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red velvet donuts with cream cheese frosting

Course Dessert
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 6 large donuts

Ingredients

  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed
  • 2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 large egg, room temp
  • 1/2 cup low fat buttermilk
  • 3 tablespoons melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 teaspoons red food coloring

cream cheese frosting

  • 2 ounces cream cheese, room temp
  • 2 tablespoons butter, room temp
  • 1 teaspoon clear vanilla flavoring/imitation vanilla (if you use normal/brown vanilla extract, your cream cheese frosting won't be extra white)
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • pinch of fine sea salt
  • splash of milk (less than a tablespoon)
  • + sprinkles or food coloring to decorate

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat a large donut pan* with cooking spray or butter.

  2. Whisk together flour, brown sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, butter, vanilla extract, and red food coloring until well combined. Using a rubber spatula, mix in the dry ingredients from step two then stir until well combined and a batter forms.
  4. Transfer batter to a piping bag or ziploc bag with the corner snipped. Pipe batter into prepared donut pan, filling each donut opening/mold only 2/3rds full, then bake for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a donut comes out clean. Alternatively, you could spoon the batter into pan. Let donuts cool a few minutes in the pan before transferring to a wire rack to cool to room temp.

  5. Dip or spread frosting on cooled donuts (x2 if you so choose) then garnish with sprinkles and/or striped colored frosting.

cream cheese frosting

  1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment (or in a large bowl with a whisk), beat the cream cheese, butter, and vanilla flavoring together until completely smooth. Add in the powdered sugar, salt, and splash of milk then continue to beat until a smooth frosting forms. If you wish to garnish with frosting stripes, scoop about 1/4 cup of white frosting into a small bowl, add food coloring of choice then mix until correct color forms. Transfer colored frosting to a piping bag with a small opening tip then pipe stripes onto donuts as you see fit :)

Recipe Notes

*This is the donut pan I used! Total time includes cooling and frosting time.