Enchantingly Beautiful Vegan Donuts (baked!)

Sometimes, don’t you really want a donut? Every time you pass by a baker you see these beautiful donuts just beckoning you to eat them! I feel that urge and want to tell you that you can BAKE these donuts TODAY! Plus you can make them look so magical, enticing and beautiful that you’ll just not to want to eat them but gaze at how beautiful they are!

Why will you love them!?

They’re:

• home-made
• vegan (no dairy or eggs!)
• Delicious
• Can be glazed with the most beautiful colors!
• Simple ingredients
• Not fried!
• You can have kids decorate and glaze them
• Enjoyable at anytime of the day!

These baked donuts are a happy medium. They’re soft. They’re moist. And the ingredients can be found in your pantry. It is super quick to whip up and I am sure everyone will love them at home!

Wait, is it doughnuts or donuts?

So I’ve always spelt it donut but outside America, I believe it’s spelt doughnut. You can read all about the history of the word and its origin here.

What’s in these delicious donuts?

Apple sauce: Make sure you get unsweetened applesauce when baking! Unsweetened applesauce plays the same roll as eggs in your baking and allows your baked good to be soft and moist inside. I love that you get use to add sweetness to your batter! *Note: you CAN make this with flax meal which I actually prefer.

Coconut oil: Worried about them tasting too coconut-y? Not a problem here! We added unrefined coconut oil to add a bit of crispness to the outside while retaining the softness inside! It replaces butter and also adds a bit of sweetness to the batter. Be aware that coconut oil needs to be at room temperature and mixed completely or you’ll be left with clumps of oil in your batter, which won’t taste good when you bite into your donut! I thought this was interesting: When to cook with olive oil vs coconut oil.

Granulated sugar/Coconut sugar: I offer coconut sugar here as an alternative to granulated sugar. It offers minor nutrients and is less processed than regular sugar. It’s still sugar, at the end of the day! I used granulated sugar for the photos above so the batter doesn’t turn too dark for me.

Apple cider vinegar: I learn so much when baking and learnt that apple cider vinegar supplies the vinegar in the recipe. This acid reacts with the base to create bubbles in the batter. This helps the donuts rise and have a better crumb! Who knew!

Please look below for a more extensive list of ingredients that I used.

Okay, great! I’m all set. Help me make these beauties!

Absolutely! Let’s do it!

Step 1

First, get your oven ready to 350F and grease/spray your donut pan.

Step 2

Set aside your milk and added apple sauce (not pictured).

Step 3

Add in all your ingredients. I like to add my wet ingredients first and add my sugar, dry ingredients and flour last in parts.

Step 4

Mix your batter and pour it into a piping bag. Cut off a small tip and pipe it into your donut pan. Remember to tap the pan firmly against the counter to eliminate air bubbles. I fill them up about 3/4 to almooooost full.

Step 5

Stick them into your oven. I bake them for about 12 minutes or until slightly golden. They should be raised and look uniformly even. Like this:

The best part – let’s do the glaze!

The glaze is the best part of these magical donuts! White glaze for your donuts? Boring! Purple and blue glaze?! Boo-yah! That’s where it’s at!

These are the ingredients you’ll need:

• 2 cups icing sugar
• 5-6 tbsp milk
• 1 tsp @animamundiherbals butterfly pea powder or blue spirulina/sweet potato powder
• 1-2 tsp lemon juice optional *if using butterfly pea powder.

What are natural food powders?

Natural food powders are wonderful to use instead of those gross food colorings that can affect your brain. Here’s a website explaining how red food dye can adversely affect you.

In this recipe, and many other cake recipes, I’ve used:

• Butterfly pea powder: this beautiful powder is made from the butterfly pea plant, which originally comes parts of Southeast Asia. Here’s some more information on this plant.
• Purple sweet potato powder: this purple powder has fiber, vitamin C, antioxidants and minerals.
• Blue spirulina: I’ve used this powder for years. It’s absolutely rich in nutrients! This is what I use.
• Beet root powder: this is a super powerful powder to use! It has so many phytonutrients for your gut, heart and brain! Here’s some more info about it!

There are many other colors you can use such as matcha, tumeric (the real thing but the color produced by different companies such as this one) and even black powders!

Butterfly pea powder

The wonderful characteristic about this powder is that it can change (like magic!) from blue to purple! Check it out:

How to make the glaze

The glaze is the perfect touch to finish off these yummy treats. It adds a lovely sweetness and not to mention looks absolutely stunning! Make sure your donuts have completely cooled.

The secret ingredient to make it this glaze super vibrant is the Anima Mundi Herbals butterfly pea powder. The colour is beautiful!! And it adds a subtle sweetness too.

• Warm up your milk slightly in the microwave and mix in the butterfly pea powder.
• Slowly pour this into your icing sugar and mix until well combined
  • You can add in more milk if it’s too thick or more icing sugar if it’s too thin
• If you want a purple glaze instead of blue, add in lemon juice before the pea powder milk.

Garnishes!

Honestly, the BEST part of any meal/baking is the garnishing. So aside from the brilliant colors you’re glazing your donuts with, while they’re still wet see if you can sprinkle some garnishes on them. What sorts of things can you decorate your donuts with?

• edible flowers like lavender or rose petals
• shredded dried coconut
• chocolate shavings
• sprinkles
• crumbled nuts
• freeze dried strawberries or raspberries

What do you do with your leftover donuts?

I’m sure your neighbors would love them! But if you don’t have anyone to accept these magical beauties, you can place them in an airtight container on the counter for 3 days. Do be prepared that, with any baked goods, they will dry out no matter the tightness of a container that you place them into.

Rewarm them until they’re just warm as the glaze will melt right off if you nuke them.

Thank you so much for visiting! I hope you enjoyed making this recipe and if you do, please leave me a review! Or send a photo to my social media! I really appreciate you and it means a lot to that you came by!

Other yummy baked treats to try

Easy and Moist Apple Cinnamon Banana Bread Recipe

Delicious and Easy Blueberry Filled Muffins