Fluffy vegan gluten free baked cake donuts sweetened naturally with maple syrup and cinnamon! They are just my cup of tea!
Making these donuts is all about *joy*. I loved colouring the frosting with natural superfood powders. I loved colouring the white chocolate and pretending I’m some sort of magician. I loved arranging the little unicorn and rainbow shapes on the donuts as if I was a child and had no care in the world.
Many of you ask how I colour my cakes and my frostings. Here’s my little secret (not so secret anymore) – I use only fruits, vegetables and powders! When using fresh fruits and vegetables, I usually stick with berries, spinach and subtle-tasting ingredients. However, there are some colours such as blue and bright pink that you can’t easily get from fruit and vegetables (without it tasting foul) so I use superfood powders from Just Blends.
(Note: if you’d like an in-depth free guide on how to colour your cakes with all colours of the rainbow, check out my friend Audrey’s guide on Unconventional Baker.)
It’s possible to create the colour blue using just fruits and vegetables BUT it’s difficult to use the technique to colour cheesecake and chocolate. For example, if you add bicarbonate soda to purple cabbage, it turns into a beautiful blue colour. However, the amount of bicarbonate soda you need to create the colour blue would turn the sweetest cheesecake into something you won’t want to eat. I have many memories of embarrassing kitchen experiments so I’m trying to save you from those horrors! That’s why I love Just Blends‘ blue spirulina powder. It has a luscious vibrant blue colour and has a minimal taste.
If I ever have kids or babysat some kids, I’d definitely try to make these with them!
Just Blends also recently introduced themed superfood powder bundles which means you can get 3 packets with superfoods with some cute silicone moulds for a discounted price. These donuts show what you can make with their Unicorn Pack! If you’re on Instagram, I’m running a giveaway competition with Just Blends giving one winner a superfood bundle of their choice! Check it out here!
Just Blends has kindly offered my followers 10% off their purchase on any of their products! Just use the code RAINBOW10 at checkout xo.
If you try this recipe, I would love to hear about it! Comment below or, if you post it on social media, tag @rainbownourishments and #rainbownourishments!
This post was created in collaboration with Just Blends. As always, all opinions expressed in this post are 100% my own.
Maple and cinnamon unicorn cake donuts
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
- 1/2 cup brown rice flour
- 1/2 cup any gluten-free flour baking blend
- 1/4 cup almond meal
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
Wet ingredients
- 1 cup plant-based milk, such as almond, soy or coconut
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup light-tasting vegetable oil, such as sunflower or rapeseed
- 2 tablespoons coconut sugar
Frosting
- 1 cup cashews, soaked in water for 4 hours then drained
- 1/2 cup canned coconut cream*
- 1/4 cup cacao butter
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1 tsp Just Blends pink pitaya powder
- 1 tsp Just Blends blue spirulina powder
Unicorn shapes
- store-bought vegan white chocolate
- 2 tablespoons cacao butter or coconut oil
- 3 pinches Just Blends pink pitaya powder
- 3 pinches Just Blends blue spirulina powder
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 160C.
- For the donuts, add all of the dry ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix until combined. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and mix until combined.
- Place two silicone donut moulds on a metal baking tray. Spoon mixture into a large piping bag with a large round nozzle and pipe mixture into the donut moulds.
- Bake donuts in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until a skewer can be inserted into one and it comes out clean. When the donuts are completely cool, flip out onto a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make the frosting by adding all ingredients except the superfood powders to a blender and blending until there are no chunks of nuts. Pour frosting into two bowls. Add the blue powder to one bowl and pink powder to the other and mix each.
- When the donuts are cool, dip each donut into the frosting of your choice. Leave to set on the wire wrack and put the remaining frosting in the fridge.
- For the unicorn shapes, melt the white chocolate and cacao butter/coconut oil over a double boiler on medium heat.
- Divide melted white chocolate into 4 small bowls. Add 2 pinches of blue spirulina to one, 2 pinches of pink dragon fruit powder to another and one pinch of each powder to the other. There should still be one bowl with plain frosting. Mix the powder into each bowl of frosting. Pour chocolate into silicone moulds and set aside in the freezer. The chocolate is set when you can touch the surface and it's completely dry. Bend the silicone mould to remove the shapes. Repeat process with the remaining chocolate. If your chocolate has set, slowly melt it in the double boiler over low heat.
- Remove the frosting from the fridge, scoop into piping bags with a star nozzle. Decorate donuts with the frosting and white chocolate shapes as desired.
- Keep donuts in an airtight container the fridge for up to 5 days. To serve, remove donuts from the fridge and sit at room temperature for 30 minutes to 1 hour (cake is always better served at room temperature as the oils tend to harden in the fridge).
Notes
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