These literally just came from an experiment where I wanted to make doughnuts, but I didn’t have any yeast, and I was too lazy to buy any/I had no patience to wait for yeast to proof anyways. I knew that you could make cake doughnuts, which would not require yeast, and I decided to go with those instead. The key different between a cake doughnut and a yeast proofed one is honestly the mouthfeel. Cake doughnuts are crumbly, whereas yeast doughnuts are fluffy, light, and chewier. That being said, both have their own charm and appeal, but just know that when making this recipe that it will not be like a Krispy Kreme doughnut whatsoever.

For the dough, I wanted to do an homage to ricotta doughnuts, and use mascarpone in the dough in place of butter or oil(mostly because I didn’t have butter and using oil in doughnut dough just results in a weird, greasy texture). For the glaze, it’s made with mascarpone, blood orange juice, and zest, just to give the doughnut a nicer coloration to it, and the dough itself has blood orange zest in it as well, just to add in more of that zestiness to it. What? I had a ton of blood oranges lying around. I had to use them some way, somehow. Since these were cake doughnuts, where you actually have to punch a hole into the dough, I opted for frying the holes as well, glazing those separately, and using them as a simple little garnish on top of the doughnut to make them more like a double-decker doughnut.

For the dough:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour + more for rolling
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup mascarpone cheese
1 egg
2 tablespoons blood orange zest
a pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
canola oil for frying

Combine ingredients, sans oil. Roll out on a floured surface to about 1/8th an inch thickness and cut out 3 inch circles, and 1 inch circles from the center. Fry the dough at 330 degree F oil for 1-2 minutes per side and drain on a paper towel to remove excess oil.

For the glaze:
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup blood orange juice
3 tablespoons blood orange zest
a pinch of salt
1/2 cup powdered sugar
pitaya powder*

Combine ingredients into a creamy, smooth mixture. Glaze the doughnuts and allow to sit until the glaze has firmed up.