Vanilla Bean Mini Doughnuts

I can't believe that tomorrow is the 1st of June! And in 2 weeks I'll finally be done with school! For that I thought this would be a cute post. Although, I'm not a doughnut person at all. Ever since I was a kid I wasn't big on getting doughnuts at a doughnut place or buying a box of them, with the exception of Krispy Kreme because my dad would always buy a couple boxes when we went to Vegas. But if you know me, you know that I have a thing for anything mini. When I saw these over at Sprinkle Bakes, I thought I'd give it a try. They look just like ones from Starbucks, although I couldn't tell you if they taste the same since I've never had Starbucks Birthday Cake Doughnut. I did like these little things better than doughnuts because they were more like a cake.

The mini doughnut pan isn't hard to find anymore. I know Michael's has them and I got mine at Sur La Table, but if you don't have any one of those around you, you can order them online. Sprinkle Bakes suggest using a piping bag to fill the pan, but when I did it I cut the hole to big and it made a mess and I got mad and ended up just spooning a couple spoonfuls into each mold and spreading it. 

Here's the recipe:

(Adapted from Sprinkle Bakes)

Yields about 5-6 dozen mini doughnuts

Ingredients

Doughnut batter:

2 cups all purpose flour, sifted
3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tbsp. butter, melted
Seeds from one vanilla bean

Vanilla glaze

White nonpareils

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425°F. Spray donut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
2. In large mixing bowl, sift together all purpose flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Add buttermilk, eggs, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds and butter and beat until just combined. Spray doughnut cavities with cooking spray or brush with butter.  Fill each donut cup approximately 1/2 full.
3.Bake 5-8 minutes or until the top of the donuts spring back when touched. Let cool in pan for 4–5 minutes before removing. Finish doughnuts with vanilla glaze and sprinkle with nonpareils. Doughnuts are best served fresh.

Vanilla glaze:

1 cup confectioner’ s sugar
1 tbsp. milk
½ tsp. vanilla extract
4 drops of liquid blue food coloring
White nonpareils 

In small bowl, stir together sugar, milk and vanilla extract until sugar is completely dissolved. Add food coloring and stir until color is uniform.  Use immediately to glaze doughnuts. 

**NOTE about the Glaze**

*Don't feel like making the glaze? It's ok to subsitute the homemade stuff for a bottled version. I found that a bottle of Vanilla Duncan Hines Amazing Glazes works just as good. All you need to do is pour it into a small bowl, slightly heat so it isn't as thick and add a few drops of food coloring. 

*Also the glaze is still warm because it won't clump when you dip your doughnuts in them.