You Valentine will love these romantic Valentine's donuts: strawberry champagne cake donuts glazed in a sweet and bubbly champagne batter! This is a treat for the grownups only.
And if you enjoy this recipe, you'll love my orange champagne cake donuts for mimosa vibes!
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❤️ Why You'll Love this Recipe
Romantic Strawberry Champagne Taste - The flavors are spot on because there's actual champagne in the batter and glaze and bites of fresh juicy strawberries.
Customizable - You have lots of options to make this recipe truly your own and something special your loved ones will enjoy for V-Day or any other time--these DIY champagne donuts are always a hit at showers and weddings, too!
Surprisingly Simple - I love baking cake donuts at home for entertaining because it's actually less fussy than making cupcakes and sometimes even cookies.
And you KNOW I have more delicious flavors for you. Check out my gingerbread cake donuts for Christmas and funfetti cake donuts for birthday parties!
What You'll Need for this Recipe
Champagne, cava, prosecco, or the sparkling white wine of your choosing will work well in this recipe. You can even use a sparkling rosé or pink champagne, if your prefer.
Fresh Strawberries get a bad rep in baking but they stay juicy, sweet, and bright red in this Valentine's baked donuts recipe.
Check out the recipe card below for full ingredients list, measurements, nutrition facts, and step-by-step instructions!
Substitutions & Variations
Vegan - Make this Valentine's Day donut recipe vegan by using plant based butter.
Vanilla - Either vanilla extract or vanilla paste will work in a 1:1 ratio here.
Sugar - I use granulated sugar in this recipe but you can also use liquid sweeteners like honey or maple syrup.
Minis - Make Valentine mini donuts by using a mini cake donut pan!
Strawberries - If you don't have access to fresh strawberries, freeze dried strawberries can work just note that they will not have quite the same texture and the donuts will be a bit drier without the extra liquid fresh strawberries provide so you may wish to add a splash of water. On the bright side the color will be popping as freeze dried berries tend to be more vibrant than fresh.
You can also use frozen strawberries in this recipe. I recommend fully thawing them then wringing some of the excess moisture out before dicing and adding to the batter.
If you like baking with strawberries, try my fresh strawberry sheet cake next!
How to Make Valentine's Day Donuts with Champagne and Strawberries
Step One: Hull the strawberries then dice into pieces about half an inch in size.
Step Two: Mix up the dry donut ingredients then stir in the diced strawberry.
Pro Tip #1: Dredging or coating the strawberry pieces in the flour mixture prevents them from sinking to the bottom of the pan (and burning) or clustering all together while baking. Instead, they float throughout the batter, evenly spaced out!
Step Two: Mix in the remaining donut ingredients to form a thick batter.
Step Three: Pipe the batter into donut pan.
Pro Tip #2: You can use a pastry bag for the piping step or snip one corner off of a large zipper seal bag to use as a piping bag, as pictured.
Pro Tip #3: What kind of pan do I need for cake donuts? You'll need a donut pan. This six count donut pan will do the trick but I recommend making it easier on yourself with a 20-count pan for donuts. That way, you can make them all in one go rather than having to wait between batches.
Step Five: Bake the donuts until golden brown.
Step Six: Meanwhile, mix up powdered sugar and more champagne to make a simple glaze.
Pro Tip #4: Be sure to sift the powdered sugar first so that your easy champagne glaze is silky smooth without and lumps.
Step Seven: Dip the top of each cooled donut into the glaze then flip over to let it harden.
Step Eight: If desired, add sugar sprinkles over top for extra sparkle!
Pro Tip #5: For a professional finish, dip each donut in glaze, allow to dry, then dip again before adding sprinkles. Your donuts will be extra glossy!
Quick Champagne Donuts Video
Romantic Valentine's Day Menu
Serve these donuts for a homemade Valentine's brunch with this crispy red potato quiche and strawberry mimosas. For extra festive flair, you can present them in a dozen box and make your Valentine or Galentines forget all about Dunkin, Shipley, Krispy Kreme and the like!
Or make them dessert to finish off a meal of lasagna with red wine sauce and spring mix salad with champagne dressing.
For dinner, I highly recommend turning up the romance with my raspberry gin martini while you're at it!
Frequently Asked Questions
For cake donuts, you make a batter then bake them whereas with traditional donuts, you make a dough then fry it. Cake donuts have a more dense, cake-like texture and fried donuts are lighter and more airy.
You can make these donuts up to four days ahead of time.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to four days or in the refrigerator for up to two weeks.
To freeze, wrap each donut individually in parchment paper or wax paper then place into a freezer safe airtight container or zip seal bag. Keeps for up to three months.
More Favorite Strawberry Dessert Recipes
I hope you and your enjoy a strawberry champagne donut or two soon and very soon. And sharing is caring so be sure to pin this Valentine's donut recipe for later and follow me over on Pinterest. Thanks for reading!
📖 Recipe
Strawberry Champagne Donuts for Valentine's Day
Equipment
- 1 knife
- 1 whisk
- 1 silicone spatula or kitchen spoon
- 1 donut pan
- 1 pastry bag or large zip seal food storage bag
Ingredients
Donuts
- 1 pint strawberries
- 3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup sugar
- ¾ cup butter melted
- ¾ cup champagne
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Glaze
- 6 tablespoons champagne
- 2 cups powdered sugar sifted
- sugar sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Hull strawberries then dice into pieces about ½ inch in size.
- Whisk flour, baking powder, and sea salt together in a large bowl then add strawberries and dredge in the dry mixture to coat. Set aside.
- In another bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, butter, champagne, and vanilla extract. Add this wet mixture to the bowl of dry mixture and stir until just combined and no lumps or dry pockets exist. Batter will be thick and sticky.
- Convey batter into a piping bag or zip-top bag with one corner snipped off and pipe into donut tin.
- Bake in oven for about 18 minutes or until donuts are risen and firm. Tops will not brown. Stick a toothpick through one donut near the middle of the pan to see if it comes out clean, if necessary.
- While donuts bake, whisk together powdered sugar and champagne to form the champagne donut glaze.
- Once donuts have cooled, dip each one, face down, into the glaze. Sprinkle sugar sprinkles over top, if desired.
Krysten says
You had me at donuts! I love that these are strawberry champagne flavored. The fact that these donuts are baked is perfect. Finally can put my silicone donut baking mold to good use. Delicious!
Marsha says
I wanted to surprise my husband with something new for Valentines Day and these Strawberry Champagne donuts turned out perfect! This was my first time making donuts and I couldn’t believe how easy they were to make. We both loved them, especially the little pieces of diced strawberries in each bite.
Marta says
These strawberry champagne donuts were the perfect way to start Valentine's Day. I made them as a surprise for my twins and they said it was a delicious way to start their school day.
Tiffany Horton says
Would I be able to substitute the champagne for champagne flavor or extract?
Jazzmine Woodard says
Hi, Tiffany! I haven't made this recipe with champagne flavoring but if you were to try it, I would recommend adding a bit of liquid to equal the amount of champagne in the recipe so that the donuts and glaze have similar consistency.
Kaluhi says
Such beautiful, warm, sunny flavors!! I love how you wove in champagne into this recipe! Really creative!
Katrina Adams says
I totally want to try this recipe because I love doughnuts, champagne, and strawberries!!