If you take me to a doughnut shop, I’ll order a cake doughnut.
If I order a cake doughnut, I might want a cake doughnut with a crispy, coarse, sugary topping.
If you take me to a doughnut shop in October or November, I’m going to want a pumpkin pie spice baked cake doughnut with turbinado sugar topping.
(I might have a first grader reading the ‘If You Give a Mouse’ … series)
Mini Baked Pumpkin Pie Donut Bites
I know that the *thing* is hot, yeasty, glazed, sticky, sugary, air filled glazed doughnuts.
Y’all can have those all day long with my blessings.
I want a doughnut that I can sink my teeth into.
I want a doughnut that stands up to hot chocolate, or milk, or coffee. I want a doughnut that leaves me feeling happy, and sated. I’ve never met a glazed yeasty doughnut that left me with any feeling other than sticky fingers.
These Pumpkin Pie spiced, crunchy turbinado sugar topped little cake doughnut bites are a cross between mini muffins and baked cake doughnuts.
They have all the depth, texture, and deliciousness of a cake doughnut, baked into a mini muffin pan
The best of so many worlds
These really are cake doughnut-meets mini muffin-meets fall flavors-meets happiness.
Are you a glazed doughnut person or a cake doughnut person?
Pumpkin Pie Cake Doughnut Bites
Ingredients
- 3 ½ C sifted all purpose flour
- 4 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 ¼ teaspoons pumpkin pie spice
- 2/3 Cups butter I use salted
- 2 large eggs
- 2 Cup granulated white sugar
- 1 C pumpkin puree not pie filling
- ½ C buttermilk**
- 1 C Turbinado sugar optional, but not really because this really makes these
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350° F
- Over a large bowl, sift 3 Cups flour.
- Using a spoon (so you don’t pack the flour down), measure out 3 ½ Cups sifted flour into another large bowl.
- Add baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pumpkin pie spice.
- In a large mixing bowl cream together butter, eggs, and granulated sugar
- Add in pumpkin puree, and blend completely, scraping the sides and bottom of the bowl.
- Alternately add dry ingredients and buttermilk to the pumpkin mixture; scraping the sides and mixing well between each addition.
This is a very thick batter
- I use my cookie scoop to scoop the batter into my (very well) sprayed mini muffin tins
- Generously top each batter filled mini muffin tin with turbinado sugar.
- Bake for 10 - 12 minutes – Start checking at 10 minutes. You do NOT want overcook these. The muffins will spring back to touch when done; or a dry spaghetti stick will come out free of batter.
Notes
These are like the wedding between cake truffles and Dunkin Donuts munchkins. Wow, this hits it out of the park! Love
Thank you, Ali! They’re definitely a HUGE hit with my entire family!
These are brilliant, Rachel! I would happily dunk these into a cup of coffee. And I love the If You Give a Mouse series.
Girl, if I’m being honest there’s really not any donut I’d kick out of bed 😉 But more often than not cake donuts are my jam! And pumpkin?! YES PLEASE!!!
What a brilliant idea! Now I want a childrens book about these! 😉
Rachel @ http://ittybittyivie.blogspot.com/
Ha! I need to get right on that 😉
Where did you buy your teal bowls? I love them!
Thank you! I love World Market! Excited to try this recipe also!!
Curious about the shortening…I don’t think I’ve ever seen that used in a muffin/donut recipe.
Total doughnut satisfaction! I wish I had a whole handful of these!
Can I please have 50 of these? Warm? xo
These look soooo yummy! And for the record, THIS Northerner ALWAYS has buttermilk 🙂 Probably because I was raised by my very Southern grandparents! Can’t wait to try this!
It would be so hard not to eat the entire batch! Beautiful photos!