Giant Donut Cake! Learn how to make this adorable, sprinkle-coated, giant donut cake with a simple step-by-step tutorial by our contributors, Mary and Brenda Maher of Cakegirls.
So, I think it’s pretty safe to say that everyone loves a good donut. They’re not just sweet little wheels of deliciousness, but covered in colorful glaze and sprinkles, they just scream fun. And well, the only thing better than a donut, is a giant donut cake. Since we’ve seen the all-occasion sheet cake time and time again, this is the perfect upgrade to whip up for a best friend’s birthday, a tween sleepover or the monthly office birthday get together.
The best part is that it’s not only easy to make but it’s really easy to customize as well. Change the frosting to chocolate and add white glaze, switch the sprinkles to neon, add drizzle, glitter or gum balls and you’ll end up with a different cake each time. You can use your favorite from scratch cake recipe for the inside, but you’ll need a good classic American buttercream recipe for the outside in order to get a fairly smooth finish. Once you add your fondant on top, you’ll want to paint it with our easy-to-make edible lacquer to get that “glazy” shine before showering your donut with sprinkles and nonpareils. Don’t worry, we’ll show you how in the tutorial below.
DONUT CAKE
a tutorial by Cakegirls
Supplies:
10″ Donut Shaped Pan
Gel Paste Food Colors, (pink, brown, yellow)
8 oz. Tub of Pink Fondant
Pastel Confetti Quins
White Non Pareils
1 Tablespoon Corn Syrup
1 Tablespoon Vodka or Clear Extract
Paintbrush
Bake your desired cake recipe in the donut shaped cake pan. Be sure to thoroughly grease and flour the pan before adding your batter so that the cake pops out easily. Once cooled, wrap in plastic wrap and place it in the freezer so that it will firm up for the icing layer. Leave the cake in the freezer until it’s very firm…about 2 hours or so.
Make your buttercream frosting while the cake is chilling. Tint 1/4 of your batch of buttercream hot pink, tint the remaining buttercream a tan color (we used brown + yellow gel paste).
Slice your cake in half. Use a spoon to dig out a trench in the middle of the cake about 1″ wide. We didn’t “scrape” the trench out, we used a spoon to “scoop” the trench out, which made it a bit easier.
Pipe pink icing into the trench. Then, use the back of the spoon to press the icing down inside the trench to make sure it’s really stuck and smeared in there. (Trust us, we didn’t do this right the first time and the filling fell out when the cake was flipped…oops!)
Place your cakes in the freezer for 15 minutes or so, until the icing in the trench is firm. Then flip the top half onto the bottom half (We just winged this, and used our hands to flip it)
Ice the donut in a thin crumbcoat layer to seal in any crumbs. Then generously coat the donut in tan icing.
Place the cake in the fridge until the icing gets firm (15 minutes or so), Dip your spatula in hot water, shake off the excess and smooth out the cake as best possible. This does not need to be perfect, in fact it looks more like a fried donut if it’s left a little rustic.
Place your cake in the fridge while you work on the next step. Use a pencil to trace your pan shape onto wax or parchment paper, this will give you a guide as to how big you should make your fondant “glaze”. Cut out the template.
Roll out your fondant bigger than the template and instead of cutting directly around the ring, cut waves around the edge of the template, which will look like drips when the fondant is put on top. If you have rough edges like we did, use your finger to smooth and soften them.
Remove your cake from the fridge and lift and place the fondant on top.
In order for the fondant to really look like glaze, we painted a layer of edible lacquer. Mix together one tablespoon of corn syrup with one tablespoon of vodka (or very high proof alcohol). Use a paintbrush to apply the glaze. Immediately add the sprinkles on top so that they stick and let the cake dry until the laquer is dry to the touch.
Voila! You now have a giant donut cake. Enjoy!
MORE DONUT RECIPES TO TRY:
Does it matter if I don’t want to add a filling in the middle, my daughter wants a red velvet cake and with the buttercream on the outside I don’t think I need it? If not do I still freeze for two hours?