Baked Red Velvet Donuts with Cream Cheese Drizzle

It’s so secret I love red velvet cake. I mean, I have an entire Pinterest board dedicated to all things red velvet. I love it so much, I insist on baking my own birthday cake each year to ensure the cake is just right and that the cream cheese frosting is much more cream cheese than frosting.

This classic southern dessert is equally perfect for other holidays. I think it’s deep red color makes it a perfect sweet for Valentine’s Day. So when my friend Kelly gave me a doughnut pan for Christmas, I knew I would break it in by trying an adaptation of my favorite dessert.

Baked Red Velvet Doughnuts with Cream Cheese Drizzle

Adapted from Taste and Tell
Makes 12 doughnuts

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted with 2 ounces unsweetened chocolate
1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1 tablespoon red food coloring

*If you don’t have buttermilk you can substitute it by squeezing the juice of a quarter of a lemon into a measuring cup. Add enough whole milk to make 1/2 cup and let it sit out for 5-10 minutes, or until the milk thickens a bit and begins to curdle.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degree. Spray a doughnut pan with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Set aside. In a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and chocolate in 30 second intervals until completely melted. Mix to combine.

3. In the bowl of a large stand mixture, combine the sugar and egg until light and creamy. Add the butter and chocolate mixture, vanilla, buttermilk and red food coloring. Mix until all the ingredients until they are combined. Gradually add the flour mixture to the mixing bowl, blending entirely after each addition. The dough will be thick and look more like a cookie dough than cake batter.

4. Use your hands to fill the doughnut pan with dough. I found it baked up the prettiest when I rolled the dough into long hot dog shapes (getting technical here) and place it in the pan. I did that with half of the dough in the photo below. Can you guess which ones I didn’t do that too?

5. Bake for about 12 minutes or until they are done. Allow them to cool in the pan for about 10 minutes then remove them from the pan and bake the second batch.

Cream Cheese Drizzle

Ingredients:
2 oz. cream cheese (1/4 of one block), softened
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup powdered sugar
1/6 cup whole milk

Directions:
Blend all the ingredients using a stand or hand mixer. Pour the mixture in a pastry bag or zip-top bag and cut the end or corner off to create a tip. Drizzle the mixture all over the doughnuts.