Cinnamon spiced pink party donuts are a fun and festive anytime treat baked in a heart donut pan. Topped with pink glaze and rainbow sprinkles, it’s love at first bite! See my recipe note to bake in a muffin pan.
These adorable heart donuts make any day special. You’re guaranteed happiness after just one bite! While totally festive for Valentine’s Day, these are a wonderful addition to any special occasion like birthdays, Mother’s Day, or to make a Saturday morning extra fun.
Here’s Why You Will LOVE These Donuts:
- Adorably heart shaped (like these super cute Valentine’s Day cookies!)
- No electric mixer required
- Baked, not fried
- Flavored with vanilla and cinnamon
- Dunked in a pink-tinted vanilla glaze
- Overloaded with sprinkles
- Can easily be doubled for a crowd
- Makes any day fun!
Two Parts to This Recipe
- Donuts: Weโre using my standard baked donut recipe as the base. Itโs what I use for my baked maple donuts, cinnamon sugar donuts, crumb cake donuts (doubled for that recipe), banana donuts, and lemon poppy seed donuts. Itโs a very thick batter that produces tight-crumbed, cakey donuts. Thereโs a small handful of basic ingredients required like flour, egg, leaveners, milk, and brown sugar. Add cinnamon and a little nutmeg for that quintessential donut shop flavor!
- Vanilla Glaze: This pink-tinted vanilla glaze sets on top of the baked donuts after a few hours. It’s made with melted butter for extra flavor and richness. You can tint the glaze any color you like, so these would be fun for themed bridal or baby showers, too.
This recipe only makes 9 or so heart-shaped donuts, so I suggest making 2 batches for a larger crowd. And make 2 batches of glaze, too!
Quick Overview: How to Make Pink Party Donuts
If you don’t have a heart donut pan, you can easily make these into regular shape donuts using a classic donut pan. The heart shaped pan is just like a regular donut pan, but the cavities are somewhat smaller. Don’t fill the heart cavities up very high or you won’t have a hole in the center of the donut.
- Make the donut batter. Combine the dry ingredients in one bowl and the wet ingredients in another bowl. Whisk to combine both. Itโs that easy.
- Fill the donut cavities. Transferring donut batter into the donut pan can be tricky, so I always suggest using a zipped-top bag to pipe the batter. (You can see me doing this in my pumpkin donuts post.) Just spoon the batter into a large zipped-top bag, trim off a bottom corner, and squeeze the batter into the pan. The donut batter is thicker than youโd expect, so it pipes pretty neatly.
- Bake. They bake up VERY quickly!
- Make the glaze. I usually do this as the donuts bake. Whisk the glaze ingredients together until completely smooth. Add more cream for a thinner glaze or more confectioners’ sugar for a thicker glaze.
- Dip into glaze. Dip the warm donuts into the icing, then top with sprinkles! Place on a cooling rack so the excess icing drips down.
More Donut Recipes
- Baked Sprinkle Donuts
- Berry Fritters (fried)
- Maple Bacon Doughnuts (fried)
- Chai Spice Donuts
- Chocolate Frosted Donuts
Pink Party Donuts
- Prep Time: 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 9 donuts
- Category: Breakfast
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
An easy recipe for baked pink party donuts covered in pink tinted vanilla frosting and an overload of rainbow sprinkles. It’s love at first bite!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (125g) all-purpose flourย (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2ย teaspoonย ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup (65g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (120ml) buttermilk, at room temperature*
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
Vanilla Glaze
- 2 cups (240g) confectioners’ย sugar
- 3 Tablespoons (43g) unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 3–4 Tablespoons (45-60ml) heavy cream
- 1 teaspoon pureย vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- 1–2 drops red food coloring
- for garnish: rainbow sprinkles*
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350ยฐF (177ยฐC). Spray the donut pan (heart-shaped donut pan or regular donut pan) with non-stick spray. Set aside.
- Makeย the donuts:ย Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Set aside. Whisk the egg, brown sugar, and buttermilkย together until smooth. Add the melted butter and vanilla, whisking until fully combined.ย Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Do not overmix. The batter will be very thick.
- Spoon the batter into the donut cavitiesโI highly recommend using a large zipped-top bag for ease. Cut a corner off the bottom of the bag and pipe the batter into each donut cup, filling only 1/2 to 2/3 full. If baking hearts, do not fill up too much or the donuts won’t have a hole in the center (they’ll puff up too much).
- Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Allow to cool in the pan for about two minutes then place each on a wire rack set on top of a baking sheet or parchment paper (to catch any sprinkles or glaze in step 5). Bake the remaining donut batterย (there is usually enough batter for 2-3 more donuts) and once baked, transfer to the wire rack. Allow donuts to cool down until you can handle them.
- Make the glaze:ย In a medium bowl, whisk the glaze ingredients together until completely smooth. Add more cream to thin or more confectioners’ sugar to thicken, if desired. I always add a little salt to offset the sweetness. Dip each donut into the glaze, then place back on the rack. Top with sprinkles. Donuts are best served immediately. Leftovers keep well covered tightly in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. If glazed lightly, the glaze will somewhat set after a few hours.
Notes
- Freezing Instructions: You can freeze the glazed or plain donuts for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm up to your liking in the microwave. I usually just zap ’em for a couple secondsโeven with the glaze on. Very tasty.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Heart-Shaped Donut Pan or Regular Donut Pan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Large Zipped-Top Bag | Cooling Rack
- Double Batch: Instead of doubling the recipe, make two batches. I find it’s easy to overmix when working with a double batch in 1 bowl. Overmixing may lead to too-dense donuts.
- Muffins: You can make this recipe into 8-10 muffins using a muffin pan. Bake at the same temperature for 18-20 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Buttermilk: Buttermilk creates a moist and rich tasting baked donut. I highly recommend it. You can use low fat or full fat. If needed, you can use 1/4 cup any milk and 1/4 cup any yogurt (or sour cream) to replace the 1/2 cup buttermilk.
- Sprinkles: I mixed a bunch of sprinkles for these donutsโI got rainbow sprinkles from Target and mixed them with Sweetapolita sprinkles.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Can this frosting be used on yeast donuts?
You bet!
slay qween
I love all of Sallyโs recipes,I use them at church
All the time, cutout cookies etc are great
What frosting would you suggest for pumpkin cookies
Hi Dianne, we love the maple cream cheese frosting on these soft pumpkin cookies!
So as I said earlier I tried the icing and it came out lovely. Just wanted to add that the next day I added some butter to the left over refrigerated icing and got some excellent butter cream for cupcakes! So versatile!
I love all these recipes! Theyโre so easily explained and the videos really help. Thanks for sharing!!
I only use your recipes for baking!! I love them so much!
Could I use milk instead of heavy cream in this recipe? I need to make these as quickly as possible and don’t have any heavy cream on hand!
Hi Amelia, if needed, you can use 1/4 cup any milk and 1/4 cup any yogurt (or sour cream) to replace the 1/2 cup buttermilk. And milk instead of the heavy cream in the glaze will work, just use a little less, and add a tablespoon at a time until you get to the consistency you want.
I love how these cute doughnuts turned out! One question: I “dunked” the donuts in the frosting but the surface still needed smoothing out (I did thin it a bit with heavy cream – the consistency seemed ok). What kitchen tool is best to use if the frosting needs some adjustments? I tried a butter knife but that just made it worse. Thanks for this recipe! These are delicious and adorable!
Hi Holly! We would thin out the frosting more next time, you can use milk to thin as well. The icing will settle itself into a smooth finish!
This was the best glaze I have ever made. So delicious made with the butter and pinch of salt. The vanilla came shining through! Sadly I didn’t make the donuts. I plan to this winter. I used store bought plain with your glaze! Amazing flavor. Thank you.
Hi! Is it possible to make this glaze pink using raspberry powder? The red food colouring we have here leaves a slightly bitter taste ๐
Hi Kirstie, that should work just fine! You may need to tinker with the amount to get your desired taste/color.
Hello sally
What kind of heavy cream do I use. ? For the batter
Thank you
Hi Emmeline, There is no heavy cream in the donut batter, and you can use any kind of heavy cream in the glaze. Enjoy!
Thanks for the reply.
I have another question. I have silicone donut pans. Would the cool time change ?
Thank you
Tasty and easy breakfast!
These are so cute and delicious I made them for a party and they were a hit!
Hi Sally! I need an icing to pour over cupcakes. Would this one work? How long does it need to dry? Thank so much!
Hi Nadine, you could, it will just be a thin glaze on the cupcakes. You might consider adding a bit more confectioners’ sugar to help thicken it up a bit. The glaze should somewhat set (but not fully dry) within a few hours. Hope this helps!
I really want to try this recipe! Do any of Sally’s baked donut recipes have nutritional information? The whole point of baking rather than frying is to save calories, so I would love to know!
Hi Sarah! We donโt usually include nutrition information as it can vary between different brands of the same ingredients. Plus, many recipes have ingredient substitutions or optional ingredients listed. However, there are many handy online calculators where you can plug in and customize your exact ingredients/brands. Readers have found this one especially helpful: https://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-calculator.asp
Unfortunately, I made these and ended up with a chewy bagel. I donโt know what went wrong here. I consider myself a intermediate baker and donโt have oopsies very often. These โbagelsโ will be good toasted with butter.
Hi sally! I was wondering if id be able to use this recipe in a donut maker (sunbeam) instead of baking. Ive been searching everywhere for a recipe but cant sesm to find anything. Ive heard cake mix works but im not sure about that either
So I tried the glaze recipe not the donut recipe and it was pretty awesome. I ground my own sugar instead of confectioners. I used fresh cream from fresh milk which is pretty heavy. Had to double the amount of cream and run it in the bullet grinder to get rid of the grainy sugar. But it came out beautiful and tasty.
Made these for Easter breakfast this year! Simple, fast, and tasty! We put fun Easter sprinkles on ours. Worked well with buttermilk powder.
So fun! I loved the additions of nutmeg and cinnamon. I was happy nondairy milk and yogurt worked here.
This has become our Valentineโs Day tradition and my boys (7, 3, and 41) all love them! And theyโre easy enough to make on a weekday morning. One question though, the frosting never seems to come together smoothly for me, which must have something to do with the butter, as Iโve made plenty of confectioners sugar and cream frostings before. Any tips?
Hi Tracy, I love that these are your Valentine’s tradition also! For the glaze, make sure your ingredients are all room temperature. After the butter is melted allow it to cool down and also make sure that your cream is room temperature and not cold. That should help keep it smooth!
Hello Sally…what if I want to fry the doughnuts instead of putting it in the doughnut pan to bake
Hi Treasure! Here is my fried doughnuts recipe.
I have a non-stick donut pan, which I lightly grease with oil, and the donuts always stick and are difficult to remove without losing bits. Any tips?!
Hi Rebecca! I usually really have to grease the donut pans well. I use nonstick spray. You can also try to lightly flour the pan after greasing it too.
I just made these and they’re great! I ended up with eleven.ย
Hi Sally,ย
These look fantastic! I was wondering if i would be able to shake up the recipe a bit and make chocolate donuts instead! Do you think i could just replace the cinnamon and nutmeg in your recipe with cocoa powder to make them chocolate?ย
Thanks! ๐ย
That wouldn’t work– I suggest making my chocolate donut hole recipe and then baking into heart shapes like these!
Hi Sally,
I tried out the glaze and it was delicious! Mine didn’t turned out such solid color like yours and probably I thinned it too much. It was cloudy looking which I thought it would be easier to coat as slightly runny. Can you share a little bit how is the consistency of the glaze should be? Thank you so much!
Hi Mabel, for next time, if the glaze is too thin/cloudy looking, you can add more confectioners’ sugar to help thicken it up a bit. The color can also depend on the amount and type of food coloring you use. Hope this helps!
Hi Sally! These are so adorable! I’m thinking of making them for my friend’s birthday present. I was wondering if for the frosting I could use milk or half and half instead of the heavy cream?ย
half and half would work instead of heavy cream