Celebrate Hanukkah and create happy memories with a DIY donut decorating party

I have a confession. We’re friends, so I think I can tell you. ;) When my girls were little, I never felt pressured to buy and have them open gifts for each night of Hanukkah. We mostly opened presents only on the first night. What we loved most was being together and creating happy memories. So on the 7 other nights, after the candles were lit, we would do a special activity together as we watched the candlelight dance on the menorah.

Some nights, we did a small craft, like make a dreidel necklace or a dream doll for the month of Kislev, and on a few nights, we would do something more elaborate, like make traditional sufganiyot (jelly donuts) or fry latkes in hot oil, or my favorite - have a donut decorating party which usually involves some happy preparations earlier in the day!

I recently received a donut baking pan and was excited to use it for our party this year. For these donuts, we took a little shortcut (shh. don’t tell) by using store bought cake mix (you could even use gluten free cake mix for sensitive tummies). We made both chocolate and vanilla donuts and homemade icings. The best part, each box makes about 24 donuts, so we had a pretty amazing party with an abundance of donuts and leftovers to box up and share!

I love that decorating donuts is a wonderful activity for both adults and kids too, and since every party needs a party hat, it’s also fun for your little bakers to decorate Hanukkah Chef’s hats as another activity. So let’s go get ready for our donut decorating party!

DIY Donut Decorating Party

Here’s what we used for our party:

Store bought cake mix prepared according to packaged instructions. We used both chocolate and vanilla. Please note: traditional Hanukkah sufganiyot (jelly donuts) are fried in hot oil. You can read more about them here.
Donut pan (generously sprayed with cooking oil)

Homemade Vanilla Icing:

Mix together in a shallow bowl:

1 cup powdered sugar
3 Tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Homemade Chocolate Icing:

Mix together in a shallow bowl:

3/4 cup powdered sugar
2 Tbsp cocoa powder
4 Tbsp warm heavy cream (It needs to be warm to give the chocolate glaze a beautiful shiny gloss)

Homemade Blue Icing:

In a shallow bowl, take some of the vanilla icing and mix it with natural food coloring. Stir until combined.

Toppings in small bowls:

Oreo cookie crumbs
Almond slices
Blue and chocolate sprinkles
Anything else you’d like!

Here’s how we got ready for our party:

First we baked our donuts according to the cake mix directions. They took about 12 minutes in the donut pan, and you can bake them in advance if you’d like.

While the donuts cooled, we covered our work surface with parchment paper, made the three icings, and set out our toppings in little bowls (unlike making donuts in advance, icings need to be made when you’re ready to decorate). If you have a larger group at your party, you might want to make a double batch of icing and place it in small shallow bowls around your work surface.

Ready to get this party started?

Grab a donut.

Dip the top of the donut into the glaze (you may want to show a little how to dip, or they could put the donut onto a plate and spoon the icing on if it’s easier).

Place the donut on your work surface.

Now it’s time to add toppings. We chose toppings in our Hanukkah color theme of blue and white (like the Israeli flag) and chocolatey brown!

It takes about 30 minutes for the icing to set if you can wait that long!

For leftover donuts, you might want to have small bakery boxes for your guests to take home, or you could package them up and give to friends. Sharing your donut creations is the Jewish value G’milut Chasadim (acts of loving kindness), and sharing donuts is extra loving and kind during Hanukkah. Also, if you have little artists at home, the boxes would be festive decorated with markers and Hanukkah stickers too.

We loved spending time together at our donut decorating party! If you’re looking to create your own happy memories for each night of Hanukkah, we’ve got you covered! You can visit our Hanukkah Round-up for more activities, like:

DIY cookie menorah and edible dreidel
DIY felt menorah, felt dreidel necklace and cardstock dreidel necklace
Homemade sufganiyot (mini-donuts)
Apple Donuts
DIY dream dolls for sweet dreams all through Hanukkah and the Hebrew month of Kislev!

Would you have a donut decorating party for Hanukkah or at another time during the year? Let us know in the comments, and let us know if try any of these other Hanukkah activities!

We wish you a very Happy Hanukkah filled with light, love and donuts!

Chag Sameach!

~ Jennifer