Rainbow Chocolate Donuts for St. Patrick’s Day Recipe

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My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

I used Pillsbury’s vibrant vanilla colored frosting to make the process a little easier. It didn’t make any sense to me to make a whole big batch of homemade buttercream just to frost 8 donuts. But if that’s what you’d rather do, go for it! Check out my favorite vanilla buttercream recipe right here.

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My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

These rainbow donuts are so much fun for St. Patrick’s day!

A FEW THINGS TO NOTE ABOUT THIS RECIPE:

  • You could certainly glaze the donuts before frosting them. That would be my personal preference if I had had a little more time when I was making these.
  • I LOVE using Pillsbury’s vibrant vanilla colored frostings, especially for holiday treats. The colors are beautiful and they are perfect for little projects like this– when I’m not frosting an entire cake, but I still need some frosting for fun, artistic details. You could always make your own buttercream of course, but Pillsbury’s frostings are a great, colorful option. I always have some on hand for recipes like this.
  • Piping on the rainbow isn’t as tricky as it may seem! I took a couple of process pictures so you can see the steps:

1. Use zip top bags with the corner snipped to pipe stripes of rainbow colors on to plastic wrap.

My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

2. Gently roll the plastic wrap around the colors to form a cylinder. Twist the ends to seal.

3. Snip the one of the ends and slip it inside a piping bag fitted with a large star piping tip.

My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

4. Practice piping on a mat before you pipe frosting on the donuts! It might take a few tries before you find the swirl you like.

My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

What’s my favorite part of this recipe?

I think it’s fun to do something a little different, like piping a rainbow! Decorative frosting is not my strength, but it’s fun to play around with it sometimes. And I always love working with bright colors.

My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

Rainbow Chocolate Donuts

Yield: 8 donuts
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 10 minutes
Total Time: 40 minutes

My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup all purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cocoa powder
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup buttermilk
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tbsp vegetable or canola oil

Optional Vanilla Glaze

  • 3/4 cup powdered sugar
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • 1 tbsp butter, melted

Rainbow Frosting:

  • 1/4 cup of each color frosting (see tips above for the brand I like to use or link to homemade buttercream)

Instructions

Bake the Donuts:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
  2. Generously grease a donut pan with nonstick cooking spray.
  3. Whisk together the flour, brown sugar, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
  4. Add the buttermilk, vanilla, the egg, and the oil and whisk until batter is smooth.
  5. Pour the batter into a zip top bag, snip the corner and pipe the batter into the donut tin.
  6. Bake for 10 minutes. After the donuts have cooled for a few minutes, invert them onto a cooling rack.

Make the Glaze:

  1. Whisk together the powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and melted butter.
  2. Dip the donut in the glaze. Let the excess drip off the donut and place back on the rack.

Frost the Donuts:

  1. Follow the instructions in the post above to create a rainbow swirl with the different colored frostings.
  2. Use a small round tip to pipe on white frosting as clouds.

 

Notes

Approximate Nutrition (not including frosting):

161 Calories | 5g Fat | 29g Carb | 1g Fiber | 2g Protein

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My favorite baked chocolate donut with a frosting rainbow on top.

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