Fun and festive Gluten-Free Vanilla Birthday Cake Donuts that are soft, fluffy, bursting with vanilla, and smothered in a sweet glaze. Enjoy these gluten-free vanilla donuts plain or top them with sprinkles for an extra colorful treat.
Gluten-Free Donuts
I’ve mentioned this in previous posts – my girls and I enjoy a donut every Friday. It helps us wind down for the week and rewards us for getting up and getting ready for the day on time. These gluten-free vanilla cake donuts are one of our favorite gluten-free donuts.
Gluten-free donuts are an extra special treat that we save for Friday morning’s. We like to make up a big batch of gluten-free donuts and freeze them for the future weeks. When we run out of gluten-free donuts, we bake up another batch.
These Gluten-Free Vanilla Birthday Cake donuts are incredible any time and aren’t just for celebrating birthdays. You can decorate them with frosting or enjoy them plain.
Gluten-Free Vanilla Donuts are super easy to make if you have a good recipes, so I hope you’ll try these and see just how simple they are to make. When you do, please stop back by and let me know what you thought and what you topped your gluten-free donuts with.
We rotate the types of gluten-free donuts we make, adding in variety and giving me a chance to test out new donut recipes. My girls like to dip these gluten-free vanilla cake donuts donuts in glaze and add sprinkles.
I love it when they bake with me and they love being rewarded with a sweat treat for helping. The girls and I devoured these Gluten-Free Vanilla Birthday Cake Donuts straight from the oven.
The second batch made it to the glaze and sprinkle process and were frozen for the next week. The texture in these gluten-free vanilla donuts is perfect. There is a little give with the pick the donut up. It’s tender, and melts perfectly in your mouth.
Do I have to use a donut pan?
If you don’t have a donut pan, I recommend you get one. But for now you can use a muffin pan or a mini muffin pan. Just note that the cooking time is lower with a donut pan because the donut dough gets contact all around, including in the center with the donut pan.
Can I make these gluten-free donuts dairy-free?
Absolutely. Substitute the butter milk for your favorite dairy-free milk and add in a teaspoon of vinegar. Let them mixture sit for 5 minutes before adding it to the batter. It will help it thicken up and get lumpy. Use dairy-free milk in the glaze. Enjoy!
These gluten-free vanilla cake donuts are insanely simple to make. They bake up in less than ten minutes and are tender, flavorful, and they hit your donut-loving taste buds in all the right places.
You can have fun with the glaze by adding in color, or you can use different types of sprinkles. One year for Halloween we made the glaze purple and topped the donuts with orange sprinkles. They were fun to hand out to friends on Halloween.
Do these gluten-free vanilla cake donuts freeze well?
Yes, these gluten-free vanilla cake donuts freeze well. We often double the batch and freeze the rest for our Friday donut days. That way I don’t have to make a fresh batch each week. Simple take them out the night before, or defrost them in the microwave in the morning.
What gluten-free sprinkles do you recommend?
Sweetapolita makes great gluten-free sprinkles. Let’s do Organic has a couple of varieties as well.
Most sprinkles don’t have wheat or gluten in them but they are usually processed in a facility that processes other glutinous ingredients. Make sure to check labels for allergen information.
If you like donuts, you might also like my Gluten-Free Chocolate Cake Donuts, Gluten-Free Vegan Chocolate Espresso Donuts, or my Gluten-Free Gingerbread Donuts.
For more gluten-free donuts, check out these Glazed Yeast Raised Gluten-Free Donuts from Gluten Free on a Shoestring.
Did you make these gluten-free cake donuts? Please let me know what you think in the comments below. Also, if you have a question that I haven’t already answered above please leave a comment and I will get back to you. Happy donut making!
Gluten-Free Vanilla Birthday Cake Donuts
Ingredients
For the donuts:
- 2 cups all purpose gluten-free flour blend
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons gluten-free baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 large eggs, room temperature
- 2 teaspoons gluten-free vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup oil of choice
For the glaze:
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- 1/2 - 1 cup sprinkles
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F. Grease two six-serving donut pans; set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt.
- In a separate small mixing bowl, whisk the buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, and oil.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk until combined.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared donut pan filling about 1/2 full. The batter should not cover the center of the donut, where the hole will go.
- Bake for 7-9 minutes or until the donuts rise and set.
- Remove from oven and carefully remove the donut from the pan. You may need to use a spoon or a rubber spatula to loosen them if they stick.
- Cool donuts on a wire rack for 5 minutes.
- Place your wire rack over a cookie sheet or piece of parchment paper.
- For the glaze: In a separate small mixing bowl, combine the powered sugar and milk. Heat covered in the microwave for 30 seconds. Remove from the microwave and stir until all sugar lumps are dissolved.
- One at a time, dip the tops of your donuts into the glaze.
- Place your donut back on the rack and repeat until all donuts have been dipped.
- Repeat 1-2 more times until your glaze is white.
- After the last dip in the glaze, dip the donuts into the sprinkles.
- Store donuts in a airtight container at room temperate for up to three days.
Notes
When working with or measuring gluten-free flour, spoon the flour into the measuring cup and level. Do not scoop your measuring cup into the gluten-free flour. The best method really is to weight it but I don't have the ingredient weights for all my recipes yet.
Recommended Products
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Wilton Non-Stick 6-Cavity Donut Baking Pans -
Wilton Medium Donut Pan, 12-Cavity -
Chefast Non-Stick Donut Pan Combo Kit: BPA-Free Large and Mini Silicone Doughnut Pans, 5 Pastry Bags, and Spatula - Baking Molds for Full-Size and Small Donuts - Bagels and Doughnuts Maker Set
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Nutrition Information:
Serving Size:
12 donutsAmount Per Serving: Calories: 4464 Total Fat: 187g Saturated Fat: 18g Cholesterol: 10mg Sodium: 2791mg Carbohydrates: 716g Sugar: 441g Protein: 15g
Trudy Seim says
I made these with my aspiring culinary son Nick, who”s autistic. He was so excited to see the results of our efforts. We made them just as the recipe said, they were wonderful, and so much fun to make. I had bought the donut forms to make my new IBS diet more fun. So worth it. We found we only needed 2 coats of sugar glaze, though we had to make a second batch. I think we were putting it on pretty thick. lol
chrystal says
Hi Trudy,
Thank you so much for stopping back by and letting me know know that you and Nick enjoy them!
Best,
Chrystal
Elizabeth says
We just made these donuts. They are fantastic. We used krusteaz gluten free flour. Two of our kids have Celiac Disease and have missed doughnuts. They asked me to make some more for tomorrow. Thank you for posting this recipe.
chrystal says
Hi Elizabeth,
Thank you for stopping by to let me know that you and your kids loved these donuts and what flour blend you used. I haven’t tried the Krusteaz flour blend yet but I’m glad to know it worked in this recipe.
Best,
Chrystal
Mary says
We can’t do eggs so wondering if we can sub in flax eggs or applesauce?
chrystal says
Hi Mary,
You can do a flax egg in this recipe. The texture isn’t the same, but it’s still quite yummy. I also have a cinnamon sugar donut that I’ve done a flax egg in and I have a gluten-free vegan chocolate espresso donut that used flax egg. You can leave out the espresso and it will be a chocolate donut. Hope that helps!
Best,
Chrystal
Lisa says
I have been trying to figure out which GF flour works best. I decided to split the batch and do 6 with Pamelas Baking Mix and the other Rogers 1-to-1.
Verdict: The Pamelas are toasted colour but crumbled while trying to dip it into the icing and so I ended up with pieces of donut. They did, however, get harder with time so those might be better to ice completely cool. They still are fragile but very delicious!
Rogers: The donuts turned out rising and looking like a perfect donut except they stayed very light in colour. Good too but the flavour of the Pamelas was better 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
chrystal says
Hi Lisa,
Thank you for stopping by and sharing about those two flour blends. I haven’t tried either of them yet 🙂 I usually use my flour blend recipe or Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1 in this recipe.
Best,
Chrystal
Asyria says
I don’t have a gluten free flour “blend” will regular gluten free flour work also?
chrystal says
Hi Asyria,
All I mean by gluten-free flour blend is a blend of gluten-free flours. I use bob’s red mill 1-to-1. What gluten-free flour do you have?
Best,
Chrystal
Crystal says
Are these donuts neutral enough to use a blueberry or citrus flavored glaze? In search of a great gluten-free donut base that I can top with multiple flavors of glaze for a party!
*Loved* the chocolate donuts!
-Crystal
chrystal says
Hi Crystal,
Yes, these are your basic vanilla flavored donuts. They can be topped with a variety of flavored glazes 🙂
Best,
Chrystal
Christine says
The director for my son’s play asked me to provide donuts that he can eat. I told her there is no such thing. Then I took a deep breath and sent my search engine to work. Thank you for this delicious, easy recipe with suggestions for dairy free!
I substituted 1/2 cup almond flour for an equal amout of gf flour for extra moistness. Delicious!
chrystal says
Hi Christine,
I am so glad you liked these donuts! Thank you for stopping by to let me know. We make donuts each Friday to celebrate the end of the week 🙂 I have a section under recipes called “donuts” if you ever want to try something else.
All my best,
Chrystal
Derval Gaughan says
My 8 year old daughter is coeliac and has never had a donut so we are so very excited to make these this weekend. I bought the Wilton donut pans so we’re all set. Just wondering what type of oil we should consider when you say “oil of choice”? Also I am in Ireland so we have different GF flour blends. I usually use Doves Farm – should I use a self raising {Ingredients: flour blend (rice, potato, tapioca, maize & buckwheat), raising agents (mono-calcium phosphate, sodium bicarbonate), thickener (xanthan gum)} or a plain blend {Ingredients: rice, potato, tapioca, maize, buckwheat}? Thank you in advance for your reply 🙂
chrystal says
Hi Derval,
For the oil, you can use canola oil, vegetable oil, avocado oil, or any mild flavored oil. I haven’t used Doves Farms flour but looking at the ingredients, I’d use the plain blend and follow the rest of the recipe. If you don’t have baking powder then you can use the other self rising blend. Again, I haven’t used this flour but I am guessing it will work.
Best,
Chrystal
Derval Gaughan says
I just wanted to let you know that we tried these today using the plain flour and they turned out fab. Thanks so much for such a great recipe. I posted a link to your site on my Irish GF Facebook page if that’s ok.
chrystal says
Hi Derval,
I am so glad you like these donuts! Thank you for stopping by and letting me know you like them.
Best,
Chrystal