storage notes below.
Common Mistakes
Nearly every bad cake doughnut batch traces back to four things: dough too soft, oil too cool, dough rolled too thick, or flour added out of panic. Here is the failure by failure version.
- Greasy, heavy doughnuts — the oil sat below 350F, or the pot was crowded so the temperature dropped fast. Fry two at a time, reheat the oil to 350F between batches, and test it again before dropping anything in.
- Raw, doughy center — the dough was rolled too thick, or the oil was much hotter than 350F so the outside scorched before the middle set. Roll to about half an inch, weigh one ring before you fry the batch, and keep the thermometer in the oil the whole time.
- Dense, brick-like crumb — extra flour was added to a sticky dough, or the dough was overmixed. Stop mixing when no dry flour remains, roll lightly, and trust the chill to handle the rest.
- Fell apart or spread in the oil — the dough was warm and sticky from an under-length chill. Chill the full hour, roll the dough cold, and use a spider or slotted spoon rather than your hand.
- Too pale and oily — the oil never reached 350F before frying started. Heat the oil first and cut the doughnuts second. The order matters more than the amount of oil.
- Too dark outside, burnt edge — the oil climbed above 370F, which happens fast if you fry the holes in the same oil first. Fry rings first, pull the oil back to 350F, then fry the holes.
- Tough or rubbery rings — cold ingredients, especially butter straight from the fridge, or dough that was re-rolled too many times. Room temperature eggs, milk and butter, and scraps rolled no more than once.
- Glaze slid off in a puddle — the glaze went on too hot, or was mixed too thin. Dip at warm, not hot, and thicken the glaze with more powdered sugar until it drips slowly off the spoon.
Before you heat the oil
Deep frying gets safety talk skipped, and it deserves a few minutes. Fill the pot no more than half way with oil. Turn the handle inward so a swinging pan cannot knock it. Keep a lid and a metal sheet pan within arm’s reach, since a lid covers a splatter fire and a pan covers a pot fire, and never carry a pot of hot oil away from the stove.
Lower doughnuts away from your body and flip away from you, since that is where the spatter goes. Long sleeves, closed shoes, no children in the kitchen while the oil is hot. When you are done, leave the burner off and let the pot cool where it sits before you move or strain it.
Storing and reheating
Cooled cake doughnuts keep about a day at room temperature in a loosely closed container, and the second day is the weakest. A tight seal traps condensation and softens the crust, so leave the lid cracked or leave the container slightly ajar.
For longer storage, freeze them unglazed on a tray, then move them to a bag. Add the glaze or the cinnamon sugar after thawing. Thaw at room temperature, never in the microwave, which dries the crumb and softens the crust at the same time.
To reheat, five minutes in a 325F (165C) oven on a rack beats the microwave in every way that matters.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need yeast for cake doughnuts?
No, and that is the defining feature of this style. Cake doughnuts are leavened by baking powder and a little baking soda reacting with the acid in buttermilk, so there is no second rise and no proofing time. A yeast doughnut is a different animal: softer, chewier, denser, and it needs warm liquid plus roughly 90 minutes of rising.
Why are my cake doughnuts dense?
Three usual culprits. Extra flour stirred in to fix a dough that felt sticky, which is the big one, because sticky dough is correct. Dough that was not chilled long enough to firm up. And pieces rolled too thick for the fry time. Let the dough sit a full hour in the fridge, stop mixing as soon as no dry flour shows, and check one ring for half an inch before you cut the rest.
Can I bake cake doughnuts instead of frying them?
You can, but the same dough will not behave well. The baking powder reacts with moisture, so a baking powder dough bakes into something closer to a dense muffin top, and the fat and sugar that suit hot oil do not suit a dry oven the same way. Baked cake doughnut recipes exist and work, but they are formulated differently, with the batter portioned into a greased donut pan and baked at about 425F.
What oil is best for frying cake doughnuts?
A neutral oil with a high smoke point, so canola, peanut or sunflower. It tastes like nothing, which is what you want, since the flavor should come from the dough. Vegetable shortening gives the most traditional doughnut flavor and shortens nicely, but it has a lower smoke point and needs more attention. Skip olive oil, and skip butter, which browns at frying temperatures and turns acrid.
Can I make the cake doughnut dough the night before?
Yes, and it is the easiest way to have fresh doughnuts at breakfast. Mix and chill the dough, cover it, and keep it in the fridge overnight. Roll and cut straight from the fridge, letting it sit out 10 to 15 minutes so it is workable rather than rock hard. Fry in batches, glaze as each batch comes out, and the whole morning takes about 30 minutes.
Conclusion
Start by mixing the dough and giving it a full hour in the fridge. That chill is the step people skip, and it is what lets the rings hold a clean edge in 350F oil. A clean edge is the difference between a crisp cake doughnut and a greasy one.
Everything after that is heat and attention. Two at a time, float and crack and flip, drain on a rack, dip while warm. That is how to make cake doughnuts from scratch well enough that you stop thinking about it.
