They’re easy, they’re fun, they’re baked Birthday Donuts! They’re moist, filled with sprinkles and topped with buttercream frosting and more sprinkles!
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These Birthday Donuts are everything! They’re tender, cakey and delicious. The colorful rainbow sprinkles make them happy and fun!
I have been wanting to make this recipe ever since I made my Birthday Cake Cookies last spring! Like the cookies, these donuts are perfect for any birthday celebration. They can be enjoyed in place of or in addition to birthday cake!
MORE ABOUT THESE FUNFETTI DONUTS
There’s so much to love about these sprinkle filled Donuts! They are:
- Moist
- Buttery
- Easy and quick: They bake up in ten minutes or less!
- Less messy than fried
- Made with rainbow sprinkles: These donuts are made with (up to) a half a cup of rainbow sprinkles. They make the donuts look so fun and happy. They remind me a lot of my sprinkle filled Mini Strawberry Pies!
- Topped with buttercream frosting: They taste more like cupcakes and donuts, so buttercream is the perfect topping!
WHAT ARE BAKED SPRINKLES DONUTS?
To make these fun Birthday Donuts, you’ll make the baked donuts and frosting.
BAKED DONUTS
I used my Red Velvet Donut recipe as the base for these donuts. I left out the cocoa powder and food coloring. To give them that birthday cake look and flavor, I added lots of rainbow sprinkles and extra vanilla extract!
This easy recipe uses basic pantry ingredients. The only ingredient that you may not have on hand is buttermilk. If that’s the case, you can easily substitute it with plain Greek yogurt, sour cream, or milk.
To make these donuts, I recommend using a donut pan. I use two of these nonstick Wilton pans.
BUTTERCREAM FROSTING FOR BAKED DONUTS
I usually top my donuts with a homemade glaze or ganache. I topped my Lemon Blueberry Donuts with a simple lemon glaze.
For my Chocolate Frosted Chocolate Cake Donuts and my Peanut Butter Donuts, and Baked Banana Donuts, I topped them with an easy two ingredient chocolate ganache.
These Birthday Cake Donuts are topped with buttercream frosting . Frosting isn’t common on donuts, but baked donuts taste more like cupcakes than donuts. Also, these are Birthday Cake Donuts and what is a birthday cake without frosting?!
This simple buttercream frosting is made with unsalted butter, sifted powdered sugar, heavy cream, vanilla and salt. Make the frosting while the donuts are cooling. The frosting can be spread on with a knife or piped on with a large star tip. I used a Wilton 1M piping tip.
How to Make Baked Sprinkle Donuts
- Make the donut batter: Sift together the dry ingredients. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Whisk til just combined then fold in the sprinkles.
- Fill the donut pans: My donut pans make six donuts each. I have two pans and bake them at the same time. The number of donuts this recipe makes will vary slightly depending on how full you fill the donut pans. The easiest way to fill the donut molds is by using a large zip lock bag. Spoon the batter into the bag then snip a bottom corner off. Pipe the batter evenly into the pans.
- Bake: 8-10 minutes until the edges are lightly golden or a toothpick comes out clean.
- While the donuts cool, make the frosting: Beat the room temperature butter for one minute. Add the sifted powdered sugar, cream, vanilla and salt. Beat two minutes.
- Pipe or frost the cupcakes: Since the donuts are brown and the icing is white, I thought my donuts looked like bagels with cream cheese when I frosted them with a knife! For this reason and because I wanted them to have a cake vibe, I decided to pipe the frosting on! Extra sprinkles on top are always a good idea!
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
I highly recommend using a donut pan. Donut pans are basically molds with holes in the middle which give your batter a donut shape. My pans each make six donuts, so I got two pans. I use Wilton donut pans that I bought online.
I have heard about people baking donuts in muffin tins. I haven’t tried it, but I could see how it could work. You would just need to adjust/increase the cooking time if you used a muffin tin.
They are a dessert, so I wouldn’t call them healthy. That said, baked donuts are definitely healthier than fried donuts since they’re not fried in oil.
Filled with sprinkles and topped with an easy buttercream frosting, these Birthday Donuts are as fun as they are delicious! They are also special enough for a birthday or any celebration! Bonus: they are easy enough to make any day of the week! Whenever you make them, they are sure to create lots of smiles!!
Birthday Donuts
Ingredients
FOR THE BIRTHDAY DONUTS
- 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg optional
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- 1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1 egg room temperature*
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter melted
- ½ cup buttermilk * room temperature
- ⅓- ½ cup rainbow sprinkles plus more for decoration, optional
FOR THE FROSTING
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ cup powdered sugar sifted
- 1 ½ tablespoons heavy cream
- ¼- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 pinch of salt
Instructions
FOR THE BIRTHDAY CAKE DONUTS
- Preheat the oven to 350 F and grease donut pans well with butter (preferable- for flavor) or nonstick spray. Lightly dust pans with flour. Tap out excess flour.
- In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, sugar and salt.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the buttermilk, egg, vanilla, and melted butter. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Stir in the sprinkles. Be careful not to overmix. Overmixing may cause the sprinkles to bleed.
- Use a piping bag or zip lock bag with a corner snipped off or spoon to fill the dough into the molds evenly. For average sized baked donuts, fill molds half full. For larger donuts, fill them between 2/3 and 3/4 full.
- Bake 8-10 minutes until toothpick comes out dry or edges are lightly browned. Check for doneness with a toothpick. Let cool in the pans for 2-3 minutes then remove from pan and let donuts cool completely on wire rack.
FOR THE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment or in a large bowl using a hand held mixer, beat the room temperature butter on medium until creamy, 1-2 minutes. Turn the mixer to low and add the sifted powdered sugar followed by the heavy cream, vanilla extract, and salt. Turn speed up to high and beat for 2 more minutes. If the frosting is too thick, add a little more heavy cream. If it's too thin, add more powdered sugar. If it's too sweet, more salt can be added to balance out that sweetness.
- Frost donuts or, spoon frosting into a piping bag fitted with a large star tip. Top with more sprinkles!
Notes
Nutrition
Please note that nutritional values are created by an online calculator and should only be used as an estimate.
*This site contains affiliate links which means that I may receive commissions for purchases made through these links. Please know I only link to products that I use and can recommend based on my experience!
Barbara Briggs Ward
So special for a special day-and that could be any day!
Natalie
Thank you 🙂 These Birthday Donuts definitely are very special looking AND tasting!