My sister requested a donut-flavored cake for her birthday and I'm having trouble determining how to proceed. When I search for it online, all I get is cake donut recipes, and that is not what I am looking for. Has anyone ever made a cake that tastes like a donut? Can you share a link, recipe, or some tips?
Thank you for your help.
-Allison

no, but i wonder, can u bake the cake donut batter instead of frying them? that way you have an actual donut cake?

Huh. Well, the problem is most doughnuts are yeast-based then fried, so getting that same flavor in a cake might be tough - So here's my idea... get a box of doughnuts and do a bread pudding with them!

Get a box of Krispy Cremes, cut them up and layer them in a bunt pan, pour a mixture of milk/eggs/vanilla over it and bake (basically make a big french toast out of the doughnuts). You can google recipes for bread pudding to give you a better idea, you'll just want to make it more on the dry side so it will keep it's shape out of the pan and not be gooey (bread pudding recipes sometimes are very moist and pudding-like).

Make a glaze for the top and voila! Doughnut cake.

Thanks for the replies. My sister actually wants a cake donut-flavored cake, not a yeast one, otherwise those ideas would be great. I found a recipe that I am going to try: http://family.go.com/food/recipe-745893-donut-cake-t/

It should still have a cake-y texture (I like the idea of adding cornmeal), but share the donut taste. I will add a bit of cinnamon also, and then make a powdered sugar glaze for the top.

Cupcake Wars recently had a show for The Closer in which the bakers had to make cupcakes that taste like donuts. You might check and see if FoodTv had any of those recipes posted to use for a flavor profile. I know one of the bakers used nutmeg to duplicate the taste of baked donuts.
Good luck and let us know how it turns out.

I was going to suggest that, but if I remember correct that baker was gluten-free, so it may have tasted like a doughnut but probably was made with ingredients none of us have on hand.

But worth a look though!

Cinnamon and nutmeg both help with that donut flavor. I based all of my donut recipes off cake recipes then just made it thicker and added more eggs. Hope that helps!

Cinnamon and nutmeg both help with that donut flavor. I based all of my donut recipes off cake recipes then just made it thicker and added more eggs. Hope that helps!

I made some donut muffins one time that were pretty good. There is a recipe on King Authur's flour site & on All Recipes.com that has a lot of reviews. You could test a 1/2 of a recipe to see if it will work for your cake. Good luck!