Warming spices, molasses and a orange flavoured icing sugar glaze make these gingerbread donuts simply delicious! They come together quickly and pair wonderfully with a festive holiday drink.

Stack of five glazed gingerbread donuts with sprinkles.

What excites you most about the holidays?

For me, a lot of the excitement comes from the days leading up to the big day.

Everyone is running around, getting ready. There’s all sorts of get-togethers, festive food and drinks and, let’s not forget, corny (but totally awesome) holiday movies. What’s not to love?

In the past, I would do lots of holiday baking. And while I do enjoy it (especially eating it), I prefer to try and take a more relaxed approach to the holidays and soak it all in.

That’s why these glazed gingerbread donuts are such a favourite.

They’re prepped in minutes, without fuss, and always hit the spot.

And, if you want to make things extra festive, whip up a batch of this homemade gingerbread coffee creamer to add a festive flavour to your coffee. Donuts and coffee go so well together!

Partially eaten glazed gingerbread donut on a silver plate.

How To Make Gingerbread Donuts

Full details on how to make these gingerbread donuts are in the recipe card below, but here are the basics:

Basically, in a bowl, mix together the dry ingredients (flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, ground ginger, ground nutmeg and ground cloves).

Next, in another bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (milk, butter, molasses, egg and vanilla extract).

Then it’s just a matter of combining the wet and dry ingredients.

Donut batter in a mixing bowl with a small whisk resting in the bowl.

Spoon or pipe the donut batter into a greased donut pan, then tap the pan down on a hard surface to ensure the donut batter is settled before baking.

Donut batter in a donut pan before being baked.

Place the donuts into the oven until baked. Let them cool in the pan for a bit before removing and allowing them to further cool on a cooling rack.

Baked donuts are slightly different than their fried counterpart because, well, they’re baked (versus fried) and have more of a cake-like texture.

Donuts in a donut pan after being baked.

Orange Icing Sugar Glaze

The icing sugar glaze for these gingerbread donuts is really simple. You just whisk together some icing sugar, orange juice and orange zest until smooth and combined.

Glazing the Donuts

When your gingerbread donuts are cool, they can be glazed. Don’t glaze until they are, otherwise the icing sugar glaze will soak right into the donuts.

To glaze, you simply invert (dunk) the donuts, one at a time, into the glaze.

Bowl of icing sugar glaze with a baked donut dunked into it.

After they’ve been glazed, set them on a cooling rack and decorate with festive sprinkles and/or some candied ginger.

Glazed gingerbread donut on a cooling rack topped with sprinkles and candied ginger.

Storing and Enjoying

Like most baked goods, these baked donuts are best enjoyed freshly made (the day of making). That’s when they’re the freshest and the glaze looks the prettiest.

If you want to make the donuts a day ahead, however, you can. Bake, cool and store the unglazed donuts in an airtight container. The day you are ready to enjoy/serve, glaze them.

More Fun Holiday Recipes

If you make these gingerbread donuts, be sure to leave a comment below!