Baked Chocolate Donuts are great to make for Valentine’s Day. Moist chocolate donuts baked to perfection. Topped with a cream cheese icing that compliments the cocoa so well.

Whenever we come up on a holiday, Sydney and I are always thinking of a festive recipe we can make! I don’t know what screams Valentine’s Day more than chocolate and the color pink. So we decided to marry the two together!
Did Someone Say Easy Recipe?
This Baked Chocolate Donuts recipe is fairly simple and straight forward. Since this isn’t a yeast donut recipe, you do not have to wait for the dough to rise. Hallelujah! There is a time and place for long, drawn out recipes, but when we can…we love short cuts! Who doesn’t?!

Baked Chocolate Donuts Recipe Tips
There are a few things this Baked Chocolate Donuts recipe calls for that you may not have on hand. First off, you cannot make these without donut pans. Well…I suppose you could try, but they definitely wouldn’t look like donuts to say the least. 😀 Donut pans are fairly inexpensive and very versatile. There are so many different donut recipes that you can use them with! If you are a red velvet lover, check out our Red Velvet Donuts recipe.

Also, buttermilk and mini chocolate chips are needed for the Baked Chocolate Donuts. The buttermilk allows the donuts to stay very moist and compliment the chocolate flavor after they have cooled. Why mini chocolate chips? No, these are not for melting. These little bites of chocolatey goodness get folded into the donut mixture. Once they are baked, you will have mini chocolate chips throughout the donuts in every bite!

Kid-Friendly Recipe
This recipe is very kid-friendly. There is no “wrong” way to scoop the batter into the plastic bag before you pipe into the donut pan. So, go ahead, allow little hands to help you with the scooping task! Mixing, pouring in ingredients, stirring…what could be better to a little one. And don’t forget the best part; topping the donuts after they have been iced with sprinkles!
You can always go the extra mile and get a variety of Valentine’s Day sprinkles. Another way to add to the fun is to make a couple different festive colored icing choices. All of the options will bring out the holiday spirit, as well as the creativity in your littles!


Baked Chocolate Donuts
Ingredients
Donuts
- 2/3 cup cocoa powder
- 1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp salt
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 2 extra large eggs
- 1/2 cup butter melted
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
Cream Cheese Icing
- 3 tbsp salted butter room temperature
- 3 ounces cream cheese room temperature
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 2 tbsp whole milk
Instructions
- Spray two donut pans lightly with non-stick spray. Preheat your oven to 350 F.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla extract. Pour mixture into the large bowl with all the dry ingredients. and mix until combined.
- Fold in the mini chocolate chips.
- Transfer your batter into a large, sealable plastic bag. Cut off a corner of the bag and pipe the batter into the donut pans (only fill them half full). *You may have a little extra batter leftover at the end; this is okay.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool for a couple minutes and then put the donuts on cooling racks (remove from donut pans).
Cream Cheese Icing
- Beat the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. You can use a stand or hand mixer. Beat on medium-high speed until the icing is creamy.
- Reduce the mixer speed to low and slowly add in the sifted powdered sugar. Once the powdered sugar is combined, add in the milk. Once the milk is combined, turn the mixer speed to high and beat for 2 minutes.
- Add in food coloring of your choice. We chose to do half pink and leave the other half white.
- Top with sprinkles and mini chocolate chips.

We hope you have a wonderful Valentine’s Day and enjoy this yummy (and easy) recipe!
These look AHHHHmazing! I can’t wait to try this recipe.
We love how moist they are!
I keep telling myself that I need to make homemade donuts, as it’s one of the few baking recipes I have yet to make, but I haven’t done so yet. This recipe looks like a good one to try. All I need is to get my hands on a donut pan and then I’ll be giving these a try.
We were very hesitant to try them too. For some reason we thought they were very involved and would take forever. But, thankfully, we were wrong! 🙂