Make your Halloween morning a little more awesome with these easy candy corn doughnuts. The best part: they come together in a record 30 minutes with just 4 ingredients. What's not to love about that? Check out the tutorial below for the full details.
Sometimes you just need a quick, easy treat. And these candy corn doughnuts could be just that! They're super easy to make, require only a few ingredients and turn out every bit as tasty as they are pretty.
How to make candy corn doughnuts
First, whip up some doughnuts like these sweet potato doughnuts or these pumpkin spice doughnuts. Not in the mood to make your own? Store bought doughnuts (without glaze or sugar on top) work just as well.
Second, make your icing, divide it between three bowls, and tint one yellow, one orange and leave the other white.
Third, spoon that icing onto a plate and start dipping!
How to make the perfect candy corn doughnuts
- Consistency is key with this glaze; you want it nice and think but not so thick that it won't stick to the tops of your doughnuts. You know you've reached the right consistency when you can drop a spoonful of glaze back into the bowl and it reabsorbs in about 10 seconds.
- Be sure to add more glaze to your plate/bowl every couple of dips so that the glaze stays fresh and doesn't crust.
- This is a relatively soft glaze so make sure you don't pack or stack your doughnuts until the glaze has completely hardened.
- Leftovers: The glaze on these doughnuts is relatively soft and does not keep well. In all likelihood, leftover doughnuts will develop marks and divots in the glaze if stored overnight. If you end up with leftovers, the best way to store them is in a paper bag. Whatever you do, don’t refrigerate them or put them in plastic.
- Reviving stale doughnuts: If you wound up with leftovers and they’ve gotten stale, no worries! You can soften them back up by microwaving them in 5-10 second increments until soft. Just watch out for melting icing.
Did you make this recipe? I’d love to hear how it went in the comments below. Better still, snap a photo and tag it on Instagram with #thesimplesweetlife. I love seeing your creations!
PrintRecipe
Candy Corn Doughnuts
These candy corn doughnuts are every bit as easy as they are pretty. If you're looking for a last minute Halloween treat, this is it!
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 8 1x
- Category: Breakfast
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
- 6-8 doughnuts (like these sweet potato doughnuts)
- 2 ½ cup powdered sugar
- 5 tbsp. milk
- Orange and yellow food gel coloring
Instructions
- Bake (or buy) your doughnuts and make sure they've cooled to room temperature (if you baked them). In a medium-size bowl, beat the powdered sugar and milk until thick.
- Make sure there aren't any powdered sugar lumps.
- Separate your icing into three bowls. Tint one orange, one yellow, and leave the third one white.
- Spoon a couple of tablespoons of each color onto a plate or shallow bowl. Make sure the colors are close enough to touch.
- Dip the top of each doughnut into the icing, making sure you don't push it so far down that it touches the plate (this will make the icing patchy wherever the doughnut touched the plate).
- Allow the excess icing to drip off before turning the doughnut right side up.
- Add another tablespoon of each icing to the plate and repeat. Make sure to refresh the icing between each couple of dips.
- Allow the icing to harden completely (about 20-30 minutes) before packaging.
Notes
- Consistency is key with this glaze; you want it nice and think but not so thick that it won't stick to the tops of your doughnuts. You know you've reached the right consistency when you can drop a spoonful of glaze back into the bowl and it reabsorbs in about 10 seconds.
- Be sure to add more glaze to your plate/bowl every couple of dips so that the glaze stays fresh and doesn't crust.
- This is a relatively soft glaze so make sure you don't pack or stack your doughnuts until the glaze has completely hardened.
- Leftovers: The glaze on these doughnuts is relatively soft and does not keep well. In all likelihood, leftover doughnuts will develop marks and divots in the glaze if stored overnight. If you end up with leftovers, the best way to store them is in a paper bag. Whatever you do, don’t refrigerate them or put them in plastic.
- Reviving stale doughnuts: If you wound up with leftovers and they’ve gotten stale, no worries! You can soften them back up by microwaving them in 5-10 second increments until soft. Just watch out for melting icing.
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Update Notes: This post was originally published in October of 2016 but was republished with step by step photos and tips in October of 2018.
Sue says
I love the flavor and punch of color in these donuts! The video is pretty cool too 🙂
The Simple, Sweet Life says
Awww thank you! 😀
Jen says
These are outstanding! I love the vibrant color. Would love to whip these up for my kids.
jenna | the urben life says
What a fun idea for Halloween parties! Quick and simple with just 4 ingredients 🙂
Ruthie Ridley says
Candy Corn is my fave!!! I want to make these right now!
Mary says
I love your blog! This idea is super cute too. Definitely saving it for this weekend!
Patricia @ Grab a Plate says
Wow! These are so darn cute! Love it!
Elaine Benoit says
Not only do these look delicious but they are beautiful! My nieces and nephews will love these!
Holly says
These look super delicious! Perfect for Halloween!!
Gloria says
OMG these are so cute. I just made pumpkin donuts not long ago. I know my grandkids would LOVE these for sure.
Nicole says
My mouth is watering! How perfect is this treat for October?!
Dawn - Girl Heart Food says
Love the colouring of these! I bet they're as fun to make as they are to eat 🙂
Shobee says
They look incredible. This will be a hit in any Halloween party.
Anna Hettick says
My kids (and I!!) will LOVE these for fall!!! So cute! Love the video explaining the icing!
Amanda Mason says
These look SO amazing and actually pretty easy! When I hear donuts I never think easy but these actually look easy!! I'm going to give these a go! That video is so helpful!
Jyothi (Jo) says
Such cute doughnut frosting! Perfect halloween treat and for fall! They look incredible!
Leslie Haasch says
Giiiiiirl you're gettin' crazy up in here! This will make the perfect treat to bring in for my Halloween work party - they love any excuse for a fun breakfast!
Ashley @ Big Flavors from a Tiny Kitchen says
I was just thinking that my 6yo would LOVE these, and he walked over while I was looking at your website and yelled, "CANDY CORN DONUTS?!" and got SO excited. Ha! These are so fun! Perfect fall treat.
Kitty says
This is such a fun idea for Halloween! The candy corn colors are so pretty too!
Ruchi says
They are so cute! Oh, look at those colors.. I am totally making them for my kids in a Halloween morning( and probably many more times)
Jagruti Dhanecha says
These candy corn doughnuts surely look incredibly cute, perfect for Halloween parties!
Emily Leary says
Such a clever yet simple technique! It works perfectly! I'm going to be using this approach when glazing my donuts for sure!