With this week leading up to the always much-anticipated Pokemon Day, I figured I would celebrate the week(in hopes that Generation 10 is right around the corner), by making three Pokemon-themed doughnuts, inspired by the most recent game, Pokemon Legends: Z-A, specifically from the DLC, Mega Dimensions! Now, I’ve been obsessed with the Legends Z-A for quite a bit(even though admittedly, the real time game mechanics are very stressful since I prefer my usual turn-based Pokemon games where I can get a second to access and strategize), but one of my favorite parts, besides exploring the criminally under-utilized Kalos region(specifically just Lumiose City since that’s where the game is limited to, even though lets be real, we all just want Southern Kalos to be a thing), were the new doughnuts introduced in the DLC. These doughnuts, somehow created by a 5-year old named Ansha, can give you special powers, like finding rarer items, shiny Pokemon, and even in some cases, Legendary or Mythical Pokemon. Three doughnuts she made in particular harken back to Generation 3’s weather trio, Kyogre, Groudon, and Rayquaza, and those three doughnuts are the ones I will be making and posting recipes for! In the games themselves, they are all referred to as old fashioned doughnuts, which means that they are craggy cake doughnuts. The difference between a cake and a raised doughnut is that a cake doughnut uses baking powder to leaven it, creating a denser, crumblier doughnut, while a raised doughnut uses yeast, resulting in a softer, pillowier doughnut. While I usually prefer raised doughnuts to cake, they both have their appeals! In the case of this recipe, we are going with Kyogre. Introduced as the mascot of Generation 3’s Pokemon Sapphire(which was the first English Pokemon game I ever played), Kyogre is this blue and red orca-looking creature that raised the sea with storms and rain. I switch between viewing it as terrifying or derpy, depending on the angle you look at it, but either way, a fun visual design to capture in a doughnut.

For this recipe, we are using the same old-fashioned doughnut dough for all three recipes, with the main differences being the glazes. I air-fry my doughnuts, because deep frying is a commitment that not everyone would want to do, and generally speaking, air frying is a healthier method, and lot safer to do with children present(like Ansha the 5-year old – side note, I’m still in disbelief that a 5-year old can make doughnuts of this detail, because as someone over 2 decades of that age, this was a fairly meticulous process to tackle all three of them, and girl made them in a 3-second cutscene). Video game physics and logic aside, this recipe does come together surprisingly quickly(give or take, you can have the doughnuts made, air-fried, and glazed within an hour if you really move fast here). The dough itself comes together fairly quickly, with the only time-consuming parts being resting it before rolling, and shaping it before air-frying. For Kyogre’s glaze, I went with Calpico. Calpico is a popular Japanese soft drink that is creamy and kind of tastes like citrus. It is super refreshing, and reminds me of something that would be enjoyed in the sub-tropical Hoenn region(at least I would assume that based on when I visited Kyushu last year, being the island of Japan Hoenn was based on!). I used Calpico concentrate, since it will have a more intense Calpico flavor, and a thicker consistency to prevent a thinner glaze – if you do not have Calpico concentrate, feel free to just use 3oz of regular Calpico instead.

Makes 8 doughnuts:
For the old fashion doughnuts:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cups granulated sugar
2oz sour cream
1 egg
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
a pinch of salt

In a bowl, combine all of your ingredients until a dough forms. Rest the dough in the refrigerator for 15 minutes. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to 1/2-inch thickness.

Using a 4-inch and 1-inch round cutter, cut out doughnuts, re-rolling the dough as necessary. Additionally, cut out 2-inch squares, cutting them in half to form rectangles, and place those against the sides of each doughnut to form the alpha-shape. Using a knife, score a circular shape into the center of the doughnuts to allow for better rising and cracking.

Chill the doughnuts in the freezer for 10 minutes before attempting to air-fry them at 350 degrees F for 12-14 minutes.

For the Calpico glaze:
4oz Calpico concentrate
15oz confectioner’s sugar
a pinch of salt
blue gel food coloring
red gel food coloring

In a bowl, mix Calpico concentrate, confectioner’s sugar, and salt first to form your glaze.

Portion out 1oz of the glaze, and mix in red gel coloring into that and transfer to a piping bag with a small round tip(literally like a dot-shaped hole).

Then with the rest, mix in the blue gel food coloring to form your blue glaze. Keep the blue glaze covered with cling wrap to prevent it from hardening before pouring over your doughnuts.

For garnish:
White chocolate chips

Optionally, you can melt, pipe, and chill down some of the white chocolate chips to form the white ovals to garnish your doughnuts with.

Coat the tops of the doughnuts first with the blue glaze, then pipe on the patterns with the red glaze. Moving quickly, as the glaze will harden, finish with the white chocolate garnishes.