Cotton Candy Baked Donuts Recipe

Cotton Candy Baked Donuts Recipe

These cotton candy donuts make for a fluffy baked donuts recipe that is easy to make, full of flavor and can be ready in an hour or less! The cotton candy extract and glaze make these donuts scrumptious, colorful and pretty to look at too! Make sure to check out our video on how to make these yummy donuts!

What will I need to make these cotton candy donuts? 

To make these cotton candy donuts, you will need the following ingredients: 

• all-purpose flour
• baking powder
• baking soda
• salt
• ground nutmeg
• unsalted butter
• vegetable oil
• granulated sugar
• eggs
• vanilla extract
• cotton candy extract
• milk
• sour cream
• pink & blue gel food coloring
• confectioners’ sugar

To make these cotton candy donuts, you will need the following supplies: 

• measuring cups and spoons of various sizes
• mixing bowls of various sizes
• spatula
• whisk

Make sure to check out our other delicious recipes like the ones below!

• Easy Oreo Owl Cupcakes
• Black Forest Brownies Recipe
• Cinnamon Roll Waffles Recipe in a Waffle Maker
• Easy Mango Mousse Recipe

These Cotton Candy Baked Donuts are a fun and yummy way to enjoy the flavours of both cotton candy and donuts. Bring those fun carnival/fair treats to your home without ever leaving the house. They are so pretty too, great to serve at any gathering from baby showers (hello blue & pink), bridal showers, birthday parties and more!

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FAQ for Cotton Candy Baked Donuts

They don’t have a strong cotton candy flavor. What happened?

The type of extract used makes a big difference in this recipe. The cotton candy flavoring I use is LorAnn Cotton Candy Super Strength Flavor. It is a super strength concentrated flavoring so 1 teaspoon in this recipe is enough to give a nice, but not overpowering, cotton candy flavor. LorAnn Super Strength Flavor is typically 4 times as strong as regular baking extracts. If the flavoring you’re using isn’t super strength like this one, you may need to add a bit more than what the recipe calls for.

How do you get bright & vibrant colors?

For these bright colors, I used the brand Chefmaster Liqua-gel in the Neon Brite Pink and Royal Blue.

Do these donuts need to be refrigerated or can they remain at room temperature?

These donuts are best eaten fresh but can last at room temperature for up to two days if stored in a sealed food safe container.

My donuts came out really dry. 

It sounds like too much flour was added to the batter. See notes section on how to properly measure flour.

My donuts came out with a gummy texture. 

It sounds like the batter was mixed too much. When mixing the dry ingredients into the batter, it’s okay if there are a few lumps still left in it. You’ll be stirring the batter again once adding food coloring so you don’t want to mix it too much at first. Also, be sure to mix this entire recipe by hand – no electric mixer should be used when making this recipe.

Check out our Baked Donuts Recipe Video

Measuring Tip for Flour for Baked Donuts Recipe

It is important to measure out the flour accurately. Too much or too little flour will affect how the cake turns out. To accurately measure the flour, either use a food scale to measure out the grams exactly or use the spoon and scoop method.

The spoon and scoop method means you put the measuring cup on the counter then use a spoon to scoop flour directly out of the bag and lightly place it into the cup. If you use the measuring cup to scoop directly from the bag, you’ll likely end up with 25% more flour than you actually need. This is because the flour gets packed down into the cup.  

Whose ready to make this delicious Cotton Candy Baked Donuts Recipe? Let’s get to it shall we? If you make these let us know how you like them!

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Yield: 16

Cotton Candy Baked Donuts Recipe

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These cotton candy donuts make for a fluffy baked donuts recipe that is easy to make, full of flavor and can be ready in an hour or less! The cotton candy extract and glaze make these donuts scrumptious, colorful and pretty to look at too!

Prep Time 15 minutes

Cook Time 16 minutes

Additional Time 15 minutes

Total Time 46 minutes

Ingredients

Donuts

• 2 cups (280 grams) all-purpose flour*
• 1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 tablespoons (30 grams) unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons (30 grams) vegetable oil
• 1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cotton candy extract**
• ½ cup milk, room temperature
• ½ cup sour cream, room temperature
• pink & blue gel food coloring

Glaze

• 2 cup (240 grams) confectioners’ sugar
• 2 – 3 tablespoons of milk
• pink & blue gel food coloring

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Spray a donut pan (16 donuts total***) with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg. Set aside for now.
4. In a large bowl, whisk together butter, vegetable oil and granulated sugar until combined.
5. Add eggs, vanilla extract and cotton candy extract into the butter mixture and whisk until fully combined.
6. Add milk and sour cream to the butter mixture and stir until well combined.   
7. Add the flour mixture into the wet ingredients and stir just until blended. Do not overmix – it’s okay if a few lumps still remain in the batter. Stir just until you no longer see streaks of white flour.  
8. Separate donut batter equally into 2 bowls. This works out to be around 430 grams of batter per bowl.
9. Color one bowl of batter pink and one bowl of batter blue.
10. Take 2 piping bags and put one donut batter color in each bag.
11. Fill each donut cup about ¾ of the way full with batter mixing blue and pink batter in each donut cavity. Don’t fill each donut cavity up 100% as the mixture will overflow when baking and you’ll no longer have nice round donuts.
12. Spray the back of a standard-sized spoon with non-stick baking spray and smooth the donut batter out in each donut cavity. This helps the colors to blend/marble together more.
13. Place donut pan in oven for 15 - 16 minutes or until toothpick inserted in donut comes out clean.
14. Let donuts cool in pan for 5 minutes before removing to wire rack to cool completely.
15. For the glaze, stir together the confectioners’ sugar and milk until mixture is smooth.
16. Separate the donut glaze into two separate bowls. Color one bowl pink and the other bowl of glaze blue.
17. Dip each donut top in the glaze.
18. Store covered in a food storage container at room temperature for up to 2 days or in fridge up to 4 days. These glazed donuts are best eaten fresh.

Notes

*see our post for more helpful tips for these donuts.

* It is important to measure out the flour accurately. Too much or too little flour will affect how the cake turns out. To accurately measure the flour, either use a food scale to measure out the grams exactly or use the spoon and scoop method. The spoon and scoop method means you put the measuring cup on the counter then use a spoon to scoop flour directly out of the bag and lightly place it into the cup. If you use the measuring cup to
scoop directly from the bag, you’ll likely end up with 25% more flour than you actually need. This is because the flour gets packed down into the cup.   

**The brand of cotton candy extract I use is LorAnn Cotton
Candy Super Strength Flavor. This can be found at Amazon or Michaels (plus other baking specialty stores).

*** For this recipe, I used a donut pan with 3” donut cavities. If your donut pan has larger or smaller donuts, you’ll have to adjust
the baking time and you’ll end up with a different amount of donuts.

Recommended Products

As an Amazon Associate and member of other affiliate programs, I earn from qualifying purchases.

• 
  Chefmaster - Liqua-Gel Food Coloring - 12
• 
  LorAnn Super Strength Cotton Candy Flavor
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  Whisk Set of 3 -Heat Resistant
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  Stainless Steel Measuring Cups Set (6 Piece Set)
• 
  Large Professional Grade Donut Pan