Mini Cake Doughnuts - Two Ways

I brought a mini doughnut pan purely for its cuteness value. It looked so cute that I had to have one. I bought it home and then had it stacked away with all my other baking pans. Now me and my friend R love doughnuts. we have spent many of our lunch breaks walking down to a donut chain called Mad Over Doughnuts in Mumbai to ogle at and share a donut and coffee for lunch yeah you heard me LUNCH or at other times just like that. So when my dear R, sent me a one liner telling me about a new job offer for her, I decided to remove my doughnut pan and bake donuts for her. So what if  I can share them only virtually ..it's the thought that counts right.

I basically followed the recipe that came with my pan and varied it only to add a couple of spoons of maple syrup to one part and a 1/4 tsp of vanilla essence to the other batch.

Ingredients
1 1/4 Cups All Purpose Flour *original recipe called for Cake flour, since I didn't have any ...
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup buttermilk * I used 2-3 Tbsp Plain Yogurt diluted with water
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 1/2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1-2 Tbsp Maple Syrup * See method below
1/4 tsp Vanilla Extract * See method below
Method
1. Preheat oven to 425 F. Spray mini doughnut pan with cooking spray or oil.
2. In a bowl, mix all dry ingredients together and stir with a whisk.
3. In another bowl, add all wet ingredients, whisk till egg and buttermilk have blended. Now add butter and whisk it nicely.
4. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and whisk well. Do not overbeat.
5. Now divide the batter in two bowls, to one add maple syrup and to the other add vanilla essence.
6. Take a ziplock bag and fill the contents of the vanilla batter to the bag, snip a small hole and fill in the each donut cavity about 1/2 full. Bake for 4-6 minutes till the top of the doughnut springs back to touch.
7. Since I wasn't very happy with the color on top, I flipped the donuts on the other side and slipped the pan back into the oven for 2 minutes. This is strictly optional.
8. Now remove the donuts and fill in the maple batter bake for 4-6 mins.
9. For Sugar Glazed donuts - in another ziplock bag, fill in 2/3 C Sugar and dunk a few minis at a time, shake the bag till well coated, remove and repeat till all vanilla donuts a dozen of them are coated with sugar
10. For the maple glaze, in a bowl mix 1/2 C powdered sugar, 2-3 Tbsp Maple Syrup and mix well, glaze each donut and set it on a serving platter.
11. Enjoy with coffee - our choice Black with no Sugar added.

A special note for R: Remember NSE cafeteria?? Instant black coffee and "Are you girls insane looks?" of the cafeteria guys ;)