Crappy crolidays, everyone! Well, my birthday has come and gone -- Melisser and I got sweet lady bro tats (I promptly found a way to get mine infected) and I also got a GIANT tattoo on my neck. So now that I’ve officially ruined my life, I have a new recipe for you as well as an update on some of the other stuff I’ve been up to.

Let’s talk about food first, ok?

Gingerbread donuts! You may recall some other posts I’ve done about baked donuts. I know it goes against donut nature to bake and not fry them, but it goes against my nature to eat fewer than 3 donuts in a sitting and now that I’m 30 I’d like to maintain my current pant size. Previously, I’ve had a lot of problems with my baked donuts getting really chewy and weird after as little as a half hour. I’m ok with eating a dozen donuts in a half hour, but I prefer not to. Well, I don’t know what I did differently this time, but I made these last night and this morning my mother-in-law was proclaiming them the best donuts she’s ever tasted. So there.

You’ll need:

• A donut pan
• 2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Tbs butter, melted
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ground clove

Then you:

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees and grease the pan. Make sure you grease the part that sticks up to form the center of the donut or you will cry. Mix all the dry ingredients into a large bowl, I like to use a whisk for that. Then throw all the wet stuff in, making sure the butter has cooled or you’ll make scrambled eggs. Scrambled egg donuts are probably good, but that’s not what we’re shooting for here. Mix everything together and fill the donut pan 2/3 full. Bake for about 8 minutes or until the tops spring back when lightly touched. I pry them out of the pan when they’re hot so I can cool them on a wire rack and get to decorating as soon as possible.

I topped these with white chocolate, but lemon glaze would be tasty too.

In non-donut-related news: Cupcake Wars is airing on Food Network this Sunday, December 27th at 9pm CST! Check out my totally professional commercial:

You can find more info and air times on Food Network. And check out my last post for links to some of the stuff I posted while I was filming in LA. If you like what you see make sure you email Food Network and tell them! And I wouldn’t be mad at you if you mentioned that though I am adorable in anything, next time you’d like to see me NOT in a burka!

As I mentioned in the video, I will be live-Tweeting the whole show at 9pm CST so follow me on Twitter @bakeanddestroy to tune in! I’m sure to Tweet at least 500 times about the delicious salted caramel cupcakes More is providing for my guests and me. I’m literally more excited to eat those cupcakes than I am to see the show.

For my Chicago peeps, I will be on WTTW’s Chicago Tonight on January 12, 7pm. I don’t know what I’m even there for, so don’t ask me any questions, just watch!