Light and fluffy, golden brown cake donuts, topped with a maple glaze and flakey sea salt, these Old Fashioned Maple Donuts are perfect for fall.

Overhead view of Old Fashioned Maple Donuts topped with flakey sea salt on a wire rack.

What is the difference between a cake donut and a regular donut?

Cake donuts use baking powder and sometimes a bit of baking soda. Whereas a regular donut uses yeast to rise. Cake donuts have more of a tender soft crumb and are a little more dense whereas regular donuts are more like a light and fluffy bread.

Can you make cake donuts in advance?

You can however, they lose their outer crispness if you store them for a bit. That being said, you can make the dough the day before and store it in the fridge overnight. Cake donuts can also sit for a couple hours at room temperature and still taste delicious!

Can you bake cake donuts?

There are certain cake donut recipes that are meant to be baked. However, this is not one of them. Baked cake donuts have a softer, looser batter more like cake that will puff in the oven. This donut recipe is best fried, if you bake them you will be left with dense bricks.

Sour Cream vs. Buttermilk Old Fashioned Donuts

Traditionally old fashioned cake donuts are made with a sour cream or a buttermilk base. I tested both for this recipe and 100% both work, so if you only have one or the other available, use whichever one you have! That being said I slightly prefer working with the sour cream dough and SLIGHTLY prefer the finished product. If you choose to use buttermilk, replace the sour cream with 100 grams of buttermilk – do not use a milk and lemon juice substitute, it is too runny!

Additional Recipes to try:

Tips for making Old Fashioned Maple Donuts

Make sure all dough ingredients are at room temperature. This will help the batter come together more easily and give you a lighter fluffier donut. You don’t want the ingredients warm, just a cool room temperature.
Sift the dry ingredients! Cornstarch has a tendency to clump and you don’t want to have to over mix the dough to get rid of them.
Don’t be tempted to add more flour to the dough before chilling. It should be very sticky but thick, think like chocolate chip cookie dough but even a little stickier.
I use a heavy cast iron dutch oven for frying because the dense material helps the oil heat evenly and the tall sides keep oil from splattering. A thermometer is also key when frying to make sure the oil is at the right temperature.
Don’t be afraid to use a decent amount of flour when rolling out the chilled dough. It is sticky so you want to make sure to keep it moving otherwise when you cut out the donuts they’ll be stuck to your surface.
It is important to fry the cake donuts hot, between 360 F and 370 F. To keep the oil at the temperature be sure to keep a thermometer in the oil and I recommend heating it to 370 F. Then, add in the donuts and the temperature will drop to around 360F.
Dunk the donuts in the glaze while still warm (not hot) if doing a milk or buttermilk glaze. If they are too hot all of the glaze will melt off.
This recipe can be doubled if you want to make twice as many! After that I would make the batches separately or use a stand mixer to make more.

Ingredients

Dough

Butter: Unsalted or salted butter will work but if you use unsalted, add an extra pinch of salt. Just be sure the butter is at room temperature.
Nutmeg: I recommend freshly grating nutmeg for the best flavor.
Maple Sugar: I used maple sugar for the dough of these donuts to make them extra mapley but you can use regular granulated sugar instead if you can’t find maple sugar.
Fine Sea Salt: Salt is key to balancing sweetness and enhancing the flavor of the dough.
Vanilla extract: A teaspoon of vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste enhances the flavors and sweetness of the doughnuts.
Egg: One standard large egg is used for the batter of these donuts to hold the dough together and give them a bit of lift.
All Purpose Flour: Any all purpose flour will work for these! I have not yet tried any other flours with this recipe.
Cornstarch: Cornstarch gives these a lighter texture because when mixed with flour it acts as cake flour.
Baking Powder: Ultimately the baking powder is the key to making the donuts puff so make sure it hasn’t expired/is still active.
Sour Cream: I prefer sour cream for these donuts but if you want to use buttermilk, cut the amount to 100 grams.
Vegetable Oil: Vegetable oil or Canola oil are used to fry the doughnuts, I believe avocado oil may work as well but I haven’t tested it.

Maple Glaze

Maple Syrup: I like to use dark maple syrup for the best flavor and color.
Salted Butter: A bit of salted butter cuts down the sweetness and adds a bit of richness to the glaze
Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar will thicken the maple glaze.
Vanilla: Vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste will work for the glaze.
Flakey Sea Salt: A bit of flakey sea salt sprinkled on top of these donuts is key! Don’t sub table salt.

Side view of old fashioned maple donuts on a wire rack topped with flaky sea salt.

How to make Maple Cake donuts

Make the dough

In a large mixing bowl, beat together the butter, maple sugar, salt, vanilla, and nutmeg. Beat for about a minute or two until it gets a little light and fluffy.
Add in the egg and beat until smooth. Finally add in the sour cream (or buttermilk) and beat again until smooth.
Place a sieve over the bowl and add in the flour, corn starch, and baking powder. Sift the dry ingredients into the wet and beat until just combined.
Scoop the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap and wrap it into a square or circle that is two inches thick.
Place the dough in the fridge to chill for at least an hour or up to overnight. If you want to make them for breakfast I love to prep the dough the night before and then fry and glaze in about 30 minutes in the morning.

Maple Glaze

Whisk the melted butter, maple syrup, and vanilla together.
Then add in the powdered sugar together in a bowl until it reaches a thick honey like consistency. You can add more maple syrup or powdered sugar to thin or thicken the glaze.
Note that the glaze will thin out/ melt a bit when it hits the warm donuts so don’t make it too thin.

Shape the Donuts

While the dough is chilling or about 20 minutes before you plan to cut out the donuts, pour the oil into a large dutch oven and place a candy thermometer on the side of the pot.
Place the pot over medium low heat.
Place a wire rack into a baking sheet and set it next to the stove for the fried donuts to sit on.
Keep an eye on the oil temp but let it heat up to 370 F.
Once the dough has chilled, and the oil is at 350 F -360F, roll it out on a well floured surface. Be sure to scoot the dough around with a bench scraper and use enough flour on the counter between rolls to keep it from sticking.
Roll the dough out so that it is about 3/4″ thick.
Use a biscuit cutter or a glass that is 4″ inches in diameter and cut out 4-5 donuts. Use a smaller circle that’s about 1″ in diameter to cut out the donut holes. Pick up the dough scraps and quickly need them together until it becomes a smooth dough again. Re-wrap and place back in the fridge to stay cold.

Fry the Donuts

Once the oil has reached 370 F. Carefully place two of the donuts in the oil, dropping them away from you. Set a timer for 2 minutes and keep an eye on the oil temperature. It should stay between 360 and 370. *If your home is warm, place the extra donuts on a flour dusted baking tray into the fridge.
At first the donuts will sink, and then they’ll float, and then they will start to puff and get that classic crack around the top.
As long as you are using a thermometer it’s best to base the cook time on what these look like rather than an actual timer. The most important indicator is that the top has cracked all the way around.
Then use a fork in the center of the donut to carefully flip them over, away from you so the oil doesn’t splash on to you.
Fry for about another 1 minute and 30 seconds until the second side of the donut has the same color as the first side.
Use the same fork to scoop the donuts out one at a time and place them on the wire rack to allow excess oil to drip off.
Let the oil come back to 370 before adding in the second round of donuts. Then repeat the frying steps above.
When you’re frying the last two of the first round, re-roll the remaining dough and cut out 2-3 more donuts.
Fry the last batch and donut holes!

Glaze

While the donuts are still warm, I usually do this between batches, dunk the donuts, crack side down, into the glaze.
Carefully lift the glazed donut up with a fork in the center and let any excess glaze drip off.
Place the glazed donuts on a second wire rack and immediately sprinkle with flakey sea salt. Leave them to cool for at least ten minutes.
These are best eaten day of!

Image that requests readers to rate and review the recipe.

Print Recipe