Chocolate Sprinkled Donuts Recipe For Spring

Spring is finally coming and even though it's still a few days away, I'm very excited. It's been a very cold and rainy winter in the Seattle area this year, and I'm done with it. We have had more power outages this year than I can ever recall, and it can be so frustrating to try and get things done when you have no electricity.

So the last time we had a power outage, as soon as it came back on, my granddaughter Ashley and I decided we needed to make donuts to celebrate. She is my little baking buddy and she would have us bake everyday if I let her. But I was ready to celebrate the return of our electricity and baked donuts are something that can be made quickly and with little fuss.

I always try to have different varieties of sprinkles on hand because they can turn something plain into something fun and festive.

Since I love being frugal, I'm always on the hunt for a good deal and I found a good sized container of these sprinkles at Target for only a dollar. Now that's a bargain!

A lot of baked donut recipes call for buttermilk, but since I don't keep it on hand, I always have to plan ahead and buy some before I can make donuts. I was happy to find a recipe for these cake donuts that doesn't require buttermilk, so it's perfect for whipping a batch up whenever you feel like it.

These are rich and chocolaty, and super simple to put together. Since my granddaughter was helping to make these, I was glad the recipe was so easy.

If you love donuts, I recommend buying a donut pan. I have the regular size pan, and recently bought the mini size, which makes cute little donuts that my family loves.

Recipe for Chocolate Sprinkled Donuts

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled

For glaze:

2 cups confectioners sugar
about 6 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
sprinkles of choice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a bowl, whisk together flour, cocoa powder, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In another bowl, beat egg to blend with milk, melted butter, and vanilla.
Add flour mixture and stir just until all ingredients are combined. Spoon batter 2/3 full into a well greased donut pan.
Bake 8-10 minutes. Let donuts cool on a wire rack before glazing.

To make the glaze, whisk together the confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla. Dip cooled donut halfway into the glaze, place on wire rack, then decorate with sprinkles.

Makes 12 donuts.

Spring Asparagus Pizza Recipe

One of the things I enjoy about spring is when all the delicious asparagus comes to the grocery stores and farmer's markets. When I was growing up, we rarely had asparagus on our table. I think it was because my Mom only knew of one way to serve it, and that was with hollandaise sauce, which she thought of as 'fancy'.

So I'm happy that I get to use asparagus when and how ever I want, and this pizza was a last minute meal that turned out to be something I will definitely make again soon.
 

I'm a big fan of homemade pizza and I use a pizza dough recipe that is super simple. Because it is so easy, that lets me put together a pizza in very little time, and usually with the ingredients I have on hand.

This is how this pizza came together yesterday, I had the asparagus, red onion, and mushrooms in the fridge already, and I have to say, it tasted pretty fabulous!!

Normally, I make my pizza round, but I made this one rectangular so that the asparagus could lay on it and look nice. It did made the dough thicker for this pizza, but that turned out to be part of what made it taste so good.

I used a white pizza sauce from a jar to make it super easy.

Recipe for Spring Asparagus Pizza

Ingredients:

1/3 pound fresh asparagus, washed and ends trimmed
1/2 red onion, sliced thin
3-4 large white mushrooms, sliced
3/4 cup white pizza sauce
1-1/2 cups Mozzarella cheese
1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

For dough:

 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 package all purpose yeast
1 cup warm water
2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon white sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
 In a medium bowl, dissolve yeast and sugar in warm water. Let stand until creamy, about 10 minutes. Stir in flour, salt, and oil. Stir until smooth. Let dough rest 5 minutes.
Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and pat or roll into a large rectangle. Sprinkle with extra flour if the dough is sticky. Transfer crust onto a lightly greased pizza pan.
Spread a medium layer of pizza sauce on dough, then sprinkle on Italian seasoning.  Lay on red onion, mushrooms, and asparagus. Top with cheese.
Cook in the oven for 20-22 minutes.

Serves 5.

Gymboree Review and $50 Giveaway - Shopping for Easter/Spring #sponsored

 

Spring is here and with that comes all of the great Spring/Summer clothes! Gymboree has some great Spring and Easter clothes at 30% off, along with great sales throughout the entire store. I love seeing the trending colors and styles out for the season. We visited our local Gymboree and picked out our Spring and Easter clothes!

Gymboree has lots of great sales like 30% off the Easter line and a lot of $20 little girls dresses. Not to mention the clearance rack had a ton of steals! I got my oldest some shirts, pants and sweaters at more than half off. I love a good sale!

Here are my children all dressed up in their new Gymboree clothes, but getting a picture of all of them together is almost impossible!

I love the all turquoise this season, I took one look at the bright colors along with the clean lines and I was hooked. The boys got matching shirts (one is a size 6-7 and the other is a 3-4) at 30% off and my daughters sweet dress was on sale for only $20! Notice the hair barrettes in Ashley's hair? They also came from Gymboree, a simple clip that looks like I put a lot of effort into it. Perfect. I love dressing my children up in bright happy clothing for the Spring and Gymboree was the perfect place to shop for them!

You too can shop the latest styles at Gymboree, enter to win a $50 gift card to Gymboree!


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 *Limited to US residents 18 years old and above. Giveaway starts April 4, 2014 and ends on April 17, 2014 at 12:01 am EST. Winner will be emailed and has 72 hours to respond before another winner is selected. I was not paid for this giveaway or post. The opinions on this item are 100% mine and may vary from others. The sponsor is responsible for providing the prize. I was sent a product to review for this post.