Strawberry Donuts

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Easy baked strawberry donuts are packed with fresh strawberries and are topped with a sweet strawberry glaze. They are perfectly moist, cakey, fluffy, and fruity for a fun breakfast or snack any time of day. The best part? You can easily make this baked donuts recipe vegan or gluten-free with just a few simple swaps!

Homemade donuts are one of my favorites! These delicious donuts with a fresh strawberry glaze are not only tasty, but also really easy to make. Everyone will be impressed with your baking skills when you make these fluffy strawberry donuts!

This is a great recipe to make during strawberry season when the fresh strawberries taste the absolute best. Plus, you can use up real strawberries you have on hand and turn them into the perfect treat before they go bad!

These beautiful strawberry doughnuts are perfect for special occasions like bridal showers or birthdays, yet equally great to enjoy yourself as a sweet treat. I know you’ll be tempted by this fruity twist on the classic donut. They are seriously so hard to resist! 

👩🏽‍🍳 Why This Recipe Works

• Perfect Texture: These donuts turn out fresh, fluffy and light every time!
• Easy Homemade Donut Recipe: This recipe really is so easy to make, no matter how experienced you are in the kitchen!
• Healthier Donut Option: Since these are baked instead of fried, you can enjoy them without any guilt. See our variations below for making this recipe even healthier!
• Family Friendly: Kids and adults will love this recipe, and it can easily be adapted to just about any dietary needs.
• Sweet Breakfast Treat: These donuts are perfect for breakfast, but they’re also great for brunch, snacks, or even dessert for a special occasion!

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🥘 Ingredients

These simple ingredients can be easily found at the grocery store if not already in your pantry! Grab the full list of ingredients and instructions in the printable recipe card below.

For The Donuts

• Milk: Use dairy milk or any plant milk you like for this strawberry iced donut.
• Lemon Juice: Lemon juice adds a bright, citrus flavor to this strawberry donut recipe.
• All-Purpose Flour: All purpose flour is the best option for this baked strawberry donuts recipe!
• Baking Powder: Baking powder is an important ingredient that helps strawberry frosted doughnuts rise in the oven. 
• Salt: Salt reduces bitterness in the ingredient mixture and enhances other flavors as well. You don’t need a lot – a little bit goes a long way!
• Sugar: Add a little sweetness to these donuts with granulated white sugar. You can also use a sugar substitute if you prefer.
• Egg: One large egg will act as a binder for the ingredients and also enrich the flavor of these glazed strawberry donuts. 
• Olive Oil: Extra virgin olive oil adds so much moisture to these strawberry baked donuts.
• Vanilla Extract: Pure vanilla extract adds a depth of warm and rich flavor to these strawberry cake donuts.
• Chopped Fresh Strawberries: This ingredient is key! If you can’t find any good fresh strawberries, you can opt for freeze-dried strawberries. 

For The Baked Strawberry Donut Glaze

• Strawberries: These baked strawberry doughnuts wouldn’t be the same without the chopped strawberries in the simple glaze. Try not to skip this one!
• Water: You’ll need a little fresh water to turn this into a spreadable strawberry doughnut glaze.
• Powdered Sugar: Powdered sugar, or icing sugar, gives the best results for this topping. It dissolves easily and creates a nice gooey glaze.

🍲 Ingredient Substitutions

• Milk: Try out different milk options for these strawberry cake donuts like oat milk, almond milk, coconut milk, or whole milk.
• Flour: You can use a combination of whole wheat flour, whole wheat pastry flour, oat flour, and cake flour for more whole grains, but keep in mind your donut’s texture may change slightly.
• Sugar: Instead of white cane sugar, try these strawberry shortcake donuts with coconut sugar or maple syrup.
• Oil: If you don’t have olive oil on hand, you can use other oils like avocado oil, coconut oil, or vegetable oil for this strawberry cake doughnut recipe. You could also use melted butter.
• Fruit: Obviously these are strawberry donuts, but ultimately the fruit of choice is up to you! See more ideas in the “variations” section for other fruit donuts.

🔪 How To Make Strawberry Donuts

Follow my step-by-step instructions below, and you’ll end up with perfect baked doughnuts. Here is how to make this ​​strawberry cake donut recipe:

Prep The Oven: Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F / 180 C.

Mix Milk & Lemon: Combine milk and lemon juice. Mix the milk and lemon juice, and set aside.

Mix Dry Ingredients: Whisk the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl until well combined.

Mix Wet Ingredients: In a separate bowl add the milk and lemon juice mixture, egg, oil and vanilla. Whisk together.

Add Strawberries: Gently fold in the diced strawberries to the donut batter.

Combine Wet & Dry Ingredients: Pour the wet ingredients into the large bowl with the flour mixture and mix until just combined.

Grease Donut Tins & Pipe Donut Batter: Lightly grease a doughnut pan with nonstick baking spray. Fill a piping bag with donut batter and pipe batter into prepared doughnut mold. Batter makes 9 donuts.

Bake & Cool: Bake for about 10-12 minutes or until an inserted skewer comes out clean and they are golden brown. Allow the donuts to cool for a couple of minutes in the tray before turning out onto a cooling rack to cool completely, about 1-2 hours.

Prepare Glaze: To prepare the strawberry frosting, heat the strawberries and water in a microwave safe container in 30 second bursts until the strawberries become soft and are easily mashed into a ​​strawberry puree with a fork.

Strain Strawberries: Strain the cooked strawberries through a fine mesh sieve over a small bowl. Press out as much juice as possible. 

Complete Glaze: Add the 1½ cups of powdered / confectioners’ sugar and whisk until smooth. Add more powdered sugar if you prefer the glaze to be thicker.

Glaze Donuts: Dip the top of the cooled donut into the glaze and place on a wire rack to allow the glaze to set. Repeat with all donuts.

Serve! Serve once the glaze has set. Enjoy!

💭 Expert Tips  

• Skip The Glaze: Baked strawberry donuts can be enjoyed without glaze if preferred.
• Thick Glaze: For a thicker layer of glaze you can dip these donuts twice.
• Finely Dice Strawberries: Ensure the strawberries are finely diced before adding them to the donut batter to make it easy when piping the batter into the trays.
• Use A Spoon: If you don’t have a piping pastry bag, you can always just spoon the batter into the donut trays or use a plastic bag with the corner cut.
• Grease Trays: Make sure to lightly grease the trays with nonstick spray before adding the batter to avoid sticking.
• Don’t Overmix: Avoid overmixing the batter; otherwise the strawberry doughnut batter will become chewy and tough.
• Cool Completely: Ensure the donuts are completely cooled to room temperature before glazing, or else the glaze will melt off and look messy.

📖 Variations

• Strawberry Sprinkle Donut: Add some colorful sprinkles on top of the donuts for extra fun!
• Strawberry Cheesecake Donut: Add a cream cheese frosting or even bits of graham cracker crumbs on top!
• Baked Blueberry Donuts: Swap out the strawberries for blueberries in this easy recipe! You can also try out these blueberry cake donuts!
• Healthy Low Sugar Donuts: For a healthier, lower calorie and low sugar option, omit the glaze altogether (then each donut will only have 146 calories and 8 grams of sugar per serving!) You can also just reduce the amount of glaze on each donut by half, in which case your donut will have about 18 grams of sugar per serving.

🍽 Serving Suggestions

Serve these donuts freshly baked but cooled and covered in fresh strawberry glaze. To dress up the strawberry glazed donuts, you can add pieces of freeze-dried strawberries on top of the glaze or drizzle white chocolate. Get the ultimate strawberry flavor by topping the donuts with this strawberry crunch topping.

You can also serve these donuts with coffee, tea, or your favorite drink! Feel free to pair it with other strawberry recipes like this strawberry milk tea, or with a decadent latte like this beetroot latte, golden milk, or mocha latte. It also tastes great with this healthy hot chocolate!

🙌 Dietary Adaptations

• Gluten-Free Option: Substitute the all-purpose flour with gluten free flour to make these gluten-free donuts.
• Vegan Option: Plant based milks can be used instead of dairy milk if preferred. You can also replace the egg with a flax egg (made of ground flaxseed and water) for these baked donuts.

🫙 Storage Directions

To Store In The Fridge: Keep glazed donuts in a single layer in an airtight container to preserve those fresh sweet strawberry flavors for up to 4 days. If you have to stack them use a piece of parchment paper in between layers.

To Freeze: Leftover doughnuts can be frozen in an airtight container or large zip-top bag before adding glaze for up to 1 month.

To Re-Serve: If frozen, let the unglazed donuts thaw in the fridge until softened or defrost in the microwave for a few seconds. Make sure the donut is cool before adding your glaze to the top.

❓Recipe FAQs

🍓 More Tasty Donuts & Strawberry Recipes!

• Strawberry Smoothie Bowl
• Strawberry Simple Syrup
• Strawberry Juice
• Lotus Biscoff Donuts
• Chocolate Donuts
• Oreo Donuts
• Eggless Donuts
• Mochi Donuts

📋 Recipe Card