These funny chocolate donuts with ganache are the best treat to make for someone with a sense of humour or a child’s birthday party. I’m not going to lie, for this recipe I took a lot of inspiration from the 💩 emoji. I know that’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but they make for a perfect (and delicious) gag gift.
The recipe is very rich in chocolate. The donuts, glaze, and cream are all chocolate-flavored. Although you only need cocoa powder for the donut recipe, you need quite a bit of semi-sweet chocolate for the glaze and ganache. Therefore, these donuts can be quite rich and I would not recommend them on a very hot summer’s day. However, you could replace the ganache with chocolate ice-cream, but that requires assembly right before eating them.
The recipe for the batter requires cream. This is important to create a moist donut, especially when baking with cocoa powder which can be quite drying.
These are baked donuts. I prefer baking instead of frying my donuts because there is no oily residue, and I can incorporate more flavor into the batter. The donut pan I used is a standard 6-cavity metal one, and it yields 12 donuts.
The eye-shaped candy can be found in the baking isle at most grocery stores, as well as online. You can skip them, or substitute for other types of candy such as gummy worms.
I would not recommend freezing these donuts. But if you absolutely must to freeze them, do it without the glaze and ganache.
See more donut recipes here.
Here’s the recipe for the funny chocolate donuts with ganache:
Funny Chocolate Donuts with Ganache
Ingredients
For the batter:
- 2 large eggs at room temperature
- 1 cup (150 g/ 5 ¼ oz.) all-purpose flour
- ½ cup (100 g/ 3 ½ oz.) granulated sugar
- ½ stick (60 g/ 2 oz.) unsalted butter at room temperature
- ½ cup (120 ml/ 4 ¼ oz.) cream (35% fat content)
- 3 tbsp. (20 g/ ¾ oz.) Dutch processed cocoa powder
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tbsp. unsalted butter at room temperature for greasing the pan
For the glaze:
- 100 g (3 ½ oz.) semi-sweet chocolate, melted
For the chocolate ganache:
- 120 g (4 ¼ oz.) semi-sweet chocolate
- ½ cup (120 ml/ 4 ¼ oz.) cream (35% fat content)
Optional:
- eye-shaped candy for decoration
Instructions
For the chocolate ganache:
- In a pot warm the cream over low heat. Once cream is warm add the chocolate and mix until the chocolate is completely melted and mixture is creamy. Put it aside and allow it to cool down. Once it reaches room temperature, place it in the fridge for 30 minutes.
For the batter:
- Pre-heat oven to 180 °C (350 °F).
- In a bowl sift the flour and cocoa powder, then add the baking powder. Mix them with a whisk and set aside.
- Gently melt the butter over low temperature. Make sure the butter does not bubble. Once melted, set it aside and allow it to cool a little.
- Crack the eggs into another bowl, add the sugar and beat at high speed with an electric mixer. The mixture is ready when almost triple in volume and light in color. Add the vanilla extract, salt, cream and whisk until incorporated.
- Using a spatula, add the flour mix to the egg mix in 2-3 steps, mixing gently after each step. Make sure the flour is well incorporated, but do not over mix. Once the flour has been incorporated, fold in the melted cooled butter. Allow the batter to sit for 5 minutes.
- Grease the donut pan with butter. Pipe the batter into the pan filling ¾ of each cavity and bake for 10 minutes, or until donuts spring back when gently pressed. Once baked, take the pan out of the oven and allow the donuts to cool in the donut pan 2-3 minutes at room temperature. Transfer them to a rack and let them sit until completely cooled.
For the glaze:
- Melt the chocolate in a bain-marie and brush it over the donuts. Place them back on the rack and allow the glaze to dry (15-20 minutes).
- Pipe the chocolate ganache onto the middle of each donut.
Optional:
- Decorate with eye-shaped candy.
