Mini Baked Blackberry Cake Donuts

These Mini Baked Blackberry Cake Donuts are the cutest sweet breakfast treat! They are baked in the oven so there’s no heavy oils or frying involved! The light and fluffy gluten-free cake batter is made with real blackberries and doesn’t contain any eggs or dairy! After they are baked and cooled, they are dipped in blackberry white chocolate for extra deliciousness.

This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of Oregon Berries. The opinions and text are all mine.

As we are headed into Spring I am dreaming up all the colorful, berry goodies! I teamed up with Oregon Berries to bring you a berry delicious treat, just in time for Easter this year! 😉 I love making baked donuts because they are a simple and fun way to enjoy a healthier donut treat at home, and this time I am taking the cuteness level a step further with these mini baked donuts. Imagine how adorable these will look on your Easter brunch table 💐🐣🐰!

Why You’ll Love These Mini Baked Donuts

The blackberry flavor is delicious! If you love blackberries, you’ll love these cute little mini blackberry donuts! Not only are the donuts made with real blackberries, but they are dipped in a blackberry flavored white chocolate. They’re a blackberry lover’s dream 💜!

They’re so soft! These mini donuts are soft, fluffy, and moist. A delicious gluten-free blackberry cake disguised in mini donut form 🤗.

They’re adorable! Who doesn’t love a mini anything?! They’re so cute, you can just pop them in your mouth or savor each little bite with a cup of your morning coffee.

No heavy oils. Since these donuts are baked in the oven instead of fried, there’s no heavy oils needed! There’s no oil in the donut cake batter either making the blackberry cake donuts an oil-free recipe! *Note: there is 1/2 teaspoon of coconut oil in the blackberry white chocolate.

Easy to make. As long as you have a mini donut mold, this mini donut recipe is a piece of… cake! Haha. Simply make the cake batter, pipe it into the donut mold, bake, cool and dip in melted blackberry flavored white chocolate! YUM!

Blackberry Cake Batter Ingredients

Dry Ingredients

Flour. Gluten-free baking can be a bit tricky. I have found that using a combination of gluten-free flours yields the fluffiest baked goods. In these mini donuts I used a combination of almond flour, cassava flour, and gluten-free oat flour. You may also swap one the oat flour for coconut flour.

💡 Cassava flour can be kind of tricky to bake with. I suggest using this cassava flour for the best results.

Baking powder & baking soda. Adding baking powder and baking soda helps these mini donuts to rise while also giving them their soft and fluffy texture.

Salt. Using salt in baking recipes helps to bring out the flavors and the sweetness.

Wet Ingredients

Blackberries. This baked mini donut recipe uses real blackberries! Unfortunately my local grocery store didn’t have any decent looking fresh blackberries in stock, but I was able to purchase frozen blackberries, thanks to Oregon Berries, and simply thaw them before making this recipe.

I love Oregon Berries for how big and lush they are, they’re just gorgeous! Oregon’s optimal soil, air, water and climate make it the best blackberry growing environment. Oregon Berries blackberries ripen in the field the way nature intended and they are picked at the peak of ripeness for a better tasting berry, and I can certainly tell from their flavor in these Mini Baked Blackberry Cake Donuts. Oregon Berries are flash frozen within 24 hours of being picked to lock in their beautiful color and great taste.

Maple syrup. I chose to naturally sweeten these donuts with maple syrup since the vegan white chocolate chips you’ll use most likely contain sugar.

Vanilla. I love adding pure vanilla to my baked goods. It adds a touch of sweetness and vanilla flavor. Be sure to use pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla.

Vegan buttermilk. I love baking with vegan buttermilk! It helps to enhance the light and fluffy texture of the donuts. Vegan buttermilk is made by combining a plant-based milk, such as oat milk (what I use in this recipe) with apple cider vinegar. You can read more about vegan buttermilk in this post. And don’t worry, you can’t taste the apple cider vinegar at all.

Blackberry White Chocolate Topping

I made these cute little mini donuts a couple of times. I originally wanted to glaze them in a blackberry powdered sugar icing, like you do with glazed donuts, but I found the vibrant color of the blackberry icing to turn dull as it set. The glaze also made the donuts a bit soggy. So I decided to go with a blackberry infused vegan white chocolate topping instead. Isn’t the color just so gorgeous?! 💜🩷 And it’s quite delicious paired with the the cakey blackberry donuts too.

Blackberry powder. I tried making the blackberry white chocolate a few times using the blackberry juice from thawing the frozen blackberries. The liquid made the white chocolate into more of a caramel-ganache consistency instead of a smooth melted chocolate that you could dip the donuts in. It also didn’t add a burst of blackberry flavor like I wanted. So I decided to use blackberry powder and it was perfect! Read more below on how you can make your own blackberry powder at home using Oregon Berries.

White chocolate chips. You’ll want to use dairy-free white chocolate chips (affiliate link) to keep this recipe vegan.

Coconut oil. Melting coconut oil with the white chocolate chips helps the white chocolate to have a better consistency for dipping. It also helps the chocolate to not crack off of the donuts when you bite into them.

How To Make Your Own Blackberry Powder

There are a few different ways to make blackberry powder at home from dried blackberries. The easiest way to make your own blackberry powder, that I have found, is to puree your blackberries and strain the puree through a fine mesh strainer/sieve to remove the seeds.

Then you’ll want to spread the blackberry puree in a thin layer on a parchment-lined baking sheet or a silicone baking sheet and dehydrate the puree in the oven at a very low temperature for 8-10 hours. You’ll know when it’s done when the puree is completely dry and you can snap it into pieces with your hands. If you have a dehydrator, that might yield a more vibrant colored blackberry powder, but most of us don’t have a dehydrator so the oven method works too.

Once the blackberry puree is dry, break it into pieces and then grind it in a food processor, or better yet, a coffee/spice grinder if you have one. You can sift the powder to make the powder an even finer texture, and then it’s ready to use in all your recipes!

How To Bake Mini Blackberry Cake Donuts

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Combine the almond milk and apple cider vinegar in a bowl and set aside for about 5 minutes to create a vegan “buttermilk”.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Next you’ll want to smash the thawed blackberries with a fork. Don’t smash them completely, you want some smaller pieces of blackberries left.

Add the maple syrup, vanilla, and the “buttermilk” to the bowl with the flour mixture and stir to form a cake batter. Then gently fold in the smashed blackberries. I like the cake batter to have a marble-like effect, so I don’t stir the cake batter too much after adding the blackberries. Just fold it enough to have some purple batter and some white batter.

Place the donut mold on a baking sheet. Fill a piping bag with the batter and pipe the batter into the mini donut mold 3/4 full. It helps to tap the baking sheet/donut mold on the counter to spread the batter completely in each mold and then you can clean up any overflowing batter. Repeat until all batter is gone and then bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes. You will have to bake 2 batches of donuts, unless you purchase two mini donut molds. Remove from the oven and allow them to cool completely before dipping in the melted chocolate. These donuts are very soft, so allowing them to cool completely is a must before dipping.

The Blackberry White Chocolate

To make the blackberry white chocolate, add the dairy-free white chocolate chips (affiliate link) and coconut oil to a small bowl. Make sure the bowl is big enough to dip the donuts in. Melt the white chocolate in the microwave in 30 second increments, stirring in between. Do not heat the white chocolate chips too much or it will cook, harden, and won’t be the right consistency. Once all the chocolate chips are melted, stir in the blackberry powder.

Gently dip the donut in the melted white chocolate allowing excess to drip off and then place it chocolate side up onto a plate.

Repeat for all of the donuts and then let the white chocolate set for about 15-20 minutes.

Recipe Tips

Use room temperature wet ingredients. This will allow for the fluffiest donuts. Sometimes cold ingredients can lead to dense baked goods.

Don’t fill the mini donut pan too much. If you pipe too much of the cake batter in the mini donut mold they will rise over the top and have a larger bottom than top. It’s not the end of the world, but if you’re a bit of a perfectionist like me and like a clean donut shape, don’t overflow the mold 😜.

Tap the donut mold on the counter to help spread the cake batter in each mini donut cavity. This will also allow you to see which molds have too much batter in them and you can remove some or clean up around the edges if you need to.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I store these baked donuts?

These Mini Baked Blackberry Cake Donuts are best enjoyed the same day, however, you can store leftovers in an airtight container and keep them on your counter for up to 2 days.

Can I use frozen blackberries without thawing them first?

I would suggest thawing the frozen blackberries before adding them to the cake batter. Using frozen blackberries can add too much moisture to the donuts and the donuts won’t be as fluffy. You can thaw them in the refrigerator overnight for the best texture and flavor, but if you’re in a hurry you can also thaw them in cold water or in the microwave on the defrost mode.

Can I freeze these donuts?

I wouldn’t recommend freezing these donuts. When they thaw, they most likely will be soggy and lose their soft and fluffy texture.

Can I make full sized donuts with this recipe?

Yes you may! However, the baking time may vary and I am not sure how many full sized donuts this recipe yields.

Other Blackberry Recipes To Try

More Gluten-Free, Vegan Donut Recipes To Try

Let me know how you like these Mini Baked Blackberry Cake Donuts down below in the comments section, as well as giving it a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐ rating  so that others can discover a super flavorful, super adorable blackberry donut recipe! Tag me on Instagram, Facebook, or Pinterest if you make it!

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