Doughnuts and Cookies

I love to bake.  It's therapeutic and an escape.  I get to whip up something yummy, and use my fun kitchen tools to make pretty treats for my family and friends.  I like to try new recipes and use my old favorites.  One of my favorites is my chocolate chip cookie recipe, I've tweaked it to make it my own, everyone raves about them.  Maybe one day I'll share my recipe.

The problem is that I have very little time to bake and/or decorate. A certain little girl gets all my time.  So I try to sneak it in.

Last night I was feeling to urge to bake.  I wanted to try something new maybe for Valentines Day.  I made Baked Strawberry Doughnuts, using a quick recipe I found on another blog (forgive me for not remembering which, if you know please let me know so I can give credit where it is due).   Here is the recipe:

2 cups cake mix (I used DH Strawberry)
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup melted butter
1 egg

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.  Mix all ingredients well by hand till well mixed.  I put the mixture into a gallon zip lock bag and snipped the corner about 1/3 of an inch in.  Now, this is very important, SPRAY YOUR DOUGHNUT PAN WITH NON STICK SPRAY, I forgot on the first batch, big mistake, very hard to get out of the pan.  I used the  Wilton 6 cavity doughnut pan.  Pipe the mixture into the pan.  It is thick and I just pipe an "O" following each cavity.  Bake 10 - 12 minutes until cooked though and slightly golden, I test it like a cake.  Remove from pan.

Now you can glaze them while still warm for thin glaze or when cool for a thicker glaze, I did both.  I cheated and put tub icing into a microwave safe bowl and melted 30 seconds and stirred then repeated (may vary with your microvave) till the icing was thin like glaze. Dip each doughnut into the glaze, I just lay it on top and twist as I pick it up.

Now you can see the the doughnuts on the left were the first batch and were not smooth and pretty due to the lack of non-stick spray.  So I let them cool then glazed them (don't you love the mini heart sprinkles?  I have a sprinkle fetish, I'll get into that another time too).   They came out with a thick frosting. The one on the right I glazed while warm.  It is translucent almost and the pink blended with the white.  Still tasty.  Both of the glazed dry completely and you can stack them.  The magic of tub frosting?

Honestly next time, I think I need to use just chocolate or vanilla cake mix. Strawberry was okay, the kids liked them though and that's who they were for.  I think the scratch ones I made months ago were better.  But with "Baby Brain" I don't remember.   Maybe from  KAF.

So tonight, I felt the need to bake again.  Just really in the mood.  Have you seen these?

Hershey's Cinnamon Chips.  AMAZING!  GO BUY SOME! Just follow the Oatmeal Cinnamon Chip Cookie recipe on the back (I added 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt) .  They are amazing, yummy, delicious goodness.  And, they are oatmeal so they must be good for you right?!?  Enjoy!

I received no compensation from anything or one mentioned.  Just stuff I like and/or love and wanted to share.