Baked Chocolate Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze

Today, on the eighth day of the eighth month, Joe and I are celebrating eight years of marriage. Eight years. It seems impossible to me, yet here we are, two beautiful sons and a mortgage and a lifetime later. He really is an amazing man, and I'm super lucky to have him.

Joe is a huge fan of sweets, which isn't surprising, because he's so sweet ;). (No more sappy stuff, I promise.) He is particularly fond of doughnuts, and has been known to come home from work on a Saturday morning toting a box of half a dozen of the tasty treasures. Since I've been trying to make more breakfasts on the weekends (you know, the kind that require more effort than pouring milk over cereal), I decided to bake us a batch of doughnuts one recent weekend.  Joe would say that my doughnut pan doesn't get nearly enough use anyway. (He's right.)

These are everything you'd want out of a chocolate doughnut. They're moist, cakey, sweet, and dipped in a decadent chocolate glaze. We all loved them. They're made with pantry staples, so as long as you have a doughnut pan (and if you don't, why not?!), you should definitely make them this weekend.

Happy Anniversary, babe. Maybe I'll bake you another batch of these this weekend, if you're really nice.

Baked Chocolate Doughnuts with Chocolate Glaze

doughnuts adapted from Stephanie Cooks; glaze adapted from Food.com

For the doughnuts:

1 3/4 cup cake flour

1/3 cup cocoa powder

3/4 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the glaze:

6 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 cup milk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar

1. To make the doughnuts, preheat the oven to 325. Combine the flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk together. Stir in the milk, eggs, oil and vanilla until well combined. Transfer the batter to a large plastic bag and cut one corner off. Pipe the batter into greased doughnut pans, filling 2/3 of the way. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until springy. Allow to cool in the pans for five minutes, then transfer to a wire rack.

2. To make the glaze, melt the butter in a small suacepan over low heat. Stir in the cocoa powder and milk. Cook the mixture, stirring, until it thickens and comes to a boil. Remove the pan from heat and add the vanilla. Stir in the powdered sugar, adding more in 1/2 cup increments as needed to make the mixture smooth and slightly thicker than syrup.

3. Dunk each doughnut in the glaze, top them with sprinkles, then set them aside while the glaze hardens, about 30 minutes (the waiting is the hardest part). Makes 12 doughnuts.