Soft, perfectly sweet with a hint of citrus flavor, these Mini Unicorn Rainbow Donuts are colorful and gorgeous inside and out, with a swirled rainbow colored dough and a colorful, rippled unicorn glaze, complete with stars and glitter.
Perfect for fun kids’ parties, themed parties, entertaining, or to celebrate all the unicorns in your life!
Do you love unicorns? I mean reeaaallly love unicorns? If your answer is yes, and you had always wanted to get the inside scoop on all things unicorn, then you’d want to get your hands on a copy of this magical, mystical, whimsical account of unicorns called Stuff Unicorns Love by Jessie Moore!
It’s EVERYTHING you need to know about unicorns, as told by unicorns themselves (with Jessie’s help, of course), and I had a blast reading this book. It’s got everything from the history of unicorns, to where they live, about famous unicorn celebrities, about what they like, what they eat, and even how they poop!
Yup, it’s a no holds barred, intimate and enlightening account of the sparkly, glittery, colorful, magical world of unicorns that exists right here among us earthly beings. It also has a chapter dedicated to how to unicorn-ify your life by thinking like a unicorn, by looking like a unicorn and even hosting unicorn parties. 🙂
Jessie is the blogger behind Cakespy.com, and I’ve been a huge fan of hers since even before the beginning of my own blog. I love her sweet creations, and that includes her recipes, her stories and all her gorgeous illustrations. So I was more than excited to get a copy of her book and be inspired by all things unicorn!
If you follow my blog you already know how much I love making fun, magical stuff – like this magical color changing galaxy lemonade, galaxy ice cream, shimmery liqueurs and legit magical color changing cocktails! But after reading this book, I was inspired to add to that list with something unicorn. 🙂 And it had to be something that epitomized unicorns – like Mini Rainbow Donuts!
These mini unicorn rainbow donuts have everything that unicorns love.
- Rainbows? check.
- Sprinkles? check.
- Glitter and stars? check.
- Delicious frosting? check.
- And of course DONUTS! check, check, check.
Soft, perfectly sweet, rainbow swirled fried donuts, topped with unicorn glaze, sprinkles and stars. As the book reveals, there’s a reason why unicorn horns originally evolved as a donut-holding appendage.
Even unicorns could never get enough of these scrumptious mini rainbow donuts.
I was inspired to make mini donuts because as Jessie notes in the book, you can actually attract unicorns by planting “donut seeds” (that look an awful lot like mini donuts) that will grow into donut trees and produce these delectable unicorn-attracting donuts.
I imagine these “donut seeds” look just as magical as these mini rainbow donuts that I’ve made. But I’m just a little impatient to wait till my donut trees grow, so I went ahead and made these mini rainbow donuts anyway. 🙂
To make these mini rainbow donuts, I used the same donut recipe that I shared in my how to make doughnuts troubleshooting post and coffee doughnuts post. But instead of plain donuts, I added some citrus flavor here to brighten up the flavor profile AND I also colored them in rainbow colors too.
These donuts are shaped differently compared to regular donuts as well. Instead of cutting out donuts using a circle cutter, I opted to shape these the same way you would shape bagels. So I cut strips of the donut dough, then twisted the strips so I could make swirled rainbow colored donuts.
This also makes sure I use every bit of the donut dough, so there’s no leftover dough. That way you don’t have re-knead, re-rest and re-cut the dough (which would’ve messed up the rainbow colors too).
Recipe tips to make beautiful mini rainbow donuts
- Color the dough after mixing and kneading it – it’s easier to portion the dough into 6, and then re-knead them separately with the colors you want.
- Stack the colored dough and allow the dough to rise overnight in the fridge (slow rise). Since the dough is soft, it’ll be more manageable when it’s cold. Plus you’re making sure all the colors will rise evenly and together.
- Cut thin strips (1 cm – 1.5 cm thick, 4 inches long) to make the donuts. Roll the strips lightly to get a smooth cylindrical shape.
- Dab water on the edges of the strip and then pinch the edges together to form a ring (donut-shaped). It’s important to pinch the edges together so that the ring/donut shape remains intact.
- You must allow the donuts to rise in a warm place for at least 30 minutes (45 minutes in a colder environment) before frying. This allows the donut seams to completely stick together, so that they don’t split open while frying.
Once the donuts are fried, they are ready to be glazed. I made a unicorn colored glaze to go with the mini rainbow donuts. This glaze is thicker than the my usual donut glaze because it was important for me to be able to see the rippled colors of the glaze.
How to glaze these mini donuts
There are TWO ways that you can glaze these mini rainbow donuts to have that colorful, rippled unicorn glaze.
- First method – place the colored glazes in separate pastry bags (or ziplock bags). Cut a small hole in the bags (about 2 – 3 mm), and drizzle each color over the donuts to create a pattern on top, and allow the excess glaze to spread and drip off the sides.
- Second method – drizzle each of the colors into a shallow bowl or saucer, along with some of the white glaze as well. Dip the top of each donut in the rippled glaze, twist slightly and remove. Drizzle more color as needed until all the donuts are glazed.
Both of these methods will results in a beautiful pastel rainbow like pattern on your mini unicorn donuts. And don’t forget the sprinkles. Make sure to get those rainbow sprinkles and stars on while the glaze is still soft.
These mini unicorn donuts are incredibly delicious. With a hint of lemon in the donut as well as the glaze, it’s the perfect balance of sweetness and fruity freshness. And they are super fun when you bite into them to discover the gorgeous, swirled rainbow colors inside. 🙂
And yes, if you’re thinking about it, go ahead and plant a few of these mini donuts in your garden. You never know what you’ll discover the next morning.
For more rainbow-themed recipes, check out these rainbow sandwiches, rainbow swiss roll cake, rainbow ice cream slice, and even these rainbow-colored flavored shimmery liqueurs!
Recipe video
Recipe
Mini Rainbow Donuts with Unicorn Glaze
Difficulty:
US based cup, teaspoon, tablespoon measurements. Weight measurements are recommended for accurate results whenever available.
Common Measurement ConversionsIngredients:
DOUGH FOR THE DONTUS
- 470 g AP flour 3 ¾ cups, spooned and levelled
- 120 mL lukewarm water ½ cup
- 120 mL lukewarm milk ½ cup
- 1 tbsp active dry yeast
- 1 large egg
- 1 large yolk
- 67 g sugar ⅓ cup
- 58 g butter 4 tbsp. softened
- Generous pinch of salt
- Yellow, pink, orange, blue, green and purple gel coloring
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp lemon extract
GLAZE
- 3 cups icing sugar or confectioner’s sugar
- 3 – 4 tbsp milk
- A few drops of lemon extract
- White food coloring
- Yellow, pink, orange, blue, green and purple gel coloring
- Rainbow sprinkles and silver stars or dragees
Instructions:
DONUT DOUGH
- Activate the yeast by sprinkling the yeast in the warm water with 1 tbsp sugar dissolved in the water. Stir to dissolve the yeast in the water and set it aside for about 10 – 15 minutes. If the yeast forms a bubbly froth, then they are active and can be used.
- Place the flour in the mixing bowl with the remaining sugar, activated yeast with the water, milk, egg, yolk, vanilla, lemon extract and salt.
- Mix on low speed with the paddle attachment or kneading hook on your mixer, until the mix comes together.
- If you used the paddle mix, switch to the dough hook and start kneading the dough.
- Add the softened butter (½ – 1 tbsp at a time) until it's all incorporated. The dough should be sticky and soft (51 % hydration dough), but as you knead the dough it will come together.
- Knead the dough until you have a soft, smooth, shiny, slightly tacky dough. This can take anywhere between 5 minutes, upto 15 minutes, depending on your mixer and the speed. I prefer to use a medium speed.
- Divide the dough into 6 portions. Color each portion with each of the food coloring (yellow, pink, orange, green, blue and purple). You can knead the color into the dough by hand OR use the mixer and knead the dough for 2 – 3 minute until the color mixes in.
- Flatten each piece of colored dough into a disc shape. Brush each disc lightly with water and layer them on top of each other. I layered them in this order – orange, yellow, green, blue, purple and pink.
- Place the layered dough discs on a lightly oiled cake tray (or a dish with a wide, flat bottom and sides). Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight, up to 24 hours.
- Next morning, turn the dough out on to a floured surface and roll it out to a ¼ inch thickness, making sure that all the layers are still in order.
- ALTERNATIVELY, let the dough rise at room temperature until it's doubled in size. Once doubled in size, deflate the dough and proceed to roll it out to a ¼ inch thickness, making sure that all the layers are still in order.
- Keep the donut dough covered as you cut and shape the donuts. Cut 1 – 1.5 cm inch strips from the dough, and then cut each strip into pieces that are 4 inches in length. Gently roll the strip to form a smooth, round cylinder. Dab each end of the strip with a little water and bring them together to form a donut ring. You can choose to either twist the strip to create a swirled pattern or not.
- Pinch the edges of the strip together to make sure the ends stick together and the donut ring shape remains intact.
- Place the donuts on a baking tray lined with parchment paper with at least 1.5 inches between each. You may need to use TWO baking trays for all the donuts. Cover the shaped donuts with plastic wrap and leave them to rise in a warm place for 30 – 45 minutes.
- Heat at least 3 inches of oil or shortening (the donut needs to float at least 2 inches above the bottom of the pan) in a heavy bottomed pan.
- When the oil is heated to 375°F/190°C, carefully drop one donut. After 15 – 20 seconds the donut should have turned a light golden color, with the rainbow colors of the dough still fairly visible. Flip the donut to fry the other side for a further 15 – 20 seconds. Transfer the donut to a wire rack to cool down.
GLAZE
- Sift the icing sugar, then add lemon extract and whisk in the milk – 1 tbsp at a time, until you get a pourable, but thick consistency.
- Add a few drops of the white coloring to the base glaze. Divide the glaze into 7 portions. Color each portion with yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, green, and keep the last one white. Use the white coloring if needed to get pastel colors for the glaze.
To glaze the donuts
- In a shallow bowl, drizzle each of the pastel colors and top up with a drizzle of the white glaze. Dip the tops of each mini donut in the drizzled glaze, twist and remove. You should end up with a “tie dye” style donut frosting.
- Sprinkle rainbow sprinkles and stars on top while the glaze is still wet.
- Eat within 24 hours.
Nutrition Information:
“This website provides approximate nutrition information for convenience and as a courtesy only. Nutrition data is gathered primarily from the USDA Food Composition Database, whenever available, or otherwise other online calculators.”
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