Easy Chick Doughnuts

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Whether you’re planning an Easter brunch or a spring morning breakfast, these chick doughnuts are every bit as easy and they are delicious! With a soft, lemon poppy seed cake doughnut base, what’s not to love about these easy treats?

If you were to ask me what it is I love most about baking, I’d tell you it’s how it connects people. If you’ve never bonded with someone over a seriously good slice of chocolate cake (this is my favorite chocolate cake recipe to share with friends) or a freshly frosted sugar cookie, you’re missing out.

You don’t need to be a hard core foodie to appreciate perfectly smooth buttercream frosting or the fact that a warm brownie served with vanilla ice cream is pretty much the best thing EVER.

Which is exactly why I’ve built 99.9% of my social interactions around food.

I’m sure this is just me and none of you awesome folks can relate, but I can get… awkward… when meeting new people or talking to people I’d like to get to know. There’s just something in my brain that goes, “You seem like a cool person. Please, let me ruin everything by trying to hard and becoming immediately awkward.”

Thanks brain, thanks a lot.

But more than anything else, baking is my little way of putting happiness back into the world. Seriously, when was the last time you saw someone eat a cupcake and be sad about it? Or a doughnut? Or, more importantly, an adorable chick doughnut?

How to make these chick doughnuts

First, in a medium size bowl, combine the dry ingredients and whisk until well mixed. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients. Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet until the mixture is completely lump free.

Pour (or pipe) the batter into greased doughnut pans and bake at 350F/175C for 9-10 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted into the doughnuts comes out clean).

Once the pan is cool enough to handle (about 5 minutes), invert the pan over a cooling rack and gently shake the pan until the doughnuts come out.

Second, in a deep bowl, melt your yellow candy melts using 20 second increments in the microwave. You won’t use the whole bag, but you can melt them all and wrap up any leftovers in plastic wrap for later use.

Cut two small slits into the sides of the doughnut hole. Dip the almonds into the melted candy melt and press into the slits at a slight angle.

Dip each doughnut into the candy melts, allow the excess to drip off, then turn right-side-up and tap gently against the counter until the coating is smooth.

Finally, once the yellow candy coating has hardened, use a little black and orange royal icing to pipe the chicks’ beaks, feet, and eyes. If you’re new to royal icing, here’s my complete guide to making and using royal icing.

Tips for making these doughnuts

• Use a piping bag to pipe your doughnut batter into your doughnut pan. This is a lot easier and less messy than trying to pour from the bowl.
• Doughnuts are easiest to remove from the pan while they’re still warm. The sweet spot seems to be about 2 minutes after they come out of the oven. Simply turn the pan over and gently shake it until the doughnuts come out (hot-pads are a good idea).
• If the candy melt coating is too thick to “glaze” the doughnuts, you can thin it with a teaspoon of vegetable shortening.
• The secret to a perfectly smooth candy coating is gentle tapping or shaking so that the coating becomes a smooth. Don’t be afraid to gently tap the bottom of your doughnuts against the counter until the coating has a smooth finish.
• Leftovers: Baked doughnuts don’t keep well and tend to dry out faster than the fried variety. 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!

Chick Doughnuts

★★★★★

5 from 12 reviews

Whether you’re planning an Easter brunch or a spring morning breakfast, these chick doughnuts are every bit as easy and they are delicious! With a soft, lemon poppy seed cake doughnut base, what’s not to love about these easy treats?

• Author: Claire of The Simple, Sweet Life
• Prep Time: 30 minutes
• Cook Time: 10 minutes
• Total Time: 40 minutes
• Yield: 10 full size doughnuts 1x
• Category: Breakfast
• Cuisine: American

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

For the doughnuts:

• 1 1/4 cup flour
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. poppy seeds
• 2 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
• 1 egg
• 1 tbsp. freshly grated lemon zest
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

For the chick design:

• 20 almonds, halved lengthwise
• 10 oz yellow candy melts
• Royal icing
• Food gel coloring in black and orange

Instructions

1. In a medium size bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and poppy seeds) and whisk until well mixed.
2. In another bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients (butter, egg, milk, vanilla extract, and lemon juice/zest). Whisk the dry ingredients into the wet until the mixture is completely lump free.
3. Pour (or pipe) the batter into greased doughnut pans and bake at 350F/175C for 9-10 minutes (or until a toothpick inserted into the doughnuts comes out clean).
4. Once the pan is cool enough to handle (about 5 minutes), invert the pan over a cooling rack and gently shake the pan until the doughnuts come out.
5. In a deep bowl, melt your yellow candy melts using 20 second increments in the microwave.
6. You won’t use the whole bag, but you can melt them all and wrap up any leftovers in plastic wrap for later use.
7. Cut two small slits into the sides of the doughnut hole.
8. Dip the almonds into the melted candy melt and press into the slits at a slight angle.
9. Dip each doughnut into the candy melts, allow the excess to drip off, then turn right-side-up and tap gently against the counter until the coating is smooth.
10. If the almonds show through the candy coating, coat them a second time.
11. Once the yellow candy coating has hardened, a little black and orange royal icing to pipe the chicks’ beaks, feet, and eyes.
12. Optional: brush on a little pink powdered food coloring.

Notes

• Use a piping bag to pipe your doughnut batter into your doughnut pan. This is a lot easier and less messy than trying to pour from the bowl.
• Doughnuts are easiest to remove from the pan while they’re still warm. The sweet spot seems to be about 2 minutes after they come out of the oven. Simply turn the pan over and gently shake it until the doughnuts come out (hot-pads are a good idea).
• If the candy melt coating is too thick to “glaze” the doughnuts, you can thin it with a teaspoon of vegetable shortening.
• The secret to a perfectly smooth candy coating is gentle tapping or shaking so that the coating becomes a smooth. Don’t be afraid to gently tap the bottom of your doughnuts against the counter until the coating has a smooth finish.
• Leftovers: Baked doughnuts don’t keep well and tend to dry out faster than the fried variety. 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.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 doughnut
• Calories: 173
• Sugar: 14.4g
• Sodium: 68mg
• Fat: 7g
• Saturated Fat: 4.8g
• Carbohydrates: 24.9g
• Fiber: .6g
• Protein: 2.6g
• Cholesterol: 20mg

Keywords: easter breakfast, cake donut recipe, simple doughnut recipe

If you liked this recipe, you might also like…

• Polar bear marshmallows
• Chick cupcakes
• Mermaid doughnuts

Update Notes: This post was originally published in March of 2017 but was republished with step-by-step photos and tips in March of 2019.

Oh yay! You made it all the way to the bottom. High five!

And in doing so, you probably noticed that this is in updated version of an older recipe from my blog. And maybe that has you wondering what the doughnuts originally looked (or maybe not… I’m no mind reader). Was it pretty? Did she even know how to use a decent camera?? Was this the period in her food photography where she tried to kill all the shadows with copious amounts of light which rendered her photos flat and dull? That would be a no, no  and resounding yes.

Friends, shadows are SO important to food photos. 2017 me did not know this. Don’t be 2017 me.

As much as I hate to share my cringy, old photos, I also appreciate the glimpse at growth it allows and the opportunity to remind you: Seriously guys, if I can do it, ANYONE can. Here’s a little glimpse at the original doughnuts.

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