High Altitude Baked Mini Chocolate Cake Doughnuts

These soft and cakey, high altitude baked chocolate doughnuts are moist and fluffy like a cupcake, made with sour cream and dark Dutch-processed cocoa powder, and dipped in sweet vanilla icing. These mini chocolate cake doughnuts are quick and easy to make, and everyone will love getting such a delicious treat for breakfast!

You might also love these baked vanilla cake doughnuts, old fashioned sour cream cake doughnuts, and baked Funfetti cake doughnuts.

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Why You’ll Love This Recipe

Simple Pantry Ingredients. You only need a few simple ingredients and a few minutes of your time to make these delicious doughnuts.

Quick and Easy. The chocolate cake batter is so easy to mix up with just a bowl and spoon, and the mini doughnuts bake up fast. You’ll be able to enjoy fresh doughnuts in less than an hour!

Versatile. Bake these in standard sized or mini sized doughnut pans, and they’ll be fantastic either way. I’ve also included below several icing variations, so you can customize your doughnuts to suit your taste.

See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.

Ingredients

• All-Purpose Flour. Gives the doughnuts structure.
• Granulated Sugar. Adds sweetness and moisture.
• Cocoa Powder. Use a good-quality Dutch processed cocoa powder for the best, richest chocolate flavor.
• Espresso Powder. Used in both the doughnuts and the ganache, the espresso powder deepens the flavor of the chocolate.
• Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances the chocolate.
• Baking Soda. Leavens the doughnuts so they rise.
• Eggs. Adds strength and richness to the batter.
• Sour Cream. The moisture and acidity in the sour cream makes a very soft, tender chocolate cake doughnut.
• Oil. Moisture.
• Vanilla Extract. Flavor.
• Doughnut Pans. You’ll need standard sized doughnut pans or mini doughnut pans to make your baked chocolate doughnuts! I made today’s recipe in mini pans, and the little doughnuts are just so cute.

Instructions

Bake the doughnuts.

• Preheat the oven to 375 F. Spray your doughnut pans with nonstick baking spray.
• In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, espresso powder, salt and baking soda.
• Separately, whisk together the eggs, sour cream, oil and vanilla until smooth.
• Add the wet ingredients to the dry, and mix just until combined. The batter will be thick.
• Scrape the batter into a piping bag (or freezer bag) and snip off the end. Pipe the batter into the doughnut molds, filling them no more than halfway full.

• Bake mini doughnuts for 7 1/2 – 8 minutes (or standard-sized doughnuts for 9-10 minutes) until the tops spring back when lightly touched.
• Let cool in the pan for several minutes, then use a spoon to help lift the hot doughnuts out of the pan and onto a cooling rack. Cool the doughnuts until warm, then coat in the glaze.

Dip in glaze.

• In a bowl, whisk together all the glaze ingredients until smooth and drizzly. This will seem like a LOT of glaze, but some of it will drip off after you coat the doughnuts, and I used up almost all of it to dip 3 1/2 dozen mini doughnuts.
• Dip the doughnuts in the glaze, thoroughly coating both sides, then set the glazed doughnuts back onto the cooling rack (place a baking sheet underneath to catch the drips).
• The glaze will dry and set in 20-30 minutes, and then the doughnuts will be ready to eat.

Glaze and Icing Variations

Opaque Vanilla Icing.

The vanilla glaze coating today’s baked chocolate cake doughnuts is the same glaze I used on my old-fashioned sour cream cake doughnuts. It’s thin and drizzly, and runs off the doughnuts leaving behind a thin crackly coating. But if you like a thicker, more opaque doughnut icing, try the icing recipe on my baked Funfetti donuts.

Chocolate Ganache.

I love doubling up on the chocolate by dipping these chocolate doughnuts in a dark chocolate ganache. To make ganache, simply combine equal parts (by weight) hot heavy whipping cream with chopped dark chocolate and stir until smooth.

Powdered Sugar.

For a fun and easy finish, simply coat the chocolate cake doughnuts in powdered sugar.

Buttercream.

For a doughnut that tastes more like a chocolate cupcake, you can pipe on a swirl of buttercream, such as on these baked vanilla cake doughnuts with brown butter frosting.

Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!

Frequently Asked Questions

What if I only have one doughnut pan?

• Most baked cake doughnut pans usually come with 6 or 12 molds or cavities. If you only have one pan, you can bake half the batter in batches, and just let the remaining batter rest while you bake the first batch.
• This is also a very easy recipe to scale down for a smaller batch of doughnuts. With my mini doughnut pans, I was able to get 3 1/2 dozen doughnuts, and with my standard pans, I got 1 dozen.

What’s the difference between a cake doughnut and a cupcake or muffin?

• The difference between a cake doughnut and a cupcake or a muffin is really just the shape. Since baked doughnuts are baked and not fried, and leavened with baking powder or baking soda instead of yeast, the texture is very similar to a soft and moist chocolate cupcake or muffin, just in the shape of a doughnut.

How long do baked doughnuts stay soft and fresh?

• Kept in an airtight container, leftover chocolate doughnuts will stay soft and moist for at least 3 days. However, since the doughnuts are so moist, they will make the glaze turn soft and sticky once they’re stored. Because of this, the glazed doughnuts are best made and eaten the same day.

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