A healthier version of the traditional doughnuts, these baked in the oven pumpkin cake doughnuts are glazed with vanilla glaze and made with gluten free flour. Easy recipe to make and much healthier than regular fried donuts.
Why make this recipe?
- Easy to make gluten free version of pumpkin donuts
- Healthier than the traditional doughnuts – these pumpkin donuts baked rather than fried
- Fun to decorate
- Great for entertaining or gifting
MORE PUMPKIN RECIPES
- Cinnamon & Sugar Roasted Pumpkin Seeds >>
- Pumpkin Pie Spice Buns with Cream Cheese Frosting >>
- Pumpkin Pie Spiced Muffin (GF) >>
What exactly is baked doughnut?
A cake doughnut is basically a oven-baked version of a traditional doughnut, which is also considered to be healthier. It’s also made with cake (all purpose) or gluten free flour and baking powder and it’s baked straightaway after the batter is made.
Traditional doughnut doughs is made with bread flour and yeast and need to be proven once or twice before you fry them in deep oil.
Any specialist equipment needed?
You will need a doughnut pan/baking tin. It’s difficult to make this recipe without one, but you can bake the dough in any muffin tin or loaf tin to create different shapes, if you want to.
Pro tip
This pumpkin donuts batter is meant to be a lot thicker than regular muffins or cupcakes batter. This is because you need that firmness when you are taking the doughnuts out from the baking tin.
Always grease or wipe with oil your doughnut baking tins to prevent the dough from sticking. I also find that greasing the tins and then covering it with a light layer of flour helps to release the baked doughnuts even better.
How else you can make this recipe?
You can easily make this recipe dairy free by swapping the buttermilk for a plant based version of buttermilk or plant based cream or milk. The same goes for butter.
Batch size
This depends on what type of doughnut baking tin you are using. I have a regular size doughnut tin and I usually make 12 doughnuts. If you use mini doughnut pan, you might get 24 or more doughnuts.
Can I scale up or down this recipe?
This recipe is easily scalable, just double up the amount and use extra baking tins.
Scaling down is also possible by halving all the ingredients. If you are scaling down this recipe, it’s handy if you have something already in the oven baking at the same temperature, so that you can either add the donut tray to it or bake it straight afterwards. It’s a good way to save time, energy and a bit of money too.
MORE PUMPKIN RECIPES
- Pumpkin Pie (without evaporated milk) >>
- Pumpkin Roll with Cream Cheese Frosting >>
- Biscoff Pumpkin Pie Cheesecake (no bake) >>
Can I bake pumpkin doughnuts in advance?
It depends on how far in advance you had in mind. If you are planning a party or an event a day in advance would be perfect as it allows the lemon glaze to be properly set.
You can also bake the doughnuts and freeze them and glaze them 12-24 hrs before your event or when you need them.
How to store iced doughnuts
Baked cake doughnuts are best stored in a paper box rather than in an airtight container as this might cause the glaze to melt or run. Keep the box in a room temperature (keeping the iced donuts in the fridge might make the glaze to run).
Ingredients for baked pumpkin donuts
- 1/3 cup pumpkin pie or homemade pumpkin butter (more if the batter is too thick), you can also use tinned pumpkin mashed and liquid strained
- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter unsalted
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice see my pumpkin recipe spice mix
- 1 1/2 cup gluten free flour
- 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum unless your flour already contains it
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Vanilla Icing Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups icing (powdered – confectioners) sugar
- 1/4 cup milk more depending on desired consistency
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch fine salt
BREAKFAST PUMPKIN RECIPES
- Pumpkin & Chia Breakfast Smoothie >>
- Pumpkin Pie & Oats Smoothie >>
- Pumpkin Pie & Banana Smoothie >>
- Pumpkin Pie Spiced Oatmeal >>
How to make gluten free Pumpkin Donuts with Vanilla Glaze
Preheat your oven to 350˚F, 180 C
Spray the doughnut baking tins with cooking spray or wipe with a paper towel dabbed in vegetable oil.
In a medium sized bowl cream the butter, sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice mix until light and fluffy. You can do this in a mixer or by hand as it’s a small enough amount.
Add the eggs and buttermilk to the creamed butter and sugar and either whisk or cream by hand until it’s all smooth and light.
In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
Add the flour mixture to the buttermilk in stages, making sure that at every stage the flour is incorporated before you add the next bit of the flour.
Gently fold in the pumpkin pie puree or pumpkin pie butter. Ad slightly more if needed. You should have a thicker texture batter.
Using a piping bag (or small spoon) pipe the cake doughnut batter to the tins, making sure you don’t overfil them. This means not going over about two-thirds full.
Bake for 10-12 depending on what size of doughnut’s baking pan/tin you have. When done, the doughnuts should feel springy when you gently press them down and start to come away from the baking tin. Double check with a woonden skewer – if it comes out clean and dry, your doughnuts are done.
Leave the doughnuts to cool down a bit in the baking pan and when only warm to touch, gently take them out and leave to cool down on a cooling rack completely.
To prepare the vanilla icing glaze, mix together the icing (confectioners) sugar, milk, vanilla extract, tiny pinch of salt. Add more milk or vanilla essence to achieve a thick pouring consistency. You can also add extra pumpkin pie spice to the glaze.
Add the glaze by either dipping the doughnuts upside down in the vanilla glaze or carefully pour over the glaze. Leave to dry the sugar glaze before packaging or serving.
LIKE THIS RECIPE? SAVE IT FOR LATER
Pumpkin Baked Donuts with Vanilla Icing Glaze (Gluten-Free)
Equipment
- Doughnut pans (regular or mini)
- Piping bag
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup pumpkin pie or pumpkin butter (more if the batter is too thick up to 1/2 cup)
- 1 1/2 tablespoons butter unsalted
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice See my recipe spice mix
- 1 1/2 cup gluten free flour
- 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum unless your flour already contains it
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup buttermilk
Vanilla Icing Glaze
- 1 1/2 cups icing (powdered – confectioners) sugar
- 1/4 cup milk more depending on desired consistency
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch fine salt
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 350˚F, 180 C
- Spray the doughnut baking tins with cooking spray or wipe with a paper towel dabbed in vegetable oil.
- In a medium sized bowl cream the butter, sugar, salt, and pumpkin pie spice mix until light and fluffy. You can do this in a mixer or by hand as it's a small enough amount.
- Add the eggs and buttermilk to the creamed butter and sugar and either whisk or cream by hand until it's all smooth and light.
- In another bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
- Add the flour mixture to the buttermilk in stages, making sure that at every stage the flour is incorporated before you add the next bit of the flour.
- Gently fold in the pumpkin pie puree or pumpkin pie butter. Ad slightly more if needed. You should have a thicker texture batter.
- Using a piping bag (or small spoon) pipe the cake doughnut batter to the tins, making sure you don't overfil them. This means not going over about two-thirds full.
- Bake for 10-12 depending on what size of doughnut's baking pan/tin you have. When done, the doughnuts should feel springy when you gently press them down and start to come away from the baking tin. Double check with a woonden skewer – if it comes out clean and dry, your doughnuts are done.
- Leave the doughnuts to cool down a bit in the baking pan and when only warm to touch, gently take them out and leave to cool down on a cooling rack completely.
- To prepare the vanilla icing glaze, mix together the icing (confectioners) sugar, milk, vanilla extract, tiny pinch of salt. Add more milk or vanilla essence to achieve a thick pouring consistency. You can also add extra pumpkin pie spice to the glaze.
- Add the glaze by either dipping the doughnuts upside down in the vanilla glaze or carefully pour over the glaze. Leave to dry the sugar glaze before packaging or serving.
Nutrition
This blog post was originally written on 7 July 2021 and last updated on 11 November 2022
Learn how to bake bread at home with my practical bread making e-book. Step by step techniques, photos and tips on how to bake artisan bread, sourdough and enriched dough treats. Read the customer’s review on Amazon and 
I can’t get enough of baking with pumpkin, so tried this recipe too. Really like the chewiness and the texture of these donuts – not too crumbly. I’ve used the lemon glaze from your other recipes and it worked really well with the pumpkin flavour.