Lemon Poppy-Seed Cake Doughnuts

This is probably more of a summer recipe, but I was hungry for doughnuts and any recipe that involves lemon or poppy-seed equals tasty in my book.  These delightfully yellow treats can bring a bit of much-needed sunshine to any dreary winter day.

I adapted my basic mini cake doughnut recipe to make these, and I think they turned out even better than I could have imagined.  The doughnuts get a lemony kick from a few heaping spoonfuls of lemon curd and are topped with a lemon icing that has just the right amount of sour and sweet.

I think these lemon poppy-seed cake doughnuts are the best doughnuts that I have made so far, and the doughnut crumbs all over my kitchen prove it.  These were a hit!

Lemon Poppy-Seed Cake Doughnuts

Makes about 30 mini doughnuts.  I am sure you could make bigger ones though, using the same dough and larger doughnut pans.

For the doughnut batter:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of black poppy-seeds
2 tablespoons of melted margarine, cooled
about 1/4 cup lemon curd
1 large egg, beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
5 tablespoons of milk

For the lemon icing:
6-7 large heaping spoonfuls of confectioner’s sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons of lemon juice

**As much as I like this icing, these doughnuts are flavorful enough to stand alone for the true cake doughnut purist.**

Method:
Preheat the oven to 325°F.  Grease two mini doughnut pans with cooking spray.

Combine the dry ingredients (the first five ingredients) in a large bowl.

See the black poppy-seeds?

Next, whisk the cooled, melted margarine with the lemon curd in a second large bowl.  Add in the beaten egg and vanilla, continuing to whisk the ingredients together.  Finish the wet ingredients by adding the milk and whisking until the mixture is smooth and combined.

This jar of lemon curd was good to the last drop! As a side-note: this recipe is a great way to get rid of the last fourth of the jar if it has been sitting in the fridge a bit.

A very yellow mixture.

Incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry until the doughnut batter comes together.

The resulting batter is thick and delicious.

Spoon the batter into a gallon-sized food storage bag and pipe the batter into each mini doughnut cavity.  Do not over fill the cavities…

The filled pans are ready to go into the oven!

Bake each batch of doughnuts for 10 minutes.

Remove the pans from the oven, and allow the doughnuts to cool for 10 minutes before inverting the pans to release the doughnuts.

A few doughnuts waiting patiently to be iced.

Another shot of the doughnuts, all baked.

To make the lemon icing, spoon the confectioner’s sugar into a small bowl and add the lemon juice.  Stir the icing until it is smooth and glossy.  The icing should be a bit thin, since it is more of a glaze than a frosting.

Each doughnut gets a little dunk in the icing to coat the tops and then it goes onto the serving platter!

Enjoy!

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