Baked Chocolate Glazed Cake Donuts Recipe

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This easy, 30-minute chocolate glazed cake donuts recipe pairs moist, fluffy baked doughnuts with a rich, fudgy chocolate glaze.

sour cream chocolate doughnuts with glaze

What Makes This Recipe a Winner

Quick, easy, and budget-friendly. This recipe uses common ingredients. If you’re an ingredient household, you probably already have just about everything on hand to make them! Next time a craving hits, take 30 minutes and whip these up instead of getting half a dozen store-bought donuts.
These are bit healthier than regular donuts. Because they’re baked and not deep-fried, these are a bit more healthy. And if you want to reduce the sugar/carbs, you can use keto brown sugar here.
Double chocolate (triple if you use chocolate sprinkles!), but not too sweet. These are for the chocolate lovers! By design, the chocolate cake doughnut itself isn’t overly sweet, so the fudgy chocolate glaze on top adds just the right decadent finishing touch.
They walk the line between dense and fluffy cake texture. Their texture is moist but somehow light, and rich but surprisingly not heavy.

old fashioned chocolate donut with sour cream

Ingredients

Breaking It Down

Ingredients Explained

In this section I explain the ingredients and give substitution ideas where applicable. For the full recipe (including the ingredient amounts), see the recipe card below.

Sour Cream Chocolate Donuts Ingredients

easy baked sour cream chocolate cake donuts ingredients

Coconut oil – Or butter or ghee; to grease the donut pan.
Avocado oil – Or any mild or neutral-flavored oil you like.
Light brown sugar – For sweet flavor with subtle caramel-y, molasses flavor notes.
Egg – A binder. It helps us achieve the perfect texture in this recipe.
Sour cream – Sour cream is a classic ingredient in old fashioned donuts. It acts as a tenderizer and helps create a moist, tender crumb.
Pure vanilla extract – For flavor and aroma.
Instant espresso powder – Helps pull out the rich flavor notes in chocolate. Use decaf if you prefer, or skip it if you don’t have it on hand.
Flour – Use regular all-purpose flour.
Unsweetened cocoa powder – For deep chocolate flavor.
Baking powder and baking soda – The leavening agents.
Salt – Makes sure our donuts aren’t bland.

Chocolate Glaze Ingredients

Unsalted butter – For rich flavor and to help us achieve the right texture. If you only have salted butter on hand, use it and omit the added salt.
Unsweetened cocoa powder – Just like when you’re making classic fudge with intense chocolate flavor and deep, nuanced notes, using cocoa powder here is far superior to using melted chocolate chips. It also allows us to control the sweetness level (and added sugar) far better, and skips the emulsifiers and stabilizers found in chocolate chips. And bonus, cocoa powder is typically a lot more budget-friendly than chocolate chips!
Powdered sugar – This is a crucial ingredient not only for sweetness, but also to help the glaze set properly.
Water – Because we briefly cook this glaze, we only need to add a little bit of water to help the ingredients dissolve. Don’t be tempted to use milk here; it mutes the flavor and creates a softer-set glaze.
Vanilla extract – The flavor and aroma of vanilla play off the nuances in chocolate and intensify its deep flavor. (TIP: If you want to kick it up even more, add 1/8 teaspoon of instant espresso powder as well.)
Salt – Enhances the chocolate flavor.

Instructions

Step 1: Make the Baked Chocolate Donuts

Preheat the oven to 375F. Grease a donut pan with coconut oil.
Add the oil, sugar, egg, sour cream, vanilla, and instant espresso powder to a large bowl and whisk to combine well.
Add the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and whisk to combine, being careful not to over-mix.
The batter will be thick like this.
Spoon the batter into the prepared donut pan, being careful not to over-fill the wells. Use a spoon to evenly spread the batter in each.
Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 7 to 9 minutes (TIP: the exact baking time will vary depending on your pan).

Let the donuts cool for 10 minutes in the pan, and then invert them onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.

Step 2: Make the Chocolate Glaze

how to make easy stovetop chocolate glaze

Add all ingredients to a small saucepan over low heat.
Heat the mixture (stirring constantly) until the butter is melted and the mixture is smooth, about 2 to 3 minutes.

Step 3: Glaze and Decorate the Donuts

hand holding baked chocolate doughnut dipped in chocolate glaze

Carefully dip the top of each donut in the glaze and put it on a wire rack so any excess glaze can drip off.

Before the glaze sets, top with sprinkles if desired.

Storage

Donuts: Once the glaze sets, store the donuts layered between pieces of parchment paper in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days or in the fridge for up to 1 week.
Glaze: After cooling to room temperature, you can store this glaze in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week. After chilling, it will stiffen like hot fudge. To be able to use it as a glaze after chilling, simply reheat it in a double boiler or a microwave-safe bowl in the microwave in 10 to 15-second intervals, stirring in between each.

healthier glazed chocolate doughnuts on blue background

Tips For the Best Homemade Chocolate Glazed Donuts

Don’t forget to grease the donut pan. The last thing we want is a delicious donut that won’t come out of the pan!
Let the donuts fully cool before glazing so the glaze doesn’t melt off.
If you don’t have a donut pan, you can bake this batter in a muffin pan (or use a mini muffin pan for “donut holes”).

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an old fashioned chocolate donut?

Old fashioned chocolate donuts are cake donuts (which means they’re leavened with baking powder and/or baking soda instead of yeast) that are made with sour cream or buttermilk. They’re typically deep-fried. They have rich chocolate flavor, and the end result is a moist cake-like crumb that strikes a balance between dense and fluffy, while the exterior is crispy from frying.

Can I use vanilla glaze?

Yes! If you want a crackly vanilla glaze, simply mix powdered sugar (about 1 cup) with water (about 1 tablespoon) until smooth. If it’s too thin, mix in more powdered sugar a little at a time, and if it’s too thick, add more water.

What’s the difference between cake donuts and yeast donuts?

The leavening agent. Cake donuts are typically leavened with baking powder or baking soda, while yeasted donuts are leavened with yeast. This leads to differences in the end results; cake donuts are moist, a bit denser, and crumbly like cake, while yeast donuts are soft, light, and springy like brioche bread.

Can I fry these donuts?

No. Some donut batters for baked donuts can be deep-fried, but not this recipe. I developed this batter to be baked, and it’s too thin to fry properly (but it yields deliciously moist, tender donuts!).

More Recipes For Donut-Lovers

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chocolate glazed baked donuts recipe pin

I’m the writer, recipe developer, photographer, and food stylist behind this blog. I love finding the human connection through something we all do every day: eat! Food is a common ground that we can all relate to, and our tables tell a story. It’s my goal to inspire you to get in the kitchen, try something new, and find a favorite you didn’t know you had.

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