Baked mocha doughnuts

We grew up in the Victorian countryside as children.  It was mostly wet and cold there, with a few months (if you were lucky) of very hot weather and potential bushfires.   The tiny house we lived in had no hot water, flushing toilet or heating.  In fact, only a few months ago we were visiting relatives down there and came across roadworks as they were finally putting in town sewerage!
My parents were very conventional food-wise so meat and 3 veg were the go most of the time.  I only got to try a lot of different foods when I left home and went to live in share houses with hippies who were either vegetarian or vegan, dope-smoking, guitar playing, free loving, folk dancing crazies...
So, to get to my point, I had most likely never eaten a doughnut till I was in my 20's.  I don't like to fry foods- not because of health issues but because I am a total chicken when it comes to hot oil spattering at me.  I love kitchen gadgets, and I have quite a collection of variously-shaped baking pans so how could I resist the cute as a button doughnut pan at my local shopping centre?
There are some interesting-looking recipes for baked doughnuts on the Net, but I decided to have a go at this one from Shutterbean's blog.  I am a big coffee fan so the hint of coffee in this one attracted me, though I would like to try many more!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plain flour
• 1/4 cup dark cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda- yes I stuck to this even tho I wondered if baking powder was meant
• 1 tablespoon instant coffee powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup buttermilk
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil-I used peanut oil as you want one with very little taste
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 
  

for the topping:

• 1 teaspoon instant coffee powder
• 1 tablespoon hot water
• 90g. cream cheese, melted- I shoved this in the microwave for 25 seconds
• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1-2 tablespoons milk- I found I needed very little milk; perhaps even none
• chocolate sprinkles or whatever bling you have (optional)
• 
  
• Method:

Set your oven to 170C.  Grease your doughnut pan, by either spraying it with oil or rubbing a bit of oil around each little hole especially around the spindle.  In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa, baking soda, coffee powder and salt together (or sieve them!.)  In a small bowl, whisk buttermilk, sugar, egg, oil and vanilla until smooth. Add wet ingredients to the dry ones; whisk together till well-combined.

Spoon batter into a jug with a good lip. Pour the batter into your oiled doughnut pan, making sure you leave a bit of room at the top so they can spread out whilst baking.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, until doughnuts spring back when lightly pressed. Cool them in the pan for a few minutes, then carefully turn out onto a rack to cool completely.

In a small bowl, combine the coffee powder with hot water and stir until dissolved. Add melted cream cheese and stir until you get a lovely smooth dark liquid. Add the icing sugar in 2 or 3 lots, then stir in the vanilla, and add the milk to thin out glaze if necessary. If the consistency is too thin, add more sugar. If too thick add a bit more milk.  (I found it very thin, and probably should have used only 1 tbs of milk).

Dip doughnuts into bowl of glaze and allow the excess to drip back into the bowl. Place them on the rack. Top with bling and eat!

dry ingredients

wet ingredients

ready to mix in

batter ready for the oven

they look so cute when they come out

ingredients for the glaze

all blinged up and ready to eat!

pretty enough to eat

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