I decided not to choose and had a two-for-one deal via this cake.
It’s a soft, moist, buttery tasting cake with notes of cinnamon and reminds me of snickerdoodle cookies, and I love snickerdoodles. I made the cake using my favorite foolproof, one-bowl, easy cake base. It comes together with a whisk, no mixer needed, and is simple enough to be made at a moment’s notice.
I loathe dry cake, and used three tricks to keep it super soft, moist, and tender: Buttermilk, sour cream (or Greek yogurt), and oil. Buttermilk helps keep cakes soft, springy, bouncy, tender, with the perfect balance of density and fluffiness. The results are unparalleled. You can make buttermilk by souring your own milk. Add about 1 tablespoon vinegar or lemon juice to 1/2 cup milk, wait for 10 minutes for it to curdle, then use as indicated.
If you don’t routinely keep buttermilk on hand, I highly recommend this Powdered Buttermilk. If you don’t use buttermilk much, but sometimes see a recipe that needs a half cup, but because you think you won’t use the rest of the jug before it goes bad, you opt of trying the recipe, then this powder is your new best friend. Shelf stable, keeps for ages. To make sure the cake had flavors similar to snickerdoodle cookies, I used one tablespoon cinnamon, a pinch of nutmeg, and sour cream for just a slight tang. Combined, they help create a snickerdoodle flavor profile. Bake the cake for about 25 minutes, or until just done. Just long enough that the center is set and a toothpick comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs.
Then, top the cake with 9 mini donuts. I used Entenmann’s Cinnamon Pop’Ems because I didn’t feel like making donuts just to put on a cake. If you’re up for more work than I was, use either the Baked Vanilla Donuts or Baked Cinnamon Bun Donuts recipe and bake them in a mini donut pan for about 7 minutes. If you don’t have Entenmann’s, don’t worry. I would have preferred to use Krispy Kreme or Dunkin’ Donuts, but neither are easy to come by in my area. Use whatever donuts your local grocery store bakery has, or use donut holes. Depending on how big they are, you may want to cut them in half so it doesn’t look like baseballs are on top of your cake.
Bake the cake for about 2 minutes with the donuts on top. It helps the donuts and cake meld into one, so they don’t slip around. It also helps flavors marry when things are baked together, even briefly.
I glazed the cake with a simple melted butter and confectioners’ sugar glaze. If you’re not going to serve or need the whole cake at once, you may wish to just glaze the portion you need. The cake is springy, bouncy, and very moist, with just enough density to give it tooth-sinking heft. It’s just sweet enough, but not overly so, and has plenty of cinnamon pop and snickerdoodle flavor.
The cinnamon-coated cake donuts are what you expect bakery cake donuts or donut holes to taste like. They have huge nostalgia factor for me and remind me of being a kid and a big treat was my mom buying donuts from a bakery. She was a scratch baker with everything except donuts.
The combination of the cake, the mini donuts, and the glaze, all in one bite is dreamy. And I didn’t even have to choose between cake or donuts.
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