This recipe came from two different inspirations. The first is the kawaii doughnuts you’d see in Japan – very popular in Harajuku, kawaii character doughnuts are shaped to resemble cute animals like frogs, rabbits, and in this particular case, kittens! I have been meaning to make a version of these, especially because they are all the rage in Harajuku! The second inspiration, which is why I went the baked tofu doughnut route, came about from my mom, who gifted me a tofu-baked doughnut that she got from a friend. The texture of the baked tofu doughnuts was surprisingly soft and tender, so that was what inspired me to go that route! Now I have been meaning to make this recipe since January, but it just kept escaping me. Mostly because I was a. really lazy, and b. traveling so frequently that I could not just sit down and get it done. But now that I am finally not galivanting, or as my friends keep saying, “taking random side quests” around the world, I can get a moment to re-evaluate my to-bake list, and actually check a few of these longer-hanging ideas and recipes off of that! It was not so much that I was not super keen or enthused about the idea of making these, it was more along the lines of me not using tofu in a lot of my recipes that I was doing throughout this year, so I was waiting for more tofu-related recipes to pop up on my list so that I can tackle a bunch of them at the same time!

The reason why I would prefer to knock out multiple tofu desserts in one go is that preparing tofu to be dessert-friendly takes time. You have to finely puree the tofu so that it is smooth and not chunky. Especially in a tofu baked item, the most awkward thing would be to bite into it, and get a chunk or glob of tofu in it. So in this case, I actually pureed a decent-sized batch of silken firm tofu, which will produce the best consistency in tofu-based dough and batters without adding too much liquid, just so that I could use that batch of tofu puree in a few different recipes. Two of those recipes show up as components in these doughnuts. The first being the doughnuts themselves, which are made from a thick batter/loose dough that has flour and tofu in it. The tofu in this instance acts as a binder in place of eggs, and gives the doughnuts a firm texture. The second component is in the form of a tofu royal icing. In both recipes, the tofu acts as an egg substitute, with the tofu in the icing replacing the egg white. The royal icing has a rich, pipe-able consistency, while not being too runny, so it is great way to use up more of my monster batch of blended up tofu. I also used almonds, which were pressed into the doughnuts, to form my kitten ears, and a dark chocolate glaze to coat the doughnuts with as well! These doughnuts are 100% vegan while being hilariously high in protein from all of the tofu usage, which is a perk of making/eating them as well!

Makes 8 tofu doughnuts:
For the vanilla baked doughnuts:
1 cup all-purpose flour
6oz puréed silken tofu
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp baking powder
3 tbsp canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, whisk all of the ingredients together into a thick batter. Transfer to a piping bag. Pipe the batter into silicone doughnut baking molds, filling each one up about 1/3 to 1/2 the way full. Bake these at 350 F for 15 minutes. Store in an airtight container and refrigerate until time to assemble.

For the tofu royal icing:
9g puréed silken tofu
55g powdered sugar
1g vanilla extract
A pinch of salt

In a bowl, whisk everything together until combined. Transfer to a piping bag.

For the chocolate glaze:
1/2 cup dark chocolate
A pinch of salt
1 tsp coconut oil

Melt everything together over a double boiler, stirring until everything is combined and smooth in texture. Keep the glaze warm for assembly.

For assembly:
Whole almonds

Press two almonds into each doughnut to form “cat ears”, with the pointed sides of the almond facing up from the doughnuts. Quickly dip each doughnut, almond side down, into the glaze, letting the excess run off. Once the glaze is firmed up, pipe the icing onto each doughnut to form the faces, noses, and whiskers for the cats.