These tasty vanilla bean cake donuts are the perfect treat dipped in delicious homemade blueberry glaze. They are light, fruity and ideal for brunch or even dessert.

When I first start playing around with making homemade donuts, these vanilla bean cake donuts with blueberry glaze were a smash hit with my family right away.

I had been wanting to try my hand at homemade cake donuts for a while, and it turns out it’s so much easier than you think. Roll up your sleeves and let’s make donuts!

As donut recipes go, this one is seriously a cinch to make and the glaze also couldn’t be easier. Bookmark this one, friends! You have the star of your next weekend brunch right here.

Oh, and I promise. You can totally make these. Donuts are not intimidating! (I was a bit intimidated myself, to be honest.)

Ingredients for Cake Donuts

• Flour – For this cake donut recipe I like to use basic all-purpose flour as the foundation
• Sugar – The donut batter is sweetened with white granulated sugar
• Baking powder – Because these are cake donuts, baking powder is used for leavening
• Salt – I prefer to use kosher salt in my baking or a fine grain sea salt
• Milk – I used dairy milk, but a non-dairy milk should also work with this recipe
• Vanilla extract – Select a good quality vanilla extract for maximum flavor
• Vanilla bean paste – Vanilla bean paste is a thick molasses consistency and adds so much vanilla flavor
• Eggs – Use three large eggs for this cake donut recipe
• Butter – Unsalted butter is melted and added to the donut batter

Ingredients for Blueberry Glaze

• Powdered sugar – The basis of the blueberry glaze is powdered sugar that has been sifted
• Fresh blueberries – Cook down fresh blueberries to create a juice that flavors the glaze
• Water – A bit of tap or filtered water is used to cook down the berries

Can You Bake Donuts?

Yes! You definitely can. This recipe is for baked vanilla bean cake donuts and they are amazingly tasty.

The texture ends up slightly different than fried donuts, but they are no less delicious. Baked donuts are also less greasy and a bit healthier since they aren’t submerged in bubbling oil. 

What Are Cake Donuts?

Cake donuts are donuts with a cake-like consistency that use baking powder as the leavening agent. They are a bit denser and have more of a crumb to them than yeast donuts.

Cake donuts you may be familiar with are old fashioned donuts, apple cider donuts, and chocolate cake donuts.

Raised donuts use yeast instead of baking powder and have a lighter, airier consistency. Donut shop glazed donuts are generally yeast donuts.

 

How to Make Homemade Cake Donuts

1. Preheat oven to 425° and grease your donut pan. I like to use non-stick cooking spray to make it simple.
2. In a mixing bowl, sift or whisk together the all-purpose flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, eggs and melted butter until thoroughly combined.
4. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. The mixture will be very thick and quite sticky.
5. Transfer to the batter to a piping bag and pipe rings of batter into a well greased donut pan. If you don’t have a piping bag, use a large plastic baggie and snip off the corner of the bag with the scissors.
6. Bake in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes until lightly golden around the edges.
7. Carefully transfer to a baking rack to cool completely before glazing.
8. Make the blueberry glaze per the instructions below. 
9. Once the donuts are fully cool, gently dunk each donut into the glaze, then return it to the rack.
10. Let the donuts sit for 15 to 20 minutes so the glaze can set up and harden slightly before serving.
11. If you’d like to add sprinkles, add those while the glaze is fresh and before it has hardened.

How to Make Blueberry Glaze

1. Place blueberries and 1/4 of water in a small saucepan over over medium heat.
2. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until the blueberries are cooked down.
3. Add extra water as necessary while cooking down the blueberries to keep them from sticking or burning.
4. Remove the blueberries from the heat and strain through a small sieve into a small bowl.

Tips for Making Vanilla Bean Cake Donuts

1. Make sure your donut pan is well greased. I have these Wilton donut pans and they work great!
2. Allow your donuts to cool completely before glazing. Otherwise you’ll have a mess on your hands.
3. Use a wire rack to cool your donuts to avoid the bottoms becoming soggy.
4. Let the glaze set for 15 to 20 minutes before plating or serving. Let it set for an hour or longer before storing the donuts.
5. Want to add sprinkles to your glaze? Make sure to add sprinkles with the glaze is still fresh, right after dipping.

More Breakfast Recipes You Might Love:

• Glazed apple fritter waffles
• Peanut butter breakfast parfaits
• Spinach broccolini goat cheese
• 8 ways to make avocado toast
• Pumpkin spice oatmeal energy bites
• Berry and cream cheese breakfast pastries
• Strawberry yogurt pancakes

Vanilla Bean Cake Donuts with Blueberry Glaze

Yield: 18

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Additional Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 45 minutes

These tasty vanilla bean cake donuts are the perfect treat dipped in delicious homemade blueberry glaze.

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Ingredients

For the Donuts

• 3 cups all-purpose flower
• 1-1/4 cups white sugar
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 2 teaspoons vanilla bean paste
• 3 large eggs
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

For the Blueberry Glaze

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425° then, in a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together milk, vanilla extract, vanilla bean paste, eggs and melted butter until thoroughly combined.
3. Fold in the dry ingredients until well combined. The mixture will be thick and quite sticky.
4. Using a piping bag (or a plastic bag with the corner snipped off), pipe batter into a greased donut pan.
5. Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until lightly golden around the edges.
6. In the meantime, place blueberries and half of the water in a saucepan over medium heat and cook down blueberries for approximately 10 minutes, adding additional water as necessary to keep them from cooking onto the pan.
7. Sift the powdered sugar into a small mixing bowl.
8. Remove the blueberries from the heat and strain into a second small bowl using a fine mesh sieve.
9. Add four tablespoons of the strained juice into the sifted sugar and whisk to combine, adding additional blueberry juice as needed to create a glaze. (It should be about the consistency of pancake batter when it’s done.)
10. Meanwhile, remove baked donuts from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool before glazing.
11. Once cool, dunk donuts one by one into the glaze, then return to the rack and allow the glaze to set up for 15 – 20 minutes before serving.

Notes

If you'd like to add sprinkles, add them right after glazing the donuts, before the glaze has a chance to harden slightly.

[Recipe by Cyd Converse | Photos by Alice G. Patterson for The Sweetest Occasion.]