Strawberry Cake Donuts

These donuts have fulfilled a lifelong goal of mine: to make a donut which looks exactly like one that Homer Simpson would eat. And I think I succeeded. Of course, I would have preferred the longer sprinkles for authenticity, but beggars can't be choosers (Sainsburys only had ONE type of sprinkles, the horror).

The difference between this and regular donuts is that there is no yeast, so no rising time. The leavening agents (bicarb of soda, baking powder) take care of the rising in the heat. What it basically means is that if you want donuts within 45 minutes you can have them. Which is VERY IMPORTANT information.

This wasn’t the easiest recipe to be honest, and a good few of my donuts got slightly charred on the bottom of the pan. But that was usually easily fixed, and icing sugar covers all sins.

The addition of cinnamon in the batter was a complete revelation. They aren’t the sweetest donuts without icing, but the cinnamon gives them a really delicious depth of flavour. And why would you eat an un-iced donut anyway? What are you, watching your figure?

Makes about 9 donuts and 12 middles

Ingredients for the donuts

• 430g plain flour
• 2 scant tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp bicarb of soda
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 175g sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 50g melted butter
• 185ml buttermilk
• Few cups vegetable oil, to half fill a pan

Ingredients for the topping

• Puree of 3 strawberries
• Approx 1 cup icing sugar, I just added about ¼ cup at a time and kept adding until I got the consistency I wanted. Runny but still quite firm.
• SPRINKLES!

Method

Prep the batter. You’ll need three bowls. Mix flour, leavening agents and cinnamon in one medium sized bowl. In a large bowl whisk together the sugar, egg and vanilla for about 2 minutes with a handheld whisk. In a smaller bowl mix the butter and buttermilk and whisk for about 30 seconds until combined.

Okay, now still using the whisk on the egg/sugar bowl, alternately pour in some of the flour mixture and mix, then pour in the buttermilk mixture and whisk. Continue alternating until all are gone, ensuring you start and finish with the flour.

Tip the batter out onto a floured surface and roll out to a thickness of 1cm.

Using a round cutter (I used the biggest one in my set, which maybe was too big in hindsight) cut out donut shapes. Using a smaller cutter (or the wide end of a piping nozzle) cut out a middle circle.

Save the circles to fry at the end, they are delicious!

Now, you’re ready to fry. Heat the oil for a few minutes until bubbling ominously.

Cook 2-3 donuts at a time, carefully, for a minute on each side. Then remove and drain on kitchen roll.

When all cooked, cook the donut middles for about 30 seconds on each side. About 8 should easily fit in the pan.

Allow to cool.

Meanwhile make the strawberry icing. Puree your strawberries – I mashed mine with a fork then strained through a small strainer. Pour in enough icing sugar to get the desired consistency: smooth and thick but still runny enough to fall down the sides slightly.

When the donuts are cooled completely dip the donuts in icing or drizzle the icing sugar over them, whichever you find easiest.

While the icing is wet, sprinkle over some hundreds and thousands and allow the icing sugar to harden completely (if you have great willpower).

The "Homer"

Next time I think I will just make a whole batch of these..

EAT (half of mine were gone before the icing set).