Donut Man's Kitchen

Over the past weekend, I had the chance to put the Top Pot lemon cake donut recipe to the test—and came up with my own creation as well: Gorillas (Peterson’s has their Zebras, so I have my Gorillas). Prep work began on Saturday afternoon, when I mixed the dough, as it needed to firm up in the fridge overnight. For the lemon donuts, I used fresh-squeezed lemon juice and the finely grated rind of one whole lemon. Although the recipe didn’t call for it, I added a few drops of yellow food coloring to give the dough a more appealing look. No one ever said donuts are supposed to be all-natural, organic, and all that, eh?

Lemon donut, waiting to take the plunge

The Gorillas used a basic cake donut dough with bananas, walnuts, dates, and coconut mixed in, and then the finished product was topped with chocolate icing. For these, it was necessary to reduce the amount of milk in the recipe by half, as the bananas add a bit of moisture to the dough. When the dough was rolled out the next day, quite a generous amount of flour was required to dust the rolling pin and the surface, as both doughs were incredibly sticky. Nevertheless, I managed to cut some pretty nice rounds, which held their shape well.

Lemon donuts, sizzlin'

If you’ve never made your own donuts, let me tell you this: frying them is the best part. Drop the rounds into oil heated to 370°F, wait about 30 seconds, and then watch them pop up to the surface, sizzlin’ scrumptiously.

Once they come up for air, they are fried for one minute on each side, until lightly browned. When you see people do this at a donut shop, it looks so easy, doesn’t it? But you never see all the work that goes on behind the scenes. Granted, donut shops usually have big machines that mix everything together to just the right consistency and form the rounds automatically, but it’s still a lot of work to make a nice donut. In the end, I was left with about eight donuts of each variety, plus a few holes—or “Gorilla balls” as I called them.

The lemon donuts were finished with a homemade lemon buttercream frosting—and yes, I used more yellow food coloring in the frosting. The Gorillas were topped with basic chocolate icing, made from confectioner’s sugar, powdered cocoa, vanilla, and milk. 

Lemon donut, frosted and finished

And the verdict? Here are a few quotes from my taste-testers:

The Gorilla™ 

Big B: “The donuts rocked! Man, you've really started to master this. Can't wait to see what's next. That lemon [frosting] was sweet but tart; I thought it was awesome. I am not much a fan of cake donuts but thought that it was moist and solid . . . the Gorilla donuts were perfect . . . I would love to try a raised with lemon icing.”

Sir Isaac Newton: “Delicious. I liked the lemon cake donuts, especially with the lemon buttercream frosting, which was a nice change from a standard donut icing, and reminded me of the frosting on Peterson’s cake donuts.”

Lil’ C: She’s the shy sort, and doesn’t say much, but from the way she devoured the top layers of icing, leaving the cakes on her plate, it was obvious that I make a dang good icing, but my donuts need a bit of work.

Mama Maple, who received the holes but not the whole donuts, said, “They were both good! The centers were not quite cooked through, but were okay that way. Perhaps it was not intended, but it had sort of a little filling effect. I liked the lemon better than the Gorilla, surprisingly. Maybe the Gorilla had so many flavors that I couldn't pick up on any of them except the icing?” Mama Maple’s point is well taken, as I rolled up the holes by hand and compressed the dough too much before tossing them in the fryer, so they came out somewhat undercooked, which fortunately wasn’t the case with the whole donuts.

Personally, I thought the donuts came out just a bit heavy, but that they tasted excellent. I don’t have any industrial donut-making machines in my kitchen, so cut me some slack, okay? Next time I make donuts at home, I’ll go for the raised variety, which will allow me to get a little more creative with some fillings and toppings. Suggestions for imaginative flavors are always welcome, as are more taste-testers!