“The Best Friend’s Guide to Breast Cancer” and Pink Donut Holes

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

If you know someone or have a loved one or friend who has breast cancer, I really suggest you read this book:  The Best Friend’s Guide to Breast Cancer, written by Sonja L. Faulkner, who battled breast cancer herself.   It’s easy to feel lost and hopeless when something this tragic happens to you or someone you know, and this book is an inspiring resource.

Not only does this book offer support and inspiration, it also offers information and cancer-fighting foods.  If the book isn’t enough, it also provides websites and organizations that provide more information and help.

Also, 20% of the proceeds of sales from this book go to Pink Lotus Petals, a non-profit organization that provides help for women with breast cancer.

Sonja’s website offers so many delicious recipes for fighting breast cancer, such as Lemony Blueberry Zucchini Loaf,  Tropical Quinoa Pudding Made with Green Tea, and Very Berry Muffins.  Check it out!

Pink Donut Holes
From: Hummingbird High

• 1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup milk, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• A few drops of red food coloring
• 1 cup coconut oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar, for sugar coating

Directions:

1. In a small bowl, whisk together 1 1/4 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together 1/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup buttermilk, 1/4 cup sugar, vanilla, red food color, and 3 tablespoons melted butter until just combined.
3. Combine the small bowl of dry ingredients with the medium bowl of wet ingredients, using a rubber spatula to stir in the dry ingredients and mixing until just combined. Be careful not to overmix, or you will get dense donut holes and I will cry for you. The texture of the dough should be sticky.
4. Preheat 1 cup of oil over medium heat in a 10 inch pan (I used an iron skillet).
5. Once the oil has reached 350 (F), measure out 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a ball with your hands.
6. Drop the dough into the pan of oil. Fry until golden brown on bottom then flip and cook on the reverse side until golden brown.
7. When the donut hole is finished frying, carefully remove with metal tongs or a fork and place on a cooling rack lined with paper towels to absorb the excess oil.
8. When the donut hole has cooled down enough so that it doesn’t burn you when you pick it up, roll in a small bowl filled with 1/2 cup sugar. Set aside.
9. Repeat this process with remaining dough. You can cook more than one donut hole at a time.

New Books by Dede Wilson: Cake Balls and A Baker’s Field Guide to Doughnuts

First of all, Happy Labor Day! 🙂

Second of all, I don’t know if you have any of Dede Wilson’s books, but if you haven’t, you’re missing out.  But don’t worry, I can fix that.

Today, I’m giving away two awesome cookbooks:

Cake Balls
More Than 60 Delectable and Whimsical Sweet Spheres of Goodness

This features all sorts of cake balls- I couldn’t have even imagined some of the cake balls in this book.  Creme Brulee Cake Balls, Espresso Brownie Cake Balls, Key Lime Cake Balls, Mocha Toffee Crunch Cake Balls?!  Tell me you can resists that.  Also, not only does the book have cake ball recipes, but the beginning has the perfect cake, frosting, brownie recipes for the balls.  You won’t find any fake box mixes in this book.  Plus, the step-by-step cake ball making instructions with pictures in the front of the book are extremely helpful.

 

and

A Baker’s Field Guide to Doughnuts
More Than 60 Warm and Fresh Homemade Treats

I love this book because finally, I know how to spell doughnuts, haha!  Kidding.  This book is just as awesome as the cake pop cookbook.  It has baked doughnuts, fried doughnuts, yeast doughnuts, filled doughnuts, everything.   Dede is really good at creating original recipes, like Carrot Cake Doughnuts, Chocolate-Salted Caramel Doughnuts, Creme Brulee Doughnuts, Honey Cream-Filled Doughnuts with Milk and Honey Glaze.  She sold me!

I just got both of the books on Friday and I’ve already bookmarked almost all of the recipes (ha, helpful, huh?). And, I seriously sat in front of the TV last night making cake balls while Kellen and I watched a movie. So, just a warning, this book will make you do weird things.

Who wants these books?

Well, today is your lucky day. I’ve got a copy of each book to give away!  To enter, all you have to do is:

1.  Leave a comment telling me what your favorite cake ball and/or doughnut recipe is.

For additional entries:

2. Like Dede Wilson on Facebook and leave a comment saying you did.
3.  Like What Katie’s Baking on Facebook and leave a comment saying you did.
4.  Follow Dede on Twitter and leave a comment saying you did.
5.  Follow What Katie’s Baking on twitter and leave a comment saying you did. 

Good luck!

The giveaway will end on Monday, September 10th at midnight.  Make sure you leave your email address, or some form of contact information so I can get in contact with you if you win.

Strawberry Funfetti Cake-y Donuts

Sorry for the short hiatus.  I’ve been out of town.  Since I’m about to be a senior in college, none of my friends live at home anymore, so  I took a little trip to go visit one of them.

We are obviously very mature college seniors.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I was really craving donuts, but when you crave donuts at 8 pm you’re usually SOL.  This is one of the few times that baking as a hobby comes in handy.

I’m not really sure what I was thinking with this donuts because first, I tried to make them healthy with whole wheat flour, but then I ended up adding Funfetti cake mix.  I’m a confused person and I apologize.  Luckily confusion spawns yummy, cakey donuts.

To be honest, these just taste like cake in the form of donuts, but if it tempts you at all to make them, these are healthier than cake.  Plus, who doesn’t love cake?

What’s your favorite donut?

 

Strawberry Funfetti Cake-y Donuts
Adapted from: Chocolate and Carrots

Ingredients:

• 1 cup whole wheat
• 1 cup cake mix of choice
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp baking powder
• ¾ cup milk
• 2 large eggs
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 tsp strawberry extract
• ½ cup strawberries, crushed

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Spray the donut pan with canola oil spray. Set aside.
3. In a bowl, combine the whole wheat flour, cake mix, sugar, and baking powder.
4. In another bowl, combine the remaining ingredients.
5. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
6. Either spoon the batter into the pan or put the batter into a large ziplock (or pastry) bag and squeeze into the pan, filling about 2/3 full.
7. Bake for 10-12 minutes, until golden brown on the bottom.
8. Allow the donuts to cool in the pan for about 3 minutes before emptying out onto a cooling rack.

 

 

Giveaway Winner & Baked Coconut Donuts

Congrats to Rust Hawk for being the 10th commenter and winning the Tropical Traditions Coconut Oil giveaway!!

Here’s the perfect recipe to use your coconut oil.

Baked Coconut Donuts.

These were a-mazing.  I’m not really a huge fan of baked donuts, but these are game changers.  They were dense, but a fluffy-dense, and the coconut flavor was so prominent.  These are definitely for coconut lovers, but my mom, who is coconut-neutral, loved them, too.  I topped these with a regular buttercream frosting, but I subbed the vanilla flavoring for coconut and the cream for Almond Joy Creamer.  I topped them with toasted coconut.

Then I took a bite and died.

 

Baked Coconut Donuts
King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
½ cup powdered sugar
2 tablespoons coconut flour (or all-purpose flour for a less-dense donut)
½ cup coconut flakes
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup water
3 tablespoons coconut oil
1/8 tsp coconut flavor
Salt

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375°F. Butter or grease your standard doughnut pan.
2. Whisk together the dry ingredients.
3. In a separate bowl, beat the egg, water, oil, and flavor until frothy.
4. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients, and stir until well combined.
5. Fill each doughnut form about half full, using ¼ cup batter.
6. Bake the doughnuts for 12 to 14 minutes, until they spring back when touched lightly and are very light brown on top.
7. Cool for a few minutes, then spread with glaze, or dust with powdered sugar.

Vanilla Cinnamon Donuts with Vanilla Cinnamon Glaze

When I was exploring my town the other day, I found a cute little donut pan!  They’re all over the blogosphere and I’m probably the last to jump on the donut pan train, but I finally did!!

Reasons why you should get a donut pan:

1.  They make donuts healthier.  Donuts are usually deep-fried, but with a donut pan, you can bake them!
2.  All of these delicious baked donut recipes:


Brown Eyed Baker’s Baked Donuts with Cinnamon Sugar:

Mama Pea’s Chocolate Glazed Cake Donuts:

Amy’s Baked Chocolate Donuts:

Megan’s Strawberry Doughnuts:

Katie’s Cake Batter Donuts:

Got No Milk’s Blueberry (Dairy Free) Donuts:

Angela’s Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Glazed Doughnuts:

Don’t those all look so good???

The donuts I made were so awesome!  They were moist and vanilla-y witch just a hint of cinnamon.  The glaze was the BOMB, too!

Vanilla Cinnamon Donuts with Vanilla Cinnamon Glaze
Adapted from: The White Library

Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
2 eggs,beaten
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 tsp vegetable oil
4 tbsp applesauce
1 tsp cinnamon


Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Whisk flour and baking powder in a medium bowl, then combine with sugar.
2. Beat egg one at a time with milk, oil, applesauce, cinnamon, and vanilla extract until well blended. Then combine with flour mixture.  Mix vigorously until well blended.
3. Lightly spray donut pan with cooking spray. Pour batter into molds up to 2/3 full. *Optional: Sprinkle the unbaked donuts with brown sugar before baking.
4. Bake 10 -15 minutes or until tops spring back when lightly touched and donuts are golden brown. 
5. Remove from oven and let cool down before glazing.


Glaze:


Ingredients:

• 1 cup confectioner’ s sugar
• 1 1/2 tbsp. milk
• ½ tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 tsp. cinnamon 

Directions:
In small bowl, stir together sugar, milk, cinnamon, and vanilla extract until sugar is completely dissolved. If mixture is too thick, add a little more milk. If too thin, add more sugar.  You can add a couple of drops of food coloring for different colored glazes. Dip top of donuts in glaze and let the glaze set and dry before serving.

Duffins–Donut Muffins

The weather is beautiful!!  Seriously.  70 degrees, cool, breezy.  It smells like fall… you know the smell.  The leaves are about to be changing and I can wear scarves… every day if I want to.  It’s such a pretty time of year.  I love it!!  Perfect weather for duffins…
Duffins?!
What the heck are duffins?  Well, they’re donut (doughnut?…how do you spell it?) muffins.  Muffins that (are supposed to) taste like donuts.  I heard of these little things over at King Arthur Flour.  I was intrigued when I read the name… I love donuts.  I love muffins.  Together?  I would have to love them.  Plus they got a 5-star rating, so I tried the recipe.
The end result is a heavy, cake-like muffin with a noticeable nutmeg flavor covered in (if you choose) a buttery, cinnamon-y topping that adds a crunch to the otherwise soft muffin.  I had high expectations for these duffins.  I expected them to taste exactly like a donut.  Unfortunately, I set my standards a little high.  They’re pretty good, but they don’t taste exactly like donuts…more of a hint of donut flavor, so I was slightly disappointed.  Everybody else liked them, they just weren’t my cup of tea.  They’re pretty easy to make, and they’re better for you than actual donuts, so you should try the recipe out!

Donut Muffins
Adapted from : King Arthur’s Flour


Ingredients: 

Batter

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups flour
• 1 cup milk

Topping

• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 tablespoons Cinnamon-Sugar Plus or cinnamon sugar
• Or:  Donut glaze

Batter

• 2 ounces butter
• 1 3/4 ounces vegetable oil
• 3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 ounces brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 11 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 8 ounces milk

Topping

• 1 1/2 ounces melted butter
• 1 3/8 ounces Cinnamon-Sugar Plus or cinnamon sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin. Or line with 12 paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray; this will ensure that they peel off the muffins nicely.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.
Add the eggs, beating to combine.
Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.
Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.
Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they’re a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes, or until you can handle them. While they’re cooling, melt the butter for the topping (this is easily done in the microwave).
Use a pastry brush to paint the top of each muffin with the butter, then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar. Or simply dip the tops of muffins into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar.
Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Store for a day or so at room temperature. Some of mine got a little burnt… I tried cutting the bottoms off, but they fell apart.  Unfortunately, I just had to eat them.  Darn! 🙂

Duffins–Donut Muffins

The weather is beautiful!!  Seriously.  70 degrees, cool, breezy.  It smells like fall… you know the smell.  The leaves are about to be changing and I can wear scarves… every day if I want to.  It’s such a pretty time of year.  I love it!!  Perfect weather for duffins…
Duffins?!
What the heck are duffins?  Well, they’re donut (doughnut?…how do you spell it?) muffins.  Muffins that (are supposed to) taste like donuts.  I heard of these little things over at King Arthur Flour.  I was intrigued when I read the name… I love donuts.  I love muffins.  Together?  I would have to love them.  Plus they got a 5-star rating, so I tried the recipe.
The end result is a heavy, cake-like muffin with a noticeable nutmeg flavor covered in (if you choose) a buttery, cinnamon-y topping that adds a crunch to the otherwise soft muffin.  I had high expectations for these duffins.  I expected them to taste exactly like a donut.  Unfortunately, I set my standards a little high.  They’re pretty good, but they don’t taste exactly like donuts…more of a hint of donut flavor, so I was slightly disappointed.  Everybody else liked them, they just weren’t my cup of tea.  They’re pretty easy to make, and they’re better for you than actual donuts, so you should try the recipe out!

Donut Muffins
Adapted from : King Arthur’s Flour


Ingredients: 

Batter

• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 2/3 cups flour
• 1 cup milk

Topping

• 3 tablespoons melted butter
• 3 tablespoons Cinnamon-Sugar Plus or cinnamon sugar
• Or:  Donut glaze

Batter

• 2 ounces butter
• 1 3/4 ounces vegetable oil
• 3 1/2 ounces granulated sugar
• 2 1/2 ounces brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 to 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg, to taste
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 11 1/4 ounces King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 8 ounces milk

Topping

• 1 1/2 ounces melted butter
• 1 3/8 ounces Cinnamon-Sugar Plus or cinnamon sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Lightly grease a standard muffin tin. Or line with 12 paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups with non-stick vegetable oil spray; this will ensure that they peel off the muffins nicely.
In a medium-sized mixing bowl, cream together the butter, vegetable oil, and sugars till smooth.
Add the eggs, beating to combine.
Stir in the baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, salt, and vanilla.
Stir the flour into the butter mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the flour and making sure everything is thoroughly combined.
Spoon the batter evenly into the prepared pan, filling the cups nearly full.
Bake the muffins for 15 to 17 minutes, or until they’re a pale golden brown and a cake tester inserted into the middle of one of the center muffins comes out clean.
Remove them from the oven, and let them cool for a couple of minutes, or until you can handle them. While they’re cooling, melt the butter for the topping (this is easily done in the microwave).
Use a pastry brush to paint the top of each muffin with the butter, then sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar. Or simply dip the tops of muffins into the melted butter, then roll in the cinnamon-sugar.
Serve warm, or cool on a rack and wrap airtight. Store for a day or so at room temperature. Some of mine got a little burnt… I tried cutting the bottoms off, but they fell apart.  Unfortunately, I just had to eat them.  Darn! 🙂