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This old fashioned cake donut recipe creates cake donuts that are crispy on the outside and give way to a perfectly soft and cakey center, making these an amazing breakfast treat! We grew up eating these and they’ll always be a treasured family favorite.
Oh my word, you guys. I know that I gave myself the title of donut (doughnut?) queen, but really, the title goes to my grandma. I’m just the donut princess.
My grandma created the best dang cake donut recipe ever and I’ve been dying to share it with you. Anytime I make these, I get shot straight back to my childhood.
Visiting my grandma on vacation, waiting impatiently for her to fry up these unbelievable donuts, and then eating them until I’d make myself sick. She would often serve the donuts plain, straight from the fryer.
I prefer them tossed in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, but powdered sugar or a glaze works great as well.
What Readers are Saying!
“Very simple but great tasting recipe. I drained the donuts on racks that were placed in paper towel lined cookie sheets.” – Mary
These are cake donuts, which means there is no waiting on yeast to do it’s thing.
Instead, the donuts have baking powder in them to help them rise.
You’ll love these donuts. I’m telling you – better than bakery donuts, by far!
How to make fried cake donuts:
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Use a stand mixer with a dough hook to beat together butter, sugar, and egg.
In a separate bowl, combine your flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt.
Knead the dough for a couple of minutes until it is workable. If it is too sticky still, you can add a tablespoon of flour at a time until it is workable.
Roll the dough out on a floured surface trying to make it a consistent thickness about 1/4″ thick. Use a donut cutter to cut the donuts.
Add the donuts to a pot of oil that is 375 degrees F. Add in as many as will fit without crowding the pan. Fry until golden which should take about 2 minutes on each side at the recommended temp.
When you remove the donut from the fryer, drain on a paper towel lined plate.
Toss each donut on a plate with a mixture of cinnamon and sugar that uses 1/2 cup of sugar and 2 teaspoons of cinnamon. Coat both sides. Alternately, place the cinnamon and sugar in a brown paper bag and shake the donuts to coat.
Helpful Tip!
Invest in a thermometer!
I know many people don’t like to fry, so here are my best tips. Invest in a thermometer! They cost about five dollars and are worth every penny.
You want to keep your oil at a consistent temperature so that your donuts don’t get too greasy. Greasy donuts means your oil isn’t hot enough! 375 degrees is perfect for these donuts.
Leftover grease ideas:
After you’ve fried the donuts, you can keep the oil covered for a week or two and use it for frying other foods.
We try to use oil that fried sweet foods for frying other sweet foods, and oil that fried savory foods for other savory foods.
Use the leftover oil to test out our biscuit donuts or potato donuts next!
If you don’t think you’ll re-use the oil, just let it cool completely and then use a funnel to pour it right back into your empty oil container or an empty milk jug. I try to keep a few empty milk jugs under my kitchen sink or in my pantry for used up oil.
Close the jug up tight and then toss it in your garbage can on garbage day. It’s a pretty simple way to deal with all that leftover oil!
The BEST Cake Donuts
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons butter room temperature
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 3 cups flour more as needed
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- Oil for frying
- Cinnamon Sugar mix for coating the donuts 1/2 cup sugar, 2 teaspoons cinnamon
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg.
- In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients.
- Alternate adding the milk and flour mixture until everything is well combined. Knead for just a couple of minutes. If the dough is too sticky to roll out, add more flour until it's workable, 1-2 tablespoons at a time.
- Roll the dough out on a floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick. Use a donut cutter to cut donuts.
- Add to a pot of 375 degree oil, just a few donuts at a time so as not to crowd the pan, and fry until golden, about 2 minutes each side.
- Drain on a paper towel lined plate before tossing in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar.
- Serve immediately.
Nutrition Information:
This recipe was originally published in February 2014. It was updated in February 2021.
Deb says
I was searching to find a recipe for my elderly mother who wants the dense consistency of an old fashioned cake doughnut but which can be baked instead of fried. However, the misleading name of your blog is “buns in my oven” and it came up with the search I assumed they would in fact be baked, how disappointing to read that they are, in fact friend and certainly not out of your oven!
Karly says
Hi @Deb,
I do actually have a lot of baked donut recipes on my blog, though I don’t limit myself to sharing only bun recipes or recipes from my oven. You can find more donut recipes here, if you’re interested: http://www.bunsinmyoven.com/category/breakfast-2/donuts/
Jordan says
I actually have a question about saving the dough and adapting the flavour. I was wondering if you ever tried making these into chocolate flavour? Also could you make these and freeze the dough? I am going to try these this weekend and play around with it. Sounds delicous though 🙂 thanks!
Karly says
Hi @Jordan,
Sorry I’m late to reply to this! It was a busy weekend. 🙂
I haven’t played with this recipe, but I would imagine you could add add in cocoa powder and just adjust the flour as needed! I bet they’d be delicious with the Special Dark powder from Hershey’s.
I also haven’t tried freezing the dough, so I’m not sure how well that would work. If you try, I’d treat it like any other yeast dough and freeze accordingly.
Good luck!
Carina says
I just made these because I just moved overseas and my husband had been craving donuts. They are absolutely delicious. I will certainly be making them frequently. Thank you.
Carina says
@Carina, I noticed the person who posted before me was having trouble with the dough being too sticky. I also had that problem and just added more flour as needed. I made small ones and bigger ones. For the bigger ones I didn’t make the center hole big enough and they didn’t fry well enough as the smaller ones did. None of the less they were all still very delicious.
Karly says
Hi @Carina,
I’ve updated the recipe to add more flour if the dough is too sticky. Sorry you also had trouble with it!
Inga says
Is it just me or what? Never tried making fried doughnuts before (tried baked ones once – for me they turned out more like bagels not doughnuts). So taste was ok, but they went all flaky kinda, hard to explain, but top part (the side first out of oil) looked as if air was just trying to escape and pushed all crust off the doughnut. And it was crispy and oily. Nothing like the perfectly smooth doughnuts in your pictures. I was dipping them in chocolate and in places the crusty thing actually stayed in chocolate instead of chocolate sticking to doughnut. And my daughter said previous (bagel kinda) doughnuts were nicer. ;( Don’t think i’m gonna try these (or previous ones) again. Still looking for easy recipe to impress my kids who love shop bought doughnuts. Just wondering what did i do wrong? Did everything like recipe. Oh yeah, dough was all sticky and not the kind you can roll out, so i just flattened it with my hands. Still puzzled.
Karly says
Hi @Inga,
Sorry you had trouble with these. You should definitely be able to roll the dough out with these. It shouldn’t be sticky. Sounds like you might have needed more flour.
Jordan says
@Karly, hey igna
the issue you may have had was that the dough was In fact too sticky. your didn’t have enough flour to absorb the moisture and stuff in the dough, so when submerged in fat it started to fall apart. Karly mentions adding more flour, do that and knead a bit more should fix that issue completely for you. Hope that helps! 🙂
dina says
i love doughnuts. they look great!
Karly says
@dina,
Thanks!
Rekha says
Hello! here from foodgawker. Love family recipes and these donut looks truly awesome 🙂 Thank you for sharing the recipe
Karly says
@Rekha,
Thanks for stopping by!
Leiann says
Hi karly-
Can I bake these donuts?
ThanksLeiann
Karly says
@Leiann,
I’ve never tried it myself, but it may work. If you do try, let me know!
Aimee @ ShugarySweets says
You totally are the donut queen! These look awesome Karly!
Chelsea @chelseasmessyapron says
These totally look like the best doughnuts ever. Having serious doughnut cravings now!!
Anna@CrunchyCreamySweet says
Family recipes are the best! These donuts would totally rock my world! Pinned!
Layla @ Brunch Time Baker says
There’s nothing better than granny’s recipes! these donuts look AMAZING!
katie says
Why can’t you live closer to me? These look and sound amazing!!!
Stephanie says
Nothing ever beats a Grandma recipe!
Ashton says
omgomgomgomg. Just YES! I am so making these on Saturday. Just you wait and see! Can I confess something? I’m no stranger to frying or donuts, but I’ve never made cake donuts and I’ve always wanted to!! I have just been TOO LAZY to look up a recipe and see how they’re made.
And see? Laziness pays off. I waited long enough that a recipe just showed up in my reader for me. Voila 🙂
Karly says
@Ashton,
Oh, I hope you try these! I always reach for a yeast donut, unless it’s these cake donuts! They win every time! 🙂
Elizabeth @ Confessions of a Baking Queen says
Wow, I have been thinking about doughnuts lately so much and these fit the bill! Is it bad I want to glaze them then sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top! LOL
Karly says
@Elizabeth @ Confessions of a Baking Queen,
Not bad…totally awesome. 🙂