Cake Donut Bread Pudding is a fun take on classic bread pudding using everyone’s favorite breakfast treat perfect for brunch or dessert!
Every culture has signature recipes, but Bread Pudding is a bit of a classic all around the world. I guess since bread is a pretty global thing, everyone was in need of a way to make all that stale bread delicious again!
Bread pudding is a common dish in countries across North and South America as well as Asia and Europe. I’ve never seen any mention of it in Australian culture, but maybe there are a few of you out there who could tell me if it’s a thing down under too?
Today we’re going further than bread pudding because google offers us more than 8 million recipes for that (in fact, Holly has one for Pumpkin Bread Pudding with Caramel Sauce – YUM!), but there’s another doughy delectable that often goes stale too… DONUTS!
Oh, who am I kidding, donuts never go stale, they usually didn’t even last an hour in my house growing up.
Which means that this recipe is made with intention. Delicious Donut Intention. And you’re probably going to have to hide the donuts so they’re still kicking around when it comes time to make this dish.
Okay, so we’re basically replacing the stale bread with soft yummy donuts to make Donut Bread Pudding. It’s important to use cake donuts because they’re more likely to absorb the egg and milk mixture. It’s also best to use plain or sugared donuts, not glazed.
You can use any flavor you want, this particular recipe is made with a mix of plain and chocolate donuts and donut holes. But if you really wanted to get crazy, you could use flavors like Blueberry, Pumpkin, Cider or Funfetti donuts!
This Cake Donut Bread Pudding is such an easy, fun, and flavorful breakfast casserole (or maybe even dessert), it would be an awesome dish for potlucks or Sunday brunch and I promise everyone will be begging you for the recipe!
Once baked up, this Cake Donut Bread Pudding has a custard-like base that’s loaded with delicious donuts bites! If you prefer your bread pudding to be less custardy, see the recipes notes for alternative measurements. It should be served warm and I love topping it with ice cream, whipped cream, or even a simple glaze, but it’s delicious as is too!
Cake Donut Bread Pudding
Equipment
Ingredients
- 2 cups heavy cream
- 2 cups whole milk
- ¾ cup granulated sugar + 2 tablespoons, divided
- 1 ½ tablespoons vanilla extract
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 4 large eggs
- 3 large egg yolks
- 7 cake donuts
- 8 cake donut holes
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300°F.
- Add heavy cream, milk, ¾ cup sugar, vanilla, and salt to a large saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium-high heat.
- Meanwhile, in a separate medium bowl, whisk the egg and egg yolks until smooth and set aside.
- Once the cream mixture comes to a simmer, ladle approximately half of it into the bowl of eggs, whisking constantly as you add it. Pour the egg and cream mixture back into the saucepan and remove from the heat. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes.
- While the liquid mixture cools, spray an 8x8 baking dish with cooking spray. Cut up the donuts and donut holes and arrange tightly in the baking dish. Ladle or pour the liquid mixture over the donuts, just until it covers most of the donuts and make sure it's at least ¼ inch below the rim of the dish. Sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of sugar and let sit for 10 to 15 minutes so donuts can absorb the liquid.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes until center is set, if at 40 minutes the mixture still seems very liquidy, loosely cover the dish with aluminum foil to help the center cook without burning the top.
- Once set, remove from oven, sprinkle with remaining tablespoon of sugar, and serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Breakfast
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Yes, we have Bread and Butter pudding in Australia. Most anything that the UK has, we have too. This recipe looks amazing!