Baked vanilla cake donuts

In the mood for donuts?  These are pretty good--I will give them 9/10, would make them again.  A few things to note: the original recipe says to dip donuts immediately in powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar (if using)...I did this and it really didn't work.  Only some of the powdered sugar coated, and not very well.  The cinnamon sugar didn't stick at all; I ended up brushing the ones I wanted to coat in that with a little melted butter in order to make it stick.  The full recipe for the glaze is WAY too much in my opinion.  I had 16 donuts as the yield and made half of the glaze recipe, which was more than enough for the 10 I used it on (I would have had enough for the other 6 as well, had I not covered them in the other mixtures).  I also had to thin the glaze with probably another 2-4 T. of heavy cream (didn't measure, just kept adding until reached desired texture).  And finally, I suggest leaving your butter out the night before to get soft; as for the eggs, I put them in a small bowl of warm water to bring them to close to room temperature.  I forgot to warm the milk to room temp and the donuts still turned out fine.

Link to original recipe: https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/baked-vanilla-doughnuts
for glaze: https://www.finecooking.com/recipe/vanilla-doughnut-glaze
Note: Fine Cooking online recipes are normally only available with subscription, but they are currently all available.

Ingredients:

6 T. unsalted butter, softened
3 T. canola oil
1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. brown sugar (packed)
2 large eggs, room temperature (see note in intro)
1/2 T. vanilla bean paste (I did not have this; I subbed vanilla bean sugar)
2 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 T. baking powder
1/2 tsp. fine sea salt
pinch of ground cinnamon
pinch of ground nutmeg
1 c. whole milk (at room temp--see note in intro)

toppings, if desired (ingredients for glaze are listed in directions)

Directions:

1. Position a rack in center of oven and heat to 425°F.  Lightly grease donut pans.

2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter, oil, sugar, and brown sugar together until light and fluffy (around 4 min).

3. Mix in eggs, one at a time, followed by vanilla.

4. Add part of the flour (I went with 1 3/4 c.), along with the baking powder, sea salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Mix in at low speed, then add the rest of flour to mix in.

5. Gradually mix in the milk (I added all at once, which was fine, but it did splash a bit).

6. Transfer mixture to pastry bag with no tip (or a large zip-top plastic bag with around 1/2" hole snipped off at one corner).  Pipe mixture into prepared donut pans, filling each cavity full.

7. Bake for 7-9 min (I went 8), or until fork/toothpick comes out clean after inserted in middle of a donut.  Cool in pan for 5 min, then turn out onto a cooling rack.

8. If topping with powdered sugar or cinnamon-sugar, melt a little butter and brush it on the warm donuts, then dredge in desired topping.  If topping with glaze, prepare glaze: in a medium bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 c. powdered sugar, probably close to 3/4 c. heavy cream (add slightly less to start, then rest if needed), a dash of vanilla sugar or vanilla extract (or vanilla bean paste, if you have such) and a pinch of fine sea salt.  Frost donuts with glaze and let set, then enjoy!