Vanilla Cake Donuts - Baked!

Well, I will tell you what... the best Little Lovely of the day today is that I spent my afternoon at the beach!  First official beach day of the year!  Woohoo!  And I have a bit of a tan to prove it.  It was the most perfect day for it.  I posted a pic via Instagram, so feel free to follow me in order to see more photos of my life.  There's a handy blue button to do that right over there. ------>

But another little lovely of any day of my life is a wonderful breakfast food.  Every morning I face a serious dilemma because I have to choose what to eat for breakfast.  If it were up to me, I would never have to choose.  It's so difficult because breakfast foods are my favorite.  (Right up there with ice cream)

So I usually eat a wide variety of breakfast foods.  Hence the large number of breakfast recipes I post.  Because really, there's no time of day when it's not appropriate to eat breakfast.  Ya know?!  There are a lot of dinner foods that I would never eat for breakfast but basically no breakfast foods that I wouldn't eat for dinner.  I hope you're with me on this, because if not, I'm pretty sure we can't be friends.  Just kidding.  ... But seriously...

So, since I got a donut pan for Christmas, I have tried out a few recipes with it, and I really liked this one.  I made these donuts with a special Valentine's Day twist (hence the pink and sprinkles) for our breakfast on Valentine's Day.  'Cause who wants to eat cereal when you could have pink sprinkled donuts?!  (Though I do love me some cereal too.)
 

So, these donuts are just a simple vanilla cake donut.  They are classic and delicious.  And of course, a simple icing, in chocolate or vanilla, tops them off perfectly.  *For the pink icing, I wanted a hint of strawberry flavor and the pink color of course, so I just subbed some Hershey's Strawberry Syrup for some of the liquid in a simple glaze recipe.

Baked Vanilla Cake Donuts
Adapted from: Mom Advice
Makes: 6 donuts

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons milk
1 egg
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.  Grease a donut pan with cooking spray,
2. In a mixing bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.
3. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry.  Mix until well combined.
4. Divide the batter equally between the donut depressions.  **I use a plastic baggie with a large corner cut off as an easy batter dispenser.
5. Bake for 9-11 minutes until donuts are fluffed up and just start to brown.
6. Allow to cool for a few minutes before removing them to a wire rack to glaze.
7. Top with your favorite icing (I would really like to try chocolate) and of course some sprinkles, and enjoy!  *Note: Try making a thin icing so that the best way to top these donuts is by dipping them into it.  It's a lot easier than trying to pour it on.

These donuts are perfect for any morning, not just special occasions, so whip some up today!