Easy Homemade Baked Cake Donuts without Yeast

Easy Homemade Baked Cake Donuts without Yeast

Why You Should Give This Recipe a Try

As a super experienced baker even I will agree that yeast can be tricky. It is probably one of the last things I mastered and it took me quite some time to get there. While working on my yeast baking skills, I also developed lots of recipes that yielded delicious baked good without the yeast. These Easy Homemade Baked Cake Donuts without Yeast are the perfect recipe for making moist, rich, flavorful donuts, without the wait time or finicky aspects of yeast donuts. Flavored with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and a pinch of all spice, these donuts are perfect little cakes for serving alongside a hot cup of tea or your morning coffee. Try either the cinnamon sugar coating, powdered sugar, or vanilla glaze for three old-fashioned donuts from one recipe! Any way you coat them, hot, fresh donuts are never a mistake.

Some of the best features of this recipe:

No Yeast: No yeast means no worrying that your yeast is expired or that you have killed it with hot liquid. 

Quick: You know the part about no yeast? That also means no waiting around for the dough to rise.

Less mess: One of the things that really puts me off about making other types of donuts is the hot oil. What do I do with this oil once I’m done? I know it isn’t a big deal, but in my opinion, baking donuts is the truly easy way to prepare them.

Moist: Sour cream provides the tang typical of old-fashioned donuts, but with a bit of milk, also keeps the donuts super moist. Dunking is highly approved, but not necessary!

Variety: The base cake is a light spice flavor but from there, you can make cinnamon sugar donuts, powdered sugar donuts, or vanilla glazed donuts. 

As with everything I make, Easy Homemade Cake Donuts Without Yeast is an easy recipe with no complex cooking techniques, no expensive equipment, and with basic ingredients you can find in any grocery store.

Recipe Ingredients

Cake Donuts:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1/4 ground cloves

pinch of allspice 

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup granulated sugar (white sugar)

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 large eggs (room temperature)

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sour cream (room temperature)

1/4 milk (lowfat is fine) (room temperature)

Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

6 tbsp melted butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 tbsp cinnamon

Vanilla Glaze:

​4 cups powdered sugar

1/4 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

Helpful Tools

• Donut pan 
• Nonstick cooking spray
• Large bowl
• Small bowl (microwave safe)
• Fine mesh sieve
• ​Dry measuring cups
• Liquid measuring cup
• ​Measuring spoons
• Whisk
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment/electric mixer 
• ​Rubber spatula
• ​Gallon Ziploc/plastic bag or piping bag
• Wire rack
• Small, shallow bowl
• ​Shallow dish/pie plate

Ingredient Notes

Butter: I tend to use salted butter in all of my recipes and skip adding extra salt. I’m sure someone somewhere has a reason why this wrong, but it works great for me since I don’t need to buy unsalted butter exclusively for baking.

Sour cream: Use full fat sour cream in this recipe for the richest taste.

Milk: While I do use full fat sour cream, I add lowfat milk for the practical reason that, like the butter, I don’t want to buy things I’m not going to use in other ways.

Flour: Don’t skip sifting your flour (directions in Tips & Tricks) to ensure you have a smooth donut dough.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Cake Donuts:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2. Sift the flour into a large bowl. See Tips & Tricks below for information on how to correctly measure and sift your flour.

3. Add the baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, ground cloves, and a pinch of allspice to the flour and gently whisk to combine. Set aside.

4. Cut the butter into tablespoon size pieces (doesn’t have to be exact) and add to a small, microwave-safe bowl. Melt the butter in the microwave starting with 30 seconds. It is ok if a few small, unmelted pieces remain.

5. Add the melted butter, granulated sugar, and packed brown sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Mix on low speed until thoroughly combined, about one minute.

6. Crack the eggs into a cup and transfer to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix on low speed until combined.

7. Add the vanilla extract and mix in.

8. Mix in the sour cream and milk.

9. Slowly add the dry ingredients, 1/2 at a time. Mix on low speed, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula to ensure everything incorporated. Be careful not to over mix, stopping as soon as the flour mixture is completely blended into the donut batter. Over mixing batter will negatively affect the texture of the donuts. 

10. Spray the donut pan with non-stick cooking spray.

11. Add a portion of the donut batter to a gallon size Ziploc or a piping bag. I do this by propping the bag up in a large glass and folding over the sides. Do not overfill the bag as the batter will end up flowing over the top. 

12. Gently squeeze the batter into each cavity in the donut pan, filling about 2/3.

13. Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean, about 20 minutes.

14. Let the donuts cool for ten minutes in the pan, then transfer to a wire rack. If want a simple powdered sugar coating, roll the warm donuts in the sugar and allow to cool. 

Cinnamon Sugar Topping:

1. Stir together the granulated sugar and cinnamon in a shallow dish. A pie pan works well for this.

2. Cut the butter into roughly tablespoon sized pieces and place in a microwave safe dish. A small shallow bowl appropriate for dipping is best. Microwave until melted, about 30 seconds.

3. Work on coating one donut at a time. Start by dipping the donut lightly but completely (don’t soak it) in the melted butter.

4. Roll the donut in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Shake off the excess.

Vanilla Glaze Topping:

1. Sift the powdered sugar into a bowl.

2. Add the milk and vanilla and whisk until smooth. Adjust to your desired thickness adding a bit more milk for a thinner glaze, more sugar for a thicker one.

3. Dip each donut in the glaze allowing the excess of fall back into the bowl.

4. Place the glazed donut on a wire rack until set. Leave enough space between donuts so that they don’t stick to one another. 

Check out the complete easy baked donut recipe for Easy Homemade Baked Cake Donuts without Yeast including step-by-step directions on the printable recipe card, below.

Storage

Store leftover donuts in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.

Tips & Tricks

Normally the first direction I write after instructing people to preheat the oven is to prepare the pan. I find that if you spray the donut pan too early, though, the nonstick spray puddles in the bottom of each cavity. It is better, then, if you wait until the batter is ready before spraying the pan.

Measure flour out using the spoon and level method, the most accurate way. Spoon the flour into the measuring cup and then level it off using the back of a knife or a spatula. Follow up by sifting the flour to remove any lumps. Gently add the flour to a fine mesh sieve over a large bowl and shake it back and forth.

Frying is the traditional way of producing fluffy donuts, but this recipe produces a nice, light crumb. In order to get them just right, avoid over mixing the dough. Beat the ingredients together until they are just combined and that’s it!

This recipe produces 14-15 donuts. I definitely overfilled my donut pans because I was lazy and didn’t want to do a second bake. Don’t be me. It really messed with the donut shape – but not with the delicious flavor. Good enough, right?

I do love an old-fashioned baked good – maybe because I am old. These Easy Homemade Baked Cake Donuts without Yeast fit the bill, but here are some of my other favorites:

Easy Traditional Irish Butter Shortbread Cookies

Soft Ginger Cookies with Marshmallow Buttercream

Easy Homemade German Apple Strudel with Puff Pastry

Best Old-Fashioned Soft & Chewy Iced Oatmeal Cookies

Best Apple Coffee Cake with Cinnamon Crumb Topping