Soft and sweet 3 Ingredient Baked Pumpkin Donuts – top them with cinnamon-sugar or a simple maple glaze for the ultimate fall treat!
Want more pumpkin recipes to try this season? I’ve got you covered! Pumpkin Snickerdoodles, Pumpkin Cinnamon Rolls, and Pumpkin Soft Pretzels with Vanilla Glaze.
I could eat donuts for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And midnight snack, which actually happens to be a common thing these days. I love donuts. LOVE THEM. The only person I know who loves donuts more than I do is my sister Tammy who is an absolute donut connoisseur. She seriously knows her donuts. Which is why I’m taking this opportunity to let you know that she gave these homemade baked pumpkin donuts two thumbs up.
The best part about these donuts (seriously it’s all good, but if we had to narrow it down…) is that they only have 3 ingredients. I’m so excited about that little fact that I made sure to put it in the title of this post. 3 INGREDIENT BAKED PUMPKIN DONUTS. I was thisclose to naming them The Tastiest and Easiest Pumpkin Donuts You Will Ever Meet In Your Lifetime. But after some careful consideration I realized that’s a bit of a mouthful and I’d rather have a mouthful of these donuts to tell you the truth.
They’re just so fluffy. And soft. And moist. And purrrrrrdy. You can eat these little nuggets of joy straight-up of course. Just the plain donut. And there’s nothing wrong with that – trust me, I’ve done it. But if you want to jazz them up – and you do, because you’ve only spent 20 minutes on these things start to finish and now you don’t know what to do with all of your time and energy – then you should definitely consider adding that glaze. I threw in a little maple extract because I absolutely adore all things maple + frosting, especially when it comes to fall treats. BUT. If you know you’re not a maple fan (that is sad news, but I’ll forgive you) then you could sub out the maple for vanilla instead which is still 110% crazy yummalicious.
And even after all of that is said and done and you’ve only spent 30 minutes now on these donuts (if that) and you find yourself aching to go the extra inch (seriously, it’s not even a mile cause it’s just so easy) then you should sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon + sugar right on the top of those glazed donuts. When it’s all said and done you’ve spent what, 40 minutes? on these gorgeous donuts. And if you think they are gorgeous to look at, just wait til you taste them. They taste as scrumptious as they look!
Yes. I just said scrumptious. It’s that kind of day.
*If you don’t have a donut pan, it’s about time you got yourself one! I waited soooo long to get one and I have no idea why because they’re all of maybe $10?? I used this Wilton 8-cavity Donut Pan, but I’m thinking about getting a 12-cavity pan like this one so that I don’t have to do quite as many batches to use up the batter.
What people are saying about these 3 Ingredient Baked Pumpkin Donuts
“I made these last night using gingerbread cake mix, the closest thing I could find to spice cake. I was nervous about the flavor but they turned out PERFECT. And that’s without the laze, even. This recipe’s a keeper!” – Lizzie
“Easiest recipe ever. My grandchildren helped and they ate every last crumb! Thanks for the tip about putting the glaze in the microwave. It worked perfectly. This recipe is definitely a keeper!” – Mary
3 Ingredient Baked Pumpkin Donuts
Ingredients
- 1 box spice cake mix
- 1 15-ounce can pumpkin puree - (not pumpkin pie filling)
- 1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
Cinnamon Spice Coating
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
Glaze
- 2 ounces cream cheese - softened
- 1 ¼ cups powdered sugar
- ½ teaspoon maple extract - OR 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 and grease a donut pan (or more than one if you have it).
- In a large bowl mix together cake mix, pumpkin puree, and pumpkin pie spice. Transfer mixture to a large zip-lock bag, press the excess air out, and seal.
- Snip one bottom corner of the bag off (about 1/2 inch from the corner) and pipe the batter into your prepared donut pan. Bake for 12-14 minutes. Allow to cool for about 5-10 minutes in the pan before transferring to a cooling rack.
- For the cinnamon-sugar coating, simply whisk together cinnamon and sugar, and toss slightly cooled donuts in the mixture to coat.
- For the glaze, cream together cream cheese, powdered sugar, extract, and milk. Warm it in the microwave for a few seconds to make it thin and runny. Dip cooled donuts in glaze. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar if desired. Allow to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition
This post contains affiliate links. If you click on the link and end up buying yourself a sweet donut pan, I make a percentage of the sale – woohoo!
I am an excellent cook and baker. One of my sons has even attended Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, NY. We are adventurous in the kitchen, so we tried these donuts. What a sticky, awful mess. It took half another cake mix just to make the dough manageable. I rolled mine out which took the other half the other cake mix. Just out of curiosity I tried to fry some, they turned into a mangled pile that looks like something my husband might have left in the toilet. The cinnamon sugar would not stick to the dry surface of the baked donuts. The cream cheese didn’t beat smoothly so the glaze ended up looking like it had cottage cheese in it. The donuts were chewy instead of cake-like. Time given on the recipe was 24 mintues total; it took me an hour to make them, not to mention having to clean up this sticky paste of dough off every surface it touched. Screw you, Mommy-blogger, with your professional-looking lying pictures and stupid disastrous recipe.
Not sure why you fried them – this is a recipe for BAKED donuts, it says it right in the title of there recipe. Also, not sure why you tried to roll the dough. Did you read the directions? It never mentions rolling the dough. It specifically states that you should transfer the dough to a plastic bag, cut the corner, and pipe the dough into your donut pan. I’m sorry you didn’t follow the recipe!
Classy response!
Well if that is NOT the rudist Lady I have ever seen. And what a NASTY mouth to boot!!!!!!!
I am most sorry you encountered this witch. I have not tried the recipe but just in the process of printing when I saw this and it made me VERY ANGRY !!!!!!!! I think it sounds great and I intend to try this out for my hubby who LOVES doughnuts!!! Thank you for sharing, hugs, and blessings 🙂
Clearly not an excellent reader.
Not nice Nikki, you should not say anything at all. Nothing is perfect, and I’m sure you have made other things that didn’t turn out the way you wanted them to. If something doesn’t turn out just so for me I don’t bash someone that created a recipe.
So, in OTHER words, you are mad at a recipe, that you did FOLLOW at all, and completly changed, did not turn out as shown. Sometimes when you “hacK” at something, you ruin it. I question your skills at following directions.
NikKi, you can’t fix stupid. IDon’t care if Your son went to culinary school. Can either of you read and follow a recipe? This one is simple and delicious. Unfortunately you are so arrogant and rude you will never admit you are the one at fault. Tacky.
You may consider yourself an excellent cook, and after all we only have your word for it, but you clearly cannot or will not follow recipe instructions. Given the troubles you report, I believe it is highly likely you mixed the cake as directed on the box and added the pumpkin puree to that batter. No one else has described these problems and I can’t think of any other explanation. What you’ve done here is the equivalent of making a drop cookie dough and trying to roll it out and make cut-out cookies. If you are such an excellent cook, I fail to understand why you would take so may liberties with the recipe without trying it as written first.
I’ve never met an experienced baker that didn’t understand how to use cream cheese in a glaze. I’ve also never met someone who went to culinary school that couldn’t follow a recipe.
What cake mix? How can I make some myself?
You can use any standard boxed cake mix. I believe this recipe called for spice cake mix, but I’m sure you could use pumpkin, carrot, gingerbread, butter, or even plain old yellow cake mix. I was just thinking of using something a little more exotic, like pineapple.
Hi, can use replace filling pumpkin with freshly colded pumpkin not tin?
I made these last night using gingerbread cake mix, the closest thing I could find to spice cake. I was nervous about the flavor but they turned out PERFECT. And that’s without the laze, even. This recipe’s a keeper!
I made these last night. One guy enjoyed them so far. I bought the larger size cake mix so it wasn’t melding. I eventually added one egg and a bit of oil to loosen it up. They rose nicely. I topped them with Maple flavor Glaze. I will let you know how more coworkers feel. ☺