These old fashioned cake donuts are crispy on the outside and give way to a perfectly soft and cakey center, making these an amazing breakfast treat!

Oh my word, you guys. I know that I gave myself the title of donut (doughnut?) queen, but really, the title goes to my grandma. I’m just the donut princess.

My grandma created the best dang donut recipe ever and I’ve been dying to share it with you. Anytime I make it, I get shot straight back to my childhood. Visiting my grandma on vacation, waiting impatiently for her to fry up these unbelievable donuts, and then eating them until I’d make myself sick. She would often serve the donuts plain, straight from the fryer. I prefer them tossed in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar, but powdered sugar or a glaze works great as well.

These are cake donuts, which means there is no wait time! The donuts have baking powder in them to help them rise, instead of yeast. You’ll love these donuts because they are so easy!

I know many people don’t like to fry, so here are my best tips. Invest in a thermometer! They cost about five dollars and are worth every penny. You want to keep your oil at a consistent temperature so that your donuts don’t get too greasy. Greasy donuts means your oil isn’t hot enough! 375 degrees is perfect for these donuts.

After you’ve fried the donuts, you can keep the oil covered for a week or two and fry other sweet things. If you don’t think you’ll re-use the oil, just let it cool completely and then use a funnel to pour it right back into your empty oil container or an empty milk jug. I try to keep a few empty milk jugs under my kitchen sink or in my pantry for used up oil. Close the jug up tight and then toss it in your garbage can on garbage day. It’s a pretty simple way to deal with all that leftover oil!

My grandma is well known for these amazing donuts and everyone wants the recipe. It makes me happy every time I serve these to my kids, because I know that one day they’ll make them for their own kids and remember lazy Saturday mornings helping me roll out the dough and cut the donuts!

These are best served hot from the fryer, but you can keep them for a few days as long as you seal them up tightly. When hot from the grease, the outsides are crispy and the insides are perfectly soft and cakey. It doesn’t get better than these donuts, guys!

The BEST Cake Donuts

This recipe from my grandma is an all time favorite! I've changed it just a bit by swapping out the shortening for butter, but you can certainly use shortening if you prefer. If you don't have a stand mixer, you can mix everything by hand and knead the dough on a floured surface.

Directions:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, beat together the butter and sugar. Beat in the egg. In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients. Alternate adding the milk and flour mixture until everything is well combined. Knead for just a couple of minutes. If the dough is too sticky to roll out, add more flour until it's workable. Roll the dough out on a floured surface until about 1/4 inch thick. Use a donut cutter to cut donuts. Add to a pot of 375 degree oil, just a few donuts at a time so as not to crowd the pan, and fry until golden, about 2 minutes each side. Drain on a paper towel lined plate before tossing in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Serve immediately.

Well, now I feel all pressured and scared. You JUST said that you love to fry, so probably you’re better at this than me. I hope I don’t give you the wrong answer.

So, I reuse oil (unless it was used for fish…that gets tossed) quite a few times. I used to leave a pot of oil on my stove at all times and it would stay there for months before I’d change it out. As long as it’s covered and it doesn’t smell (you’d know if it was bad!), then it’s good. I don’t fry nearly as often anymore though, so I will strain it into the original container if it’s empty or into an empty milk or water jug and stick it in a cabinet for future use. Just sniff it before you reuse it. Also, I don’t mix savory and sweet within the same batch of oil. The oil from these donuts will only be used for something sweet or not at all.

NO ONE knows like grandma! I love cherished family recipes like these…and of course I love donuts/doughnuts too. Confession: I actually have a thermometer (bought it when determined to make homemade fish and chips) but have yet to bust it out. These sweet treats look like the perfect excuse

When I make things my grandmother or mother made it takes me right back to a place in time when things were good. Their food was made with love. These do look amazing. I’d love it if you linked these at What’d You Do This Weekend.

omgomgomgomg. Just YES! I am so making these on Saturday. Just you wait and see! Can I confess something? I’m no stranger to frying or donuts, but I’ve never made cake donuts and I’ve always wanted to!! I have just been TOO LAZY to look up a recipe and see how they’re made.

And see? Laziness pays off. I waited long enough that a recipe just showed up in my reader for me. Voila

Is it just me or what? Never tried making fried doughnuts before (tried baked ones once – for me they turned out more like bagels not doughnuts). So taste was ok, but they went all flaky kinda, hard to explain, but top part (the side first out of oil) looked as if air was just trying to escape and pushed all crust off the doughnut. And it was crispy and oily. Nothing like the perfectly smooth doughnuts in your pictures. I was dipping them in chocolate and in places the crusty thing actually stayed in chocolate instead of chocolate sticking to doughnut. And my daughter said previous (bagel kinda) doughnuts were nicer. ;( Don’t think i’m gonna try these (or previous ones) again. Still looking for easy recipe to impress my kids who love shop bought doughnuts. Just wondering what did i do wrong? Did everything like recipe. Oh yeah, dough was all sticky and not the kind you can roll out, so i just flattened it with my hands. Still puzzled.

@Karly, hey igna the issue you may have had was that the dough was In fact too sticky. your didn’t have enough flour to absorb the moisture and stuff in the dough, so when submerged in fat it started to fall apart. Karly mentions adding more flour, do that and knead a bit more should fix that issue completely for you. Hope that helps!

@Carina, I noticed the person who posted before me was having trouble with the dough being too sticky. I also had that problem and just added more flour as needed. I made small ones and bigger ones. For the bigger ones I didn’t make the center hole big enough and they didn’t fry well enough as the smaller ones did. None of the less they were all still very delicious.

I actually have a question about saving the dough and adapting the flavour. I was wondering if you ever tried making these into chocolate flavour? Also could you make these and freeze the dough? I am going to try these this weekend and play around with it. Sounds delicous though thanks!

I was searching to find a recipe for my elderly mother who wants the dense consistency of an old fashioned cake doughnut but which can be baked instead of fried. However, the misleading name of your blog is “buns in my oven” and it came up with the search I assumed they would in fact be baked, how disappointing to read that they are, in fact friend and certainly not out of your oven!