Cranberry Orange Donuts

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Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnuts

You guys are the best! Over the weekend, Lauren’s Latest reached over 2000 Facebook followers! Yippity skippity! I love blogging and creating recipes for you guys! Thank you for coming along in this journey!

ANYWAYS….

Over the last two weeks, I’ve been doing Thanksgiving recipes. We covered turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, twice baked sweet potatoes and Brussels sprouts. As promised, here are some fun and festive desserts! No pie or cookies today! I decided to do doughnuts. Why? Because who doesn’t love a good doughnut? and I got a new pan! The Wilton doughnut pan is all the rage you know, so I jumped on the band wagon. Feel free to turn these doughnuts into cupcakes, mini cupcakes, a 9×9 square cake…whatever. It works however you want to make it.

I used my basic cupcake recipe and added in some orange and fresh cranberries and then added a glaze because truth be told, doughnuts are nothing without their glaze! Kids and adults alike will go crazy over these. Uber tasty, light, sweet, refreshing and delicious. AND, super easy!

First you will need the following:

ingredients

I like to zest my orange first onto a plate. Also, microplanes may quite possibly be my favorite kitchen tool. They are the bomb. Amen.

orange zest

Chop up some cranberries! I went a little nuts and chopped mine pretty tiny, but you can chop them how you like.

chopped cranberries

 Take some butter {that you softened and forgot about in the microwave that’s half melted…}

softened butter

 and cream it with some sugar. You will notice I’m not using any sort of mixer. I was feeling lazy and not wanting to clean any extra dish I didn’t have to. So, I did this all by hand. Yes, it can be done that way still!

donut batter

Next, add in the vanilla, eggs and orange zest.

adding egg and other ingredients

This is what it should look like. You also may pass out from the smell at this point. Orange zest + vanilla = heaven. Just sayin’.

donut batter

Mix all the dry ingredients together into a bowl and alternate stirring them in with the milk.

adding flour and milk

Stir in those cranberries too!

adding in cranberries

And voila! Doughnut batter! Feel free to swipe a few spoonfuls into your mouth. Amazing goodness right here.

Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnut Batter

Grease your doughnut pans and fill ’em up!

Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnut Batter in pan

Bake the doughnuts for about 13 minutes and cool. And, make the glaze too. {Lets pretend I took photos of the glaze ingredients…} Basically, you just mix powdered sugar, orange zest and cream together until it looks like this. Ta-da! Glaze.

orange icing

Once your doughnuts are nice and cool, dunk them into the pool of orangy goodness and pull them out to dry.

Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnuts in icing

About 2 hours later, that glaze should be all set up and you will have some purdy lookin’ doughnuts! Don’t these look tasty?

Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnuts

So, doughnuts made it to our Thanksgiving feast. What desserts are you making? I have a more traditional dessert recipe coming up on Wednesday, so don’t fret about this very out of the ordinary one! Happy Monday!

More Donut Recipes to Try!

Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnuts
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Cranberry Orange Cake Doughnuts

Cranberries and orange zest turn a basic cupcake recipe into these fun and festive Cranberry Orange Donuts.
servings 12 doughnuts
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 12 minutes
Total Time 27 minutes

Ingredients

FOR THE GLAZE:

  • 1 cup Powdered Sugar
  • 1/2 Tablespoon Orange Zest
  • 3 Tablespoons Heavy Cream

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350ºF. Grease 2 nonstick doughnut pans with cooking spray and set aside.
  • In a large bowl, mix butter and sugar together until creamed. Stir in vanilla, eggs and orange zest. Alternate adding in the dry ingredients with the milk, starting with the dry and ending with the wet. Do not over mix. Stir in chopped cranberries.
  • Spoon into prepared pans evenly, about 2 spoonfuls of batter into each cavity. Reduce oven temperature to 325ºF and bake 12-14 minutes or until bottoms are barely starting to turn golden. Remove from oven and cool completely. For the glaze, add all ingredients into a small bowl and stir until smooth and runny. (You may need to add more cream to get the desired consistency.)
  • Place a doughnut down into the glaze halfway and remove. Place on a rack and continue to dip until all doughnuts have been glazed. After 2 hours, glaze should be set.

Nutrition

Calories: 268kcal | Carbohydrates: 41g | Protein: 3g | Fat: 10g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Cholesterol: 54mg | Sodium: 133mg | Potassium: 88mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 27g | Vitamin A: 348IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Calcium: 41mg | Iron: 1mg
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Keyword: orange donuts

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40 Responses
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  4. Crystal

    This a question from a new baker, but are these freezable? If so, how long do you think they would last? Looking for ideas for a dessert table for my wedding. May have to make the desserts myself and I don’t want too much crazy on the days leading up to the big day.

    P.S. LOVE your blog!

    1. Lauren

      I don’t see why they wouldn’t freeze well. Of course try this ahead of your wedding just to make sure!! And defrost THEN glaze!

  5. Country Cleaver » Apple Fritters with a Whiskey Glaze

    […] drooling all over my keyboard at Lauren’s Latest delightful Red Velvet and Coconut and Cranberry Orange doughnuts I knew I had to resource a batch for well, myself. And others!! There is no way I can justifiably […]

  6. Katie

    I got a doughnut pan for Christmas that I broke in last night. I made three different kinds (including this one and your red velvet coconut). I have to say that this was my absolute favorite. I think my “glaze” was a little more of an icing consistency. But the flavor of this doughnut is wonderful!

  7. Gina

    These treats look great! I’m so happy I have extra cranberries in my fridge right now from last weekend! I think I’ll attempt these very soon:)

  8. hailey

    i absolutely love the cranberry-orange flavour combination! it must have something to do with my love of citrus desserts 🙂 I think i need to put a donut pan on my christmas wish list this year!

  9. Katie

    Random question: since these are cake-type doughnuts, they sort of seem like they might make good cupcakes too (for those of us without a doughnut pan). Do you think they’d work that way? I’d just guess to check 5 min later or so when they are in the oven. Thanks! The look delicious!

  10. Shelley (Ground Beef Budget)

    Oh, I have to try these. First, I will have to find a doughnut pan! These look yummo. I can add the pan to my Christmas wish list. (lightbulb moment!)

  11. Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga

    Lauren these look great!

    I have been on a huge donut making kick the past few weeks and love the orange you put in yours.

    I don’t own a mixer…gasp, I know. So I do everything by hand, too. It works, it’s easy and less overall dishes to dirty 🙂

  12. Kathryn

    Cranberry and orange is one of my all time favourite flavour combinations so these doughnuts are right up my street.

    Congratulations on so many facebook likes 🙂

  13. Living The Sweet Life

    Lauren, how do you manage to come up with ALL this deliciousness?!?

    I want these a-sap … so yummy!! Great recipe, as usual 😉

  14. CouponClippingCook

    Congratulations on all of your facebook followers! and wow….your picture of these doughnuts is soooo pretty! The cranberry and orange flavors sound so good together…love that these are baked too.

  15. Lacey Wilcox

    I know this was in the dessert category, but what a great idea for a holiday breakfast–and since they’re not totally deep-fried in a huge vat of grease, it’s ok to have two right??? 🙂

  16. Laurie {Simply Scratch}

    Yum to the O!! Love the flavors here Lauren! Funny I just made doughnuts this weekend… looks like I have a recipe for next weekend! 🙂

  17. Peggy

    I’m off to the store to pick up an orange. Do you think dried cranberries would work nicely? Its all we have on hand right now but since I am going to be heading out to the store soon. umm not to be a pest but did you get my e-mail with my contact info??? Yahoo and I are having an on again, off again relationship! It teases me by letting me see my e-mails but not actually read them or respond. 🙂

    Congratulations on all the FB likes! And I tried some of your “Thanksgiving” recipes in the past couple of weeks and we LOVE them!!

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