Homemade Mini Pumpkin Spice Baked Cake Donuts

Homemade Mini Donuts made with fresh pureed pumpkin are easy to make. Use a mini donut pan for cute donuts or a mini muffin pan for donut holes. Experience these cake donuts fresh out of the oven. The perfect fall treat!

This post includes affiliate links. This means that at no additional cost to you, I will earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase. These are products and services I recommend because I use or trust them. Cookies will be used to track the affiliate links you click.

Apple cider and cake donuts are a fall stable here in the Midwest.

Every fall people rush out to apple orchards to get their yearly fix.

In 2012, we had a massive crop failure here in Michigan and the apples were not available. It was so depressing.

That year I decided to make my very own donuts and have been turning out mini pumpkin donuts every year since. Let's show you how.

Jump to:

• ❔ Why Mini Donuts
• ❓ Can You Make Mini Donuts Without a Donut Pan?
• 🛒 Ingredients
• 📋 Instructions
• 🍩 Decorating
• 🎃 How to Make Pumpkin Buttercream
• 🙋 How to Keep Them Fresh
• 🍎 Add Apples
• 🥄 More Recipes
• Mini Pumpkin Spice Baked Cake Donuts

❔ Why Mini Donuts

I choose a recipe from a blogger from the King Author Flour Company. I am a fan of the company, their products, and their amazing cookbooks which have taught me a lot. I even got to visit their headquarters in September 2021.

The recipe was actually for whole donuts, baked in a special donut pan.

Why make whole donuts when you can make mini donuts? Then you get to eat more donuts, right? And mini donuts cook faster, so you can get to eating faster.

❓ Can You Make Mini Donuts Without a Donut Pan?

While making the donuts in a mini donut pan is really sweet, if you don't have one you can make them in a mini muffin pan, they will just need a little more time to cook and they will be missing the trademark hole. You could call them pumpkin donut holes instead!

You could use a Dash Mini Donut Maker. There are several on the market now. The Dash brand is probably the most well known right now. I do have several of their mini waffle makers that I love to have in my camper.

The donut pan is going to be the cheaper option. The mini donut maker is going to take up more space in your kitchen, so if you are going to buy one, it should be something that you use at least a few times a month. Or if it's going to be fun for the kids.

So unless you have those reasons or your oven is broken, stick to using a pan.

🛒 Ingredients

Here is what you are going to need to make these delicious donuts.

• 8 oz all-purpose flour
• ½ cup neutral tasting cooking oil
• 3 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
• 1 ½ cups homemade pumpkin purée
• ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon (my favorite is Burlap & Barrel Royal Cinnamon)
• ¼ teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon ground ginger (my favorite is Burlap & Barrel Buffalo Ginger)
• 1 ½ teaspoons salt
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder

You will also need toppings. We will get to that later on in the post.

As you see the recipe calls for flour to be measured in ounces, not cups. When you are baking you want to be more prescie. There are several ways people measure out flour in cups, so that can actually change the recipe.

All you need is an inexpensive digital kitchen scale and you can easily measure out this flour. No need to try to find that ¼ cup measuring cup that seems to be missing from your set.

You your eggs to be at room temperature before you make the donuts. If the eggs are warmer they will incorporate into the flour faster, so you don't have to mix too much. Overmixing will create too much gluten and your donuts will be tough, not tender.

💡 Tip - It's better to have the individual spices on hand than just a container of pumpkin pie spice. That way you can pick out the best possible spices. You could make your own custom pumpkin spice blend. This is great if say you really love cinnamon and only sort of like ginger. Or maybe you really live ground cloves or ground allspice and you want to add that to the mix.

Fresh vs. Canned Pumpkin

What really made this recipe stand out is the use of fresh pumpkin puree. Yes, canned pumpkin is easier, but the fresh stuff is just better and more cost effective.

Pick up a pie pumpkin or two at your local grocery store or farmer's market. They are usually available from mid September through Thanksgiving and sometimes later. My favorite pumpkin for cooking with is the Long Island Cheese pumpkin. If you cant find any fresh pumpkin, check out our list of substitutes for pie pumpkins.

The best part of making your own donuts is getting to eat them warm out of the oven. In doesn't get any better.

While not as good, they still hold up pretty well the next day, more so than a yeast donut would.

📋 Instructions

The donuts are cake donuts which are so easy to make, you will wonder why you never made them before.

It's a lot easier than frying. No hot oil to have to buy and worry about. No rise time. Don't mistake me for saying that I don't love yeast donuts.

Let me take you through the steps of making homemade mini pumpkin donuts.

Using a hand mixer, beat the eggs in a large mixing bowl. Then add in all of the ingredients except the flour. Mix to combine.

You can do this whole thing using a stand mixer as well.

Now add in the flour. It's important here that you don't overmix the flour. Your not making bread! Your donuts will be tough if you do mix too much.

Just mix slowly, so flour doesn't go everywhere, until just combined. If it's lumpy, don't worry about it, it will work itself out later.

In September 2019, I attended my first blogging conference called Tastemaker. As part of our swag bag we received the Whiskware Batter Mixer.

This thing is perfect for dispensing small amounts of batter, say into a mini donut pan 🙂

Spray the pan with nonstick cooking spray before adding the donut batter. Even if using non stick, you really should oil the pan, or they probably will still stick some.

Fill the mini donut pan or mini muffin pan halfway up with the batter.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 5-6 if using a mini donut pan or 8-9 minutes for mini muffin pan.

💡 Tip - To know when your donuts are done use a toothpick. It should come out clean if done.

Give them a couple minutes to cook before turning the pan upside down over a cooling rack. If you oiled the pan good enough they should come right out.

🍩 Decorating

You could enjoy the donuts as is.

What would be more fun is to add some finishing touches.

Here is what I like to use

1. Cinnamon Sugar - Just combine cinnamon and sugar to coat the donuts once they are cool enough to handle. Don't wait until they cool all the way though.
2. Pumpkin Buttercream Frosting - My favorite choice by far. See Video Below on How to Make It. I add festival fall sprinkles to this one.
3. Vanilla Drizzle - In a small bowl combine powdered sugar, water, and vanilla extract. I just eyeball it and add more sugar or more water until I get the right consistency.

I want to try a crunchy cinnamon sugar topping kind of like the one from Panera Bread for their bagels. I will let you know when I figure out how to do that! But in the mean time, I found these delicious maple crunchy sprinkles during a trip to Vermont. They are made of pure maple syrup. Those would be amazing on the donuts. Add them like sprinkles.

🎃 How to Make Pumpkin Buttercream

If you want to give pumpkin buttercream frosting a try, watch the video below (under 60 seconds).

🙋 How to Keep Them Fresh

If some how you can end up with leftover donuts, give yourself a pat on the back for your self-control. Then get out an airtight container to store your donuts in. If you have toppings you don't want to stack those donuts. Just put them in a single layer. If it's just cinnamon sugar it's not an issue.

I would try to enjoy the rest by the next day. Share with your neighbors if you need to. You also could try putting them in the freezer. This usually helps keep them longer. I have been to bakeries that sell already baked donuts out of their freezer.

🍎 Add Apples

If you want to add some chopped up apple to the batter, you could totally do that. Then you would have fall's two favorites. Dice the apples into really small pieces.

I know some people like to add chocolate chips to their pumpkin baked goods. I am not one of those people, but don't let me stop you!

🥄 More Recipes

If you have leftover pumpkin puree, you can use them to make Overnight Pumpkin Yeast Waffles or Pumpkin French Toast for breakfast.

Want more donut ideas? Try our Mini Chocolate Peppermint Donuts or Make Donuts Out of Biscuits.