These 2-Ingredient Baked Cake Donuts are too good to be true! Just two ingredients for the donuts, a container of frosting for the glaze and in less than 30 minutes you’ll have great cake donuts ready to enjoy!
Do or Donut, There is No Try
Today’s the day, my friends! It’s National Donut Day!!! Yes, a day to celebrate our love for donuts & devour as many as we want without being judged. Wait, who would ever judge someone for eating donuts?! 😉 It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with donuts. I mean I wear donut shoes, donut shirts, a donut necklace and all the donut shops in town know me by name. Absolutely no shame in my donut loving game!
In honor of my love for donuts, I’m not just sharing one yummy donut recipe today, but two! Woo-hoo!
Watch Me Make Baked Cake Donuts
Join me in the kitchen as I make a batch of these amazing 2-Ingredient Baked Cake Donuts!
Two Ingredients, One Delicious Donut
First up are these incredibly easy and delicious 2-Ingredient Baked Cake Donuts with a 1-Ingredient Glaze. They’re too good to be true! This recipe is for my semi-homemade, fear of frying, need something quick & easy but still want them to taste amazing, donut lovers out there. You’re gonna love these donuts!
Okay, back to these 2-Ingredient baked cake donuts! “How can that be??” you might be asking. What about the flour! The yeast! The powdered sugar! The salt! Surely there are egg! Well, they’re actually made with a cake mix and one other ingredient mixed in. I don’t use cake mixes often because I love baking from scratch, but there’s absolutely nothing wrong with using a cake mix every once in a while to make life easier & to mix things up.
So when I got this idea in my head to bake donuts with a cake mix and just one other ingredient mixed in, I ran with it and I love how they turned out! The options are plentiful when it comes to picking a flavor for these cake donuts. Just take your favorite cake mix and stir in either 2 cups mashed banana, 2 cups cinnamon applesauce or a 15 ounce can of pure pumpkin to the dough.
And you’ll never believe it, but the glaze is just store-bought frosting that’s been microwaved for about 10 seconds. It works so perfectly as a donut glaze. I was literally doing the happy dance when this little idea of mine worked so well.
The donuts are soft and cakey and the sweet glaze coats and compliments them perfectly. Oh my yum!
How to Make 2-Ingredient Donuts
To make cake mix donuts, take 1 cake mix, 1 mix-in and 1 container of frosting. Sprinkles are technically optional, but come on! Sprinkles are given when it comes to donuts, am I right?! 😉
Here we go…
You like chocolate cake donuts? For chocolate cake donuts: Use a chocolate cake mix and stir in any of the 3 mix-ins and use any frosting glaze you so desire!
For vanilla cake donuts: Use vanilla cake mix and any of the 3 mix-ins would work great and the same goes for the frosting glaze!
For Strawberry cake donuts: Use mashed bananas or applesauce for the mix-in and a strawberry frosting glaze! You like spice cake mix, go with applesauce or pumpkin and a cream cheese or plain vanilla frosting glaze!
So many yummy options! The process for making these donuts is so quick and easy it’s ridiculous. You’ll be baking these bad boys (I mean that in a good way) every chance you get.
Donuts Three Ways
I made them three different ways to show you how: Strawberry banana with a strawberry frosting glaze and sprinkles, of course! Oh la la!!
Apple Spice with a vanilla frosting glaze…sweet & simply delicious! Might be my fave!
Chocolate pumpkin with a chocolate frosting glaze and chocolate sprinkles! Party!
So what are you waiting for? Grab a cake mix, a mix-in, and a container of frosting and you’re less than 30 minutes away from baked cake donut deliciousness!
Even More Donut Deliciousness
Stay tuned for some scratch-made, home-fried Blueberry Donuts that are still super easy and can be ready to enjoy in just 30 minutes. Once again, too good to be true!
Oh, and don’t forget about the Easy Old-Fashioned Donuts, Whole Wheat Baked Banana Donuts with a Peanut Butter Glaze, and Baked Banana Donuts with a Maple Glaze recipes that I’ve posted in the past. They might be oldies on the blog, but they’re still goody good good!
I’m so excited about these donuts! They’re so easy to make, they taste great, the flavor options are endless and everyone will go crazy over them. If you make these 2-Ingredient Donuts, be sure to snap a picture and share it with me or tag me on Instagram @thebakermama so I can see. 
I love seeing how inspired and creative y’all get with the recipes I share. Enjoy!
xoxo,
2-Ingredient Baked Cake Donuts
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 7 mins
- Total Time: 22 mins
- Yield: 12
- Category: Breakfast
Description
These 2-Ingredient Baked Cake Donuts are too good to be true! Just two ingredients for the donuts and a container of frosting for the glaze and in less than 30 minutes you’ll have great cake donuts ready to enjoy!
Ingredients
- 1 cake mix, any flavor (just the dry mix)
- 1 mix-in (2 cups mashed banana OR 2 cups cinnamon applesauce OR 1 (15 ounce) can pure pumpkin)
- 1 container frosting, any flavor
- Sprinkles, optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray one (or two) 6 cavity donut pans with non-stick cooking spray and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the cake mix (just the dry mix, no other ingredients listed on the box) with one of the mix-in options until well combined. Transfer the batter to a gallon-size resealable baggie and seal shut. Cut a small piece off one corner off the bottom of the baggie and fill each donut ring almost completely full with batter. You can also use a piping bag, if you have one. (Should make 12 donuts)
- Bake for 7-8 minutes or until donuts are set and spring back up when touched. Let donuts cool in pan for at least 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack set over a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to collect glaze drippings. Repeat process with remaining batter if you don’t have two donut pans.
- Heat frosting in a microwave safe bowl for 10-15 seconds until of drizzling consistency. Dip one donut at a time into the frosting glaze and place upright back on the wire rack. If sprinkling with sprinkles, do so immediately after glazing each donut. Repeat with remaining donuts. Allow glaze to set for 5-10 minutes. Enjoy!
Notes
If using a mini donut pan, bake for about 5 minutes before testing doneness.
i was very excited to try this donut recipe this morning. i followed your instructions exactly using applesauce and blueberry muffin mix. the inside of the donut was gummy and pasty even though they were in the oven for well over the 7-8 minute bake-time. do you have any idea what may have gone wrong?? thanks !!
Hi Julie! I’m guessing it’s because you used a muffin mix instead of a cake mix. I have only tested the recipe with a cake mix.
Yep, the problem was the muffin mix! I tried again this morning with funfetti cake mix and applesauce, & they turned out wonderfully!! Huge hit with the kiddies!! Thanks for the recipe & the help!! 🙂
Yay! So happy to hear. Enjoy! 🙂
Hi just wondering if I can transfer the batter to a cake pan..thank you⚘
Hi Lucia! Yes, you’ll just need to bake it longer. Check the suggested baking time on the back of the cake mix box for the size of cake pan you use, but check it often to make sure it doesn’t over-bake. Enjoy!
Hi there so are these supposed to be vegan?
As long as the cake mix you use is vegan, they certainly could be. Enjoy!
I made devils food donuts dipped in chocolate icing and yellow cake donuts dipped in strawberry icing. I also used the recipe with my whoopie pie pans and used carrot cake and cream cheese icing. I didn’t heat the icing for the whoopie pies. The donuts and whoopie pies all turned out fantastic. I’m so glad I found your recipe. Thank you from me, my hubby and his coworkers!
Made donuts using cinnabon cake mix, homemade applesauce and pumpkin pie spice. Instead of using frosting I rolled the donuts in Splenda mix (part Splenda and regular granulated sugar) . Did not have a donut pan so instead used a mini bundt cake pan. They came out looking absolutely beautiful, smelled so great and the taste was fantastic!! Thank you for such a simple and quick way to make these!????
Spice cake mix with 15 oz can of pure pumpkin with a couple heaping tablespoons of healthy flax seeds! 20 minutes at 350 degrees..top with cream cheese icing!
Sounds delish, Meem! So happy you made them your own and are enjoying them! 🙂
This sounds healthy. I buy sugar free cake mixes at Walmart which are healthy. A little pricey.
Used the spice cake mix with applesauce . Followed directions carefully. Bought a donut pan just to try the recipe out.
The results are doughnut shaped but taste nothing at all like a cake doughnut! They are soft and taste like a spice cake not like a doughnut.
Very disappointing!
Oh Donna, I’m sorry they didn’t turn out like you wanted them to. They are definitely a soft and cake-y donut (as stated in the post) with a thin crisp exterior to them thanks to baking them at 425 degrees.
Does this have to be made into donuts or muffins? I would like to make it in a cake pan. Maybe adjust the baking time??
Hi Kylie! Absolutely, you can bake the recipe in a cake pan. I would recommend decreasing the oven temperature to 350 degrees and baking for about 15 minutes, watching it closely. Let me know how it turns out! Enjoy!
I used a triple chocolate cake mix and bananas. Baked at 350 in a 13×9 cake pan for about 20-25 min. It was delicious. Very moist w only a hint of banana taste that I didn’t mind at all. I didn’t frost it but I bet if I had it would mask the banana taste. Only problem I had was I ate half the pan myself!
Can I use with a baby cakes donut maker?
Hi Raven! I’ve never used a baby cakes donut maker before, but I don’t see why not. Certainly worth a try! I hope they turn out just as great. Enjoy!
They did. Thank you!
Oh I want to know this too!
You can use it! I did and they were great
I tried this with questionable results. First, I used silicone pans, and only got ten donuts. I used applesauce and spice cake mix. (Used what was in the pictures). First, I had to double the baking time to 16 minutes. Then I let them cool for almost 20 minutes, and still had issues getting them out. I think if I had used a metal pan, it might have turned out differently. The flavor is good, but I am not sure I will try this again. I will see if I let them sit out overnight if the glazing will work or not.
Hi Tom! I’m sorry to hear this. Something definitely went wrong with either the ingredients you used or the pan you used because they certainly shouldn’t bake much longer than 8 minutes. Did you use just 2 cups of the applesauce? Did you use a standard spice cake mix (just the dry mix, NO oil, water, eggs, etc.)?
I did spice cake and applesauce in a silicone pan as well. It took about 15 minutes to cook and I let them cool for about 20 minutes. They turned out delicious but I did have to bake them for double the amount of time.