Pumpkin Cake Doughnuts with Maple Cinnamon Icing

Pumpkins are not just for Halloween you know! I think that is a mis-conception in the UK. As soon as 31^st October has passed, there are none to be seen. But I think of them more as a sign of the autumn. Their beautiful colour (have I told you my thing for orange?) always cheers me up. The photo below I took in Toronto many years back, but I still love how the colour just stands out.

I still had a can of pureed pumpkin left in my cupboard and I was itching to use my new doughnut cake pan I had bought. I found a great recipe online for pumpkin cake doughnuts that I wanted to try. I am not a huge fan of doughnuts per se. Well, the fried type I mean – they are just too greasy for me. But I like baked doughnuts, which are just round muffins really!

Recipe for pumpkin puree can be found at Smitten Kitchen, but is widely available online.

Recipe from King Arthur Flour

Yield: 18 Doughnuts (or 15 muffins)

Doughnut Ingredients:

125 ml vegetable oil

3 large eggs

300 grams granulated sugar

340 grams pumpkin puree

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground ginger

1 ½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ teaspoon baking powder

230 grams plain flour

Icing Ingredients

190 grams icing sugar

1 tablespoon maple syrup

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoon milk

Method:

Preheat your oven to 180^oC. Grease your doughnut pan or muffin pan, which ever you are using.

In a large bowl, with a whisk, blend together the oil, eggs, sugar, pumpkin, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, salt and baking powder until smooth. Sift in the flour and stir until just combined. 

If you are using a doughnut pan, I filled mine by placing the batter in a disposable icing bag and piping it in. 

Spoon it into the muffin pan, if that’s what you are using. Bake in the oven, 12 minutes for doughnuts or 15 minutes for muffins. They will turn a deeper colour and a toothpick will come out clean when they are ready. Remove from the oven, allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from pan and placing on a cooling rack, allowing them to cool thoroughly.

To make the icing, in a bowl I whisked together the icing sugar, maple syrup, cinnamon and milk until smooth. It is quite a thick icing, which clings well to the doughnuts. If you want it a bit looser, add a drop more milk. I simply drizzled the icing over the top with the whisk for a somewhat 'random' look! Allow the icing to set and they are ready to share.

These are deliciously moist with the pumpkin, as well as a bit spicy from the cinnamon et al. The icing on top is great if you like your maple syrup as much as I do.

Enjoy.