blueberry cake doughnuts
February 12, 2012 Today was a very special day.
One of my dearest friends, Laura, had her baby shower.
Laura + I go way back. All the way back to architecture school at Ohio State. We’ve stayed extremely close over the years and now only live about an hour away from one another. I was ecstatic when Laura told me she was expecting a baby boy this spring. It seems that most of my friends are either getting married this year or having a baby. Super exciting!
I was on doughnut making + photo taking duty for the shower. This morning was a little crazy. Why is it that when you actually need baked goods to turn out perfectly, something always goes wrong? Or am I the only one?
After finally making it out of the house, 20min into the drive I had to slam on my breaks, which obviously made the 2 pans of doughnuts fly into the back of the driver’s seat. Luckily, there were lids on the pans, but the blueberry doughnuts still made quite the mess.
Somehow, I was only 15min late to the party, and thankfully managed to scribble down the recipe in the chaos that was my kitchen this morning.
Two new flavors of doughnuts made the table.
Blueberry with Blueberry Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
and
Maple Cinnamon – 1/2 with a coconut maple glaze and 1/2 with a maple frosting
I didn’t really get to write down what I did for either maple frostings, so this recipe will have to wait.
There was a lovely fruit + nut quinoa salad, among many other delicious dishes, fresh veggies + fruit.
Laura’s friends did an excellent job decorating.
And Laura did an excellent job being her cute self.
A few little ones made the party as well.
Hi. I’m adorable!
I thought this was a really clever idea, that I’ve never seen done before.
Everyone left with a favor that was either tea or hot cocoa. Whenever Laura goes into labor, one of her friends will send out an email letting us all know. That will be the cue for everyone to drink their tea, thinking of Laura, wishing her well during labor.
We also worked on a blanket project for Laura. We each brought ribbon that reminds us of Laura and attached a little piece of fabric to it with our name and a message to her little one. The ribbons + messages will all be sewn onto a blanket.
Can you believe we got a group photo with everyone’s eyes open?? Thank you self-timer.
I love that the whole frame is filled with smiling faces.
Love her.
Such a fun + hilarious book!
For one of Laura’s gifts, I just had to get her a baby food cookbook. I decided on Tyler Florence’s Start Fresh cookbook, after consulting you lovely people on twitter. Thanks for the recommendation!
Happy day.
That ended with a few sweet bites.
Blueberry Cake Doughnuts [yields 6-8 doughnuts, depending on the size of your pan – my recipe makes 6 – adjust the baking time as needed]
- 1/2c GF oat flour
- 1/2c sweet rice flour
- 3T almond meal
- 1/3c sucanat
- 2 eggs
- 3T oil
- 2T unsweetened applesauce
- 6T unsweetened milk
- 1/3c frozen blueberries
- 2t vanilla extract
- 1t baking powder
- 1/2t salt
- Preheat your oven to 350* + grease your donut pan with butter, coconut oil or cooking spray.
- In a medium sized bowl mix together all dry ingredients.
- In a small bowl, whisk together all of the wet ingredients, except for the blueberries.
- Stir the wet into dry, until just combined and than gently fold in the blueberries. Do not over stir.
- With a spoon or spatula transfer the batter to your greased pan, filling about 1/8-1/4” from the top.
- Bake for 20-25min.
- Test with a toothpick for doneness. You want a slightly moist toothpick. Not gooey but not bone dry. The tops of the donut should be golden brown and set.
- Let them cool in the pan for 5min, then loosen around the edges with a flexible spatula or fork, and turn out onto a cooling rack.
- Add toppings when cooled.
tips/substitutions: Use any type of unsweetened milk you like. Pure cane sugar can be subbed for the sucanat. High altitude, set your oven to 375* and decrease baking powder to 3/4t. 1 batch will make 24 mini doughnuts. If using a mini muffin pan, they about 15min to bake. You can grind your own GF oat flour from certified GF rolled oats, or GF oat groats. Bob’s Red Mill packages GF oat flour as well. To make almond meal at home, grind raw almonds until flour-like and no crunchy pieces are left. You can also find a 16oz bag at Trader Joe’s for $3.99. If using fresh blueberries, you may need to add 1/2T extra milk, as the frozen release a lot of liquid.
Lemon Blueberry Cream Cheese Frosting
- 1T lemon zest
- 1/2T fresh lemon juice
- 1/4c cream cheese, softened
- 1T butter, softened
- 1/2c powdered sugar
- 1/4c blueberries
- Beat the cream cheese, butter and powdered sugar until fluffy and smooth.
- Beat in the lemon zest, juice and blueberries until fully incorporated + blueberries have broken down a bit.
- *If the mixture is too thick for your liking, add milk in 1t increments and beat until smooth.
- Keep refrigerated.
tips/suggestions: Make sure to let your cream cheese + butter sit out for at least an hour before creaming. Do not microwave to soften. You can make powdered sugar at home, by putting 1c pure cane sugar + 1T arrowroot starch [optional, prevents caking + helps to thicken…I prefer arrowroot starch over corn] in a blender and blend until powdery.
…
And another new week begins!
Ashley
blueberries, doughnuts, oat flour, sweet rice flour in dessert, gluten free, life, etc.
Reader Comments (38)
What an adorable baby shower! Mama to be looks radiant!
I love the idea of having every guest choose a ribbon which will be incorporated in the quilt. Lucky party guests got to have a taste of your delicious donuts!
By the way I love your Buckwheat bakes and I wanted to know if I can sub the 1T of chia seed with 1T of ground flax seed?
Also, what is the difference between sucanat and white sugar?
Thanks so much! Sorry for the questions! Hope you have a great week! :)
So sorry one more question lol...I read about Sucanat under the pantry link on your site...but what is the difference between raw sugar and sucanat?
Congrats to your friend, Laura. What a special day. The ladies, the food, the mood, the vibe, it all looks awesome. So do the donuts!
How adorable!! Great pics :)
What a lovely baby shower! I'm already in love with the idea of tea/hot chocolate favors...is it to early to start planning for my own baby shower (answer: yes)? The doughnuts also look fantastic. I love blueberries in anything and everything! :)
What a beautiful shower and mama-to-be! I bet those doughnuts were the hit of the party as well!
what a fun shower! the tea/cocoa idea is so adorable...and she looks amazing!
there's babies everywhere! Love that ribbon quilt idea. I might try it at one of my gf's showers. Never heard of the tea udea either.
Those donuts look devine. The party looked like it was fun. What beautiful pictures from you..again!
Oh my gosh, my recipes *always* fail when I'm under pressure! Even my most tried-and-true cookie recipes fail if I'm bringing treats into work the next day. How is that possible?!
Glad I'm not the only one!!
It's a bit confusing. There is "sugar in the raw" and there is "raw sugar." Raw sugar is also known as sucanat. Sugar in the raw is processed down, almost to the point of white sugar, but left in a larger cyrstal form and not devoid of all it's natural molasses content. There is molasses flavor + coloring, naturally found in sugar, that is stripped out to make white sugar. It's crazy because it's even stripped out to make brown sugar, and then added back IN to make it brown in color and molasses in flavor. Basically, sucanat [medium brown, medium sized and very dusty/dry] is the least processed form of sugar. Then it's pure cane sugar, then sugar in the raw [always seen in large crystals and slightly brown], then white sugar, then brown sugar. Funny that brown sugar is the most processed! Hope this helps!
I'm so glad you're enjoying the bakes! I'm not sure if it's a 1:1 sub on that, but it will definitely work. Maybe start with 1/2T flax and if it turns out too wet, try 1T. Hope that helps! No problem about the questions!
Thanks Connie! Just found a few of your comments in my spam for some reason. Should be good now!
Everyone is so adorable! And that blanket idea! Tooooo cute!
aw what a fun celebration! I've never been to a shower, but they always look like fun and those activities/ gifts sound very cute. Congrats to your friend!
I love the quilt/blanket idea with the ribbons. So fun and creative. After attending a million baby showers with the same silly games (sniffing candy bar filled diapers is not my idea of cute or fun), that sounds like such a better and more thoughtful use of time and something she (and the baby) can enjoy for a long time :)
Beautiful! Thanks for the inspiration! I'm hosting a baby shower for a friend in April and have already been starting to think about all of the fun little details. :-)
Beautiful pictures!
The same thing always happens to me - I'm baking for a bake sale or to bring somewhere & disaster strikes! This year, I made cupcakes for my birthday & half the batch just never baked. They were goo! Had to start over... I can't wait to try the blueberry donuts. We love blueberry everything!
I love making homemade doughnuts and now I have a reason to make another batch: the lemon blueberry cream cheese frosting sounds amazing!
I also find that I either have on or off days in the kitchen. It's always the worst when I have an off day when I'm making stuff in a hurry!
I've been to WAY too many baby showers and have never seen that ribbon/blanket idea! I love it!
I feel kind of bad asking this because I know the point of you making this recipe is for a gluten-free doughnut, but I don't have all the gluten-free flours I need for your donut recipes, and they always look really delicious. Do you have any idea how I might sub whole wheat pastry flour in for the sweet rice flour? I have a food processor and rolled oats, so I can make the oat flour, but I've never heard of the other one.
ok, may jasper, a true foodie I'd like to think, ask what those treats in the background of your second photo is?!?!?! they look like huge chunks of something! what are they?
of COURSe the blueberry cake donuts in the foreground look AMAZINg, too Ashley :D
Oh this is an absolutely beautiful baby shower! I love the tea and hot cocoa idea, lovely, and the ribbons with the little messages. Truly this is all lovely :-) And your doughnuts look delicious, the blueberry cake doughnuts in particular look and sound amazing! I think I might have to bookmark this recipe AND buy a doughnut pan in order to make these!!
I love the ribbon blanket idea, such a great memory! And the donuts looks awesome, I love blueberry and lemon together!
Your donuts look delicious! I love blueberry and lemon together! The frosting looks wonderful, but I'm not much of a frosting person (weird, I know) - I might try adding a little lemon zest to the donut batter to get the lemon flavor without the frosting. I can't wait to try them!
So lovely...and the boots those gals have, I want a pair...and the frosting for the doughnuts could be a treat in and of itself, yum!
fun!! looked like a great party..loved all the pics, and of course the donuts!
Mmmmmm. Like blueberry pie/bagels...only better ;)
awww... super cute! I love baby showers and it looks like this was a good one!
Made those little blueberry heaven desserts! Yum! My kids ate them up! :) Thank you.
Awesome!!! I'm thrilled to hear it was a hit with your family!
No need to feel bad at all!! I might try using a mix of whole wheat pastry flour and unbleached white flour instead of all the flours listed, or a mix of those with the 1/2c of oat flour. I'm not sure if it will change the amount of liquid needed though. Start with 1/4c and add more milk until the batter is thick, but pourable. I hope that works!
Glad to know I'm not alone!
I know, it was super unique!!
Definitely can add lemon zest to the batter!! I have a similar recipe that does just that - http://edibleperspective.com/2011/06/gooey-breakfast-cakes/
omg how adorable the baby shower was! I love the tea idea party favors! So cute!
Your donuts look amazing, blueberry has always been my favorite flavor donut!