You know how it goes, you want to make something special for Easter Sunday, but you need a little reassurance that you can pull it off. Fear not, these Lemon Pound Cake Mini Doughnuts are totally within the realm of everyone’s culinary skills.
Easter is upon us and (to me at least) that means a big family brunch with lots of scrumptious treats — especially for the kids! Pound Cake was always a favorite of mine as a child and I’ve been thinking of ways to put a new twist on it for Easter. When I was recently gifted Kitchen Aid Mini Doughnut pans at a kids cooking event, I couldn’t wait to get home and put them to good use for my pound cake experiment.
Baked (not fried!) these Lemon Pound Cake Mini Doughnuts are moist, delicate and lightly sweet. They may be small in size, but each one offers a burst of tart lemon flavor and is topped with a thin coat of icing (the icing part is totally up to you as these doughnuts are fall-off-the-chair good on their own).
It’s really as simple as whipping together all of the ingredients for this lemon pound cake and then filling the tins. The best part about the recipe is that it totally works in both mini and regular sized muffin or donut pan.
I’ve made two batches of these donuts in the past week. One I froze without the icing (to prevent sticking) so I could have a few on hand for whenever we’re in the mood for a little treat. The other batch I set aside to pack for school lunch or serve as an after dinner dessert. I made the those with two different types of icings. Adding tart lemon juice to sweet powdered sugar makes for a flavorful clear glaze, while adding milk or cream to powdered sugar (hello decadence) makes for a white and creamy topping. Either way, these donuts are beauteous and a really tasty treat for Easter or any time of year!
Lemon Pound Cake Mini Doughnuts
Ingredients
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1 stick unsalted butter, softened (1/2 cup)
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup sour cream
- 1/4 cup lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
Lemon Glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 teaspoons lemon juice, milk OR cream (to make the icing white)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
- Using a standing mixer or electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes.
- Add the eggs one at a time, making sure to incorporate each one.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and set aside.
- Whisk the vanilla, sour cream, lemon juice and lemon zest in a separate bowl.
- Add the flour and sour cream alternately to the egg mixture 1/2 at a time, until combined.
- Spoon the batter into greased mini doughnut pans and bake for 18-20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Mix together the glaze ingredients until smooth.
- Allow the doughnuts to cool completely before glazing.
Will this work with a sugar substitute such as honey or maple syrup? Also, if excluding the lemon, do I need to add anything else to make up for the lost liquid? thanks for another great recipe idea!
I freeze them without the lemon glaze!
Can you freeze these for later? with or without the lemon glaze?
These look delicious, but my kids don’t like lemon flavored goodies. Any ideas what to substitute or could I leave out the lemon juice? Thanks~
Just made these for my daughter’s 8th Birthday and they are a delicious. Followed the recipe exactly. I used the Wilton 6-cavity doughnut pan and the recipe made 18 donuts in that pan. It probably would have been better to use a little less batter in each donut cavity and make 20+ donuts so they have a better shape.
1 stick of butter is 1/2 cup! Use 1/2 cup of unsalted butter!
Isn’t one stick of butter 1/4 cup, instead of 1/2 cup? So did you mean four us to add one stick or two? I’d guess the latter but I don’t want to get this wrong.
Making today for Easter tomorrow. How far in advance can you make and they still are fresh and soft? I’m thinking the icing needs to set so they’ll stack and not stick together.
They just came out of the oven, so I had to sneak a warm one 🙂
Very delicious!!
These sounds superb!
You are speaking my language girl! Great pictures too. 🙂
I just made these this morning and they were a HUGE hit! My daughter requested pink doughnuts, so I added some chopped up strawberries to the last round, and mashed up a strawberry to add to the icing. She loved it!
Lemon+pound cake+doughnuts = best combo ever!! This is blowing my mind away!
Yes they will!
I don’t have doughnut pans… Will mini cupcake pans work?
I will try this in my electric mini donut maker.
Thanks for the recipe.