My first donut cake!

This was my inspiration:

I decided to go for it for some friends' birthdays. The recipe called for cake donuts, but the grocery store had a deal on glazed donuts so I went with raised donuts. And green sprinkles.

The recipe also called for three batches of thick vanilla frosting. I swapped out the vanilla for Irish Creme flavoring and will definitely cut down the total frosting amounts. I also did various shades of green instead of different colors, so next time I will also not split them into separate bowls. Next time, just start with the lightest color and add my coloring with each 7 donuts you dip.

Dipped 36 donuts and let them air dry.

Layer one. 7 donuts.

Layer two. Trying to make them a little darker.

Layer three!

Trying to keep them all upright. My base wasn't very big.

Decided to stop after four layers. Raised donuts are so much bigger than cake donuts! Next time I will go with the cake donuts.

Profile. You can kind of tell it goes from dark to light.

Look at that messy kitchen. Whew. Icing everywhere!

Final product!

What went well: Everyone loved the flavored frosting. Store bought donuts were a total time saver.

What to change for next time: Use the dowels! It wasn't specified on the directions page, but the cookbook did mention it a couple pages before. Oops. I tried so hard to read through all the directions before starting!

Also, use homemade donuts, they're smaller and taste better. Not sure if they'll stack better but I'm definitely willing to try!

Making Donuts, part 3

I can't really say I'm becoming a pro at making donuts, but I did make a delicious batch of donuts without my sister watching and with only one phone call (and maybe 10 texts...) to her. Did I tell you she's a pastry chef? You may have known that, otherwise you've probably been a little confused as to why I depend on her so much. 

This second batch of raised donuts was made at my aunt's house when some relatives were over for a game night. The key to frying food is to do it at someone else's house so your kitchen doesn't smell for 24 hours. Also to do it while a large group of people are over so you don't feel the need to eat 50 donuts yourself.

Things that went wrong:

Dropped the whole envelope of yeast into the water while trying to pour it in

Yeast clumped up instead of evenly distributing

Used too large of a donut hole cuter for the outer ring cutter and got onion ring looking donuts

Burned one set (maybe 4 donuts, you don't fry a lot at the same time)

Things that went right:

They rose nicely

They were delicious

Had more than enough to go around

Used the leftover dough as a big blog instead of rolling it a 3rd time, was pretty tasty!

Perfect sized donut holes

My next attempt will be filled donuts for the big game. Pictures to come!

Making Donuts, part 1

Making Donuts, part 2

White Tail camper cabins

This past fall one of my very best friends from middle and high school was driving through town with her dog. My apartment doesn't allow dogs, so I decided we'd go to Platte River and rent a tiny cabin for a night. In the middle of  a work week. We're a little crazy sometimes.

We all got to the park around 5pm and hung out around the fire, making brats and baked beans. Wait, I was supposed to be talking about the cabin.

The White Tails are the smallest cabin at Platte River and are called "camper cabins" to denote that they do not have bathrooms or kitchens in them. In fact, the White Tails are just one large room with a set of bunk beds, a double bed, an arm chair, a kitchen table, and a refrigerator. I know, no kitchen, but you still have a good place to store food. Platte River doesn't leave you totally stranded.

The particular one we rented was directly across from the bath house that had 4 showers for each side and three large double basin sinks outside for doing campfire dishes. This is the only park where I have seen great amenities like this. It's so much easier to wash dishes in a real sink, obviously. But it's still nice to cook around the campfire. Nice mix of rustic and glamping I would vote (although I'm sure there are plenty of people who would think it's too much and plenty others who would say not enough).

Each cabin also has an outdoor picnic table and fire pit. Although the White Tails are generally located in a row along one of the park roads, they are far enough apart to be somewhat secluded. We were there midweek though, so our view may be a little clouded.

The cabin was good for a night, but if we were staying longer we would probably have wanted one with separate rooms. I say 3.5/5

SuperSaver Paczkis, part 2

What: Lemon paczki with sugar dusting

Where: SuperSaver, 48th and O, Lincoln NE

When: Monday, February 1st, 2016

As part of my paczki purchases at the store this weekend I got a lemon pack. I was hoping to get a lemon glazed pack, but I couldn't find it in the massive stacks of paczkis. The lemon were pretty delicious. However, as you can see in the picture the lemon was super uneven inside the pacski. That's one of my biggest pet peeves with filled donuts. The best thing about the paczkis is the dough because it is sweet without being overly sugary. They are definitely worth getting when they are available, although I wonder if half the draw is their limited available. 4/5

Food and Wine's America's Best Donut

Another list, but a little big city heavy.

I've been to 7 of them, hopefully with plans to hit a couple more this year.

Dough, Brooklyn
Federal Donuts, Philadelphia and again here
Doughnut Planet, Manhattan
Top Pot Doughnuts, Seattle
Voodoo Donuts, Portland
Peter Pan Donut & Pastry Shop, Brooklyn
Blue Star Donuts, Portland 
(Fake review: District Donut, Washington DC)


Top of my list of where I can't wait to try:
Gourdough's in Austin
I'm really excited about the make your own!

Making donuts, part 2

The second recipe in the donut book we tried was for raised donuts. My sister had made the cake donuts while I was sleeping or something, so I didn't really have much to do with those but helping to dip them in glaze.

For the raised donuts, she basically had me do it from start to finish while watching. The hardest part was figuring out if the water temp was right to wake up the yeast. The rest wasn't too bad, just a long process. And I feel like they made a lot more than we expected. I don't have a donut cutter so we used a small tupperware as the outside circle and the lid off a liquor bottle for the inside circle, but I thought the donuts was perfectly sized. Smaller than a grocery store donut, but perfect for snacking.

The yeast waking up in warm water.

The yeast after it ate the sugar and started to get a little smelly.

Checking on the recipe and getting a bowl ready for the flour.

Rolling out the dough and cutting out the donuts. This dough only needed to rise once, after it had been cut out already.

Frying the donuts with my sister watching.

Dipping them in glaze (I think it was just powdered sugar and vanilla and milk)

Finished product. Some where in vanilla glaze, some in maple glaze.

Making Donuts, Part 1

Donut presents

My aunt found me these awesome donut goodies for Christmas! The thing on the right is a packet of 12 bookmarks that have a monthly calendar on each and an area where you can stitch a design for each one with the included thread. Sadly, January was a little busy so I didn't get to stitch anything on that one but hopefully February will be a little calmer. We'll see!

Super Saver Paczkis

What: Chocolate Bavarian Cream powdered sugar paczkis
Where: Super Saver on 48th and O, Lincoln NE
When: Saturday, January 30th, 2016


Every year around this time two of the local grocery stores start selling paczkis (apparently pronounced punch-keys). According to the box, they are a traditional Polish snack made before Ash Wednesday to get rid of ingredients that can't be eaten during the fasting of Lent. I've tried them from the sample tray a couple of times and thought they were pretty good so I figured I should review them since they are basically filled donuts.

Lemon review on it's way!

I bought two packs, one chocolate with powdered sugar and one lemon with cinnamon and sugar. I really wanted a glazed lemon one, but I couldn't find it in the pile at the grocery store (side note, I should give you guys a tour sometime of Super Saver. It's like no other grocery store I've ever been to).

Best filling ever!

For this post I will focus on the chocolate, which you probably already figured out from the top. The chocolate filling was probably the best chocolate filling for any donut I've ever had. I don't generally like powdered sugar on donuts, but this powdered sugar was so fresh and nothing like those ones you buy in 6 packs. The sugar made a huge mess since it was so fresh, but it was worth it.

I'd give these 4/5. My biggest issue was the unevenness of the filling (you'd get bites with filling falling out onto your plate and bites without any filling) but I don't think that's unique to these pastries.

More donut art!

This was custom made, just for me! My sister has been doing a lot of art using glue and glitter recently, so she made me this set of tiny canvases. They are about 4 inches square and feature (if you couldn't tell) a vanilla frosted with sprinkles donut, a maple donut, and a jelly filled donut. My kitchen is getting quite full of donut art, but there's always room for more!