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 think this recipe has a lot of potential however the applesauce recipe is severely flawed. I had to bake double the amount of time and still they completely fall apart. I believe the applesauce needs to be reduced by 1/4-1/2 cup and add an egg or two for it to work out. I would like to try it again w/ bananas and/or pumpkin b/c those are natural binders but applesauce is not.
Hi April! Sorry to hear the applesauce combo didn’t work for you. It’s one of our favorite binders and works beautifully for us every time. Was your applesauce especially thin or runny? What brand of cake mix did you use? I’m thinking it must have something to do with the brands you’re using. Hopefully you’ll get to try the other combos soon.
great recipe, super easy. did devil’s food with applesauce. used a 12-hole mini-donut pan and had to do multiple goes in the oven because it’s my only one (5-6 mins per bake)…pro tip: if you have to use one pan multiple times just make sure to wipe it out and re-spray each time you fill it or the next batch will stick. also, i think i know why people’s donuts are falling apart – if you try to dip them in the glaze/frosting when they’re still warm they’ll just crumble. don’t need to be fully cool when you glaze them but definitely not warm. the same thing happens if the frosting isn’t “loose” enough, easily fixed with a few more seconds in the nuker. (found both of those out the hard way!) they are super-soft though, not quite as dense as i thought they might be without the extra wet ingredients the box normally calls for.
This was amazing and so easy!
I used devil’s food cake mix, 1 cup of mashed bananas, and 1 cup of plain nonfat greek yogurt because I didn’t have enough bananas. They turned out delicious and moist!
Can a boxed brownie mix be used instead of a cake mix??
Hi Karen! I think that’s a great idea! The texture will be slightly denser, but they should still taste great! I’ll have to try them out soon too. Enjoy!
How many points per donuts
Hi Elizabeth! I don’t provide nutritional information at this time because everyone uses different brands of ingredients which often have differing nutritional values. I would recommend plugging the ingredients you used into a free online nutrition calculator like: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/recipe/calculator Hope this helps. Enjoy!
If I were to use a red velvet cake mix, would you suggest the 3 bananas or pumpkin add in? Not sure which would taste better. And same question if I used Butter Pecan mix, would bananas or pumpkin be a better pairing?
Thanks for sharing this recipe, I’m all about few ingredients and still getting an awesome taste!
Hi Alicia! I think banana or pumpkin would taste great with the red velvet cake mix. If you’d prefer not have the banana flavor, then I would go with the pumpkin since it has no flavor. Same with the butter pecan mix…if you like the flavor of banana then I would definitely try it with banana. If you use pumpkin with the butter pecan mix, maybe add in a little cinnamon and nutmeg or pumpkin pie spice for a nice flavor addition. I hope you enjoy them!
I used a yellow cake mix with canned pumpkin. I did add a dash of cinnamon and about a teaspoon of oil (I wanted to be sure they were moist enough). After I piped them in the pan I sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. I had to cook mine about 12 minutes. My husband says they are the best donuts he has ever tasted. ❤
Made the chocolate pumpkin and they were amazing. Came out perfect and were a huge hit with my family. I have not been able to get flour do to the pandemic, but I can get cake mix (so far). Thank you!
Can i use a cupcake machine instead of a donut pan?
Hi Hawraa! You can definitely use a muffin pan instead of a donut pan. They’ll just need to bake a little longer or until a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean. Enjoy!
Just made these with white cake mix, bananas and powdered peanut butter! So, so GOOD! Didn’t have frosting in the house, so made icing with confectioners sugar, milk and some more of the powdered peanut butter. Totally saving this recipe for many more variations…thank you! 😀