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The cakeughnut is the definitive answer to, “What do you do with day-old doughnuts?”

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Since the introduction of the Original Cakeughnut, I’ve received so many cards and letters saying, “But Chef Jeff, no one ever has leftover doughnuts.” Well, my friends, fret no longer. To make a Cinna-Choco Cakeughnut with fresh doughnuts, you simply have to increase the amount of doughnuts. Here’s how it works: if you need seven doughnuts to make a pair of cakeughnuts and you want to use fresh doughnuts, buy a dozen. Then, let them sit out on the counter until they’re a day old. The next day, you’ll find you have seven day-old doughnuts! What happens to the five missing doughnuts is a mystery. This was nearly solved once when seemingly inexplicable powdered sugar was found on my beard and all over my shirt, but I was able to prove that this was the result of a baking accident. That’s right: a baking accident. No one knows what happened to those five doughnuts.

I went to Stan’s to pick up the cakes for this cakeughnut, which is quite an ordeal, because there is just no good way to get from Uptown to Wicker Park (and I’m not sure if the one in Lincoln Park is open yet). To compensate myself for battling traffic, I also brought home a beautiful-looking cherry cake. It was one of Stan’s signature pockets: a square, yeast-style doughnut stuffed with a cream-cheese filling. They’d indented the top of the square and topped it with cherries. In most people’s world, these cherries would’ve been a very thick cherry pie filling. Instead, Stan used something that tasted very much like pie filling, but was a liquid, syrupy consistency. Once my first bite broke the dam that was holding this syrup in place, it ran off the doughnut, onto me and everything in front of me. I wolfed it down in an unsuccessful attempt to beat the syrup flow, and then I had to throw my clothes in the laundry and take a shower to get it out of my beard. The remainder of the dozen – several cinnamon sugar cakes – were good but less of an adventure.

I used Pillsbury Moist Supreme “Classic Yellow” cake mix with these cinnamon doughnuts from Stan’s.

Cinna-Choco-Cakeughnut

Makes 2 nine-inch round cakes, serving 24

You Will Need:

How to Do It:

Cut each doughnut in half like a bagel, and then slice each half into 12 equal segments. Set aside. Prepare cake mix according to package directions with the following caveats:

1. Line the pans with parchment.
2. Add 1 tsp cinnamon to the cake mix.
3. Just before pouring batter into pans, fold in doughnut chunks and let rest for 5 minutes.
4. The cakes will bake faster than the box directions, so start checking them about 5 minutes earlier than suggested.

Allow the cakes to cool on wire racks. Place something under the racks – wax paper, a jellyroll pan, etc. – that will catch excess glaze. To make the glaze, cook the butter, syrup, vanilla, and milk over medium until the butter melts, stirring constantly. Off heat, add the chocolate without stirring, and allow to sit for 2 minutes. Then, stir vigorously until no solid chocolate remains.  Use an electric mixer (or transfer the mixture to a stand mixer) to beat in 1 tsp cinnamon and 1 cup of the sugar on high speed, until the glaze is fully homogenized. Continue beating in heaping Tbs of sugar on medium-low speed until the glaze reaches the constancy of a very thick fudge sauce. (You may not use the entire 2 cups.)

Pour the glaze over the cakes. Use a spatula to spread the glaze evenly, and push some of it over the sides of the cake and let it drip down. Allow the glaze to set, then store the cakes at room temperature, loosely tented with foil. Cakeughnuts keep extraordinarily well, as a rule, wrapped as tightly as you dare without messing up the glaze, at room temperature. They also freeze beautifully.

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You might also like the Original Cakeughnut and the Choco-Glazed Cakeughnut.
Credit for all images, Make It Like a Man! Hover image and/or green text to reveal hidden wisdom. Click for immediate enlightenment.

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