Protein Donuts Recipe: Red Velvet Cake, 10g
It is Saturday morning, the coffee is on, and you want something that feels like a bakery treat before you have even had breakfast. Red velvet is the one dessert that reads as "special occasion" even when you make it in a muffin tin on a random weekend. This version gets you there in under 30 minutes, with 10 grams of protein, 2 grams of fat, and 10 grams of carbs per donut, made with pumpkin puree instead of oil and a scoop of protein powder instead of a cup of flour. You get the deep red color, the tang, the white glaze on top, and a macro count that fits inside a Saturday instead of wrecking it.
Why a Protein Donut Works for Fat Loss
Most of the women I coach do not fall off plan because of a bad Tuesday. They fall off because of a good Saturday that turns into a "well, the week is already off now" spiral. A bakery red velvet donut runs 300 to 400 calories with maybe 3 or 4 grams of protein and does nothing for you besides taste good for ninety seconds. This one gives you the same craving satisfied for about 100 calories and 10 grams of protein, which means it is doing actual work toward your goal instead of just sitting against it.
The protein number matters more than people think. When you are consistently short on your daily protein target, a dessert that adds 10 grams instead of subtracting zero is one of the easiest wins in your whole day. You were going to eat something sweet on a Saturday anyway. This is the version that moves the needle while it does it.
This is also the whole idea behind eating in a way that does not require white-knuckling your way through a weekend. You do not earn a treat by being perfect all week. You build a plan that already has the treat inside it.
Red Velvet Protein Donuts Recipe
Protein 10g | Fat 2g | Carbs 10g per donut (recipe makes 6 servings)
Prep time: 10 minutes. Bake time: 16 to 18 minutes. Straight from my Macro Friendly Sweet Treats guide.
Ingredients
3 scoops protein powder (the guide calls for Red Velvet Cake, which has since been retired from the lineup. I use Equip Prime Protein in Chocolate for this one, 30% off with code COACHCAM. Cinnamon Roll works too if you want it lighter)
1 can pumpkin puree
1 cup Kodiak Cakes protein baking mix
1 tablespoon sugar-free chocolate pudding mix
2 tablespoons sugar-free strawberry preserves
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar alternative (I use stevia)
Optional glaze: 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar replacement, 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
In a separate bowl, mix together the wet ingredients. Then combine both bowls.
Pour the batter into a donut tin.
Bake for 16 to 18 minutes.
Optional: whisk the confectioners' sugar replacement and milk together, then pour or drizzle over the cooled donuts.
Macros are from my cookbook and will vary by brand, especially the protein powder. Log the scoop you actually used.
What Makes the Macros Work
The protein powder is doing double duty here. It replaces most of the flour you would normally need, which is why three scoops across six donuts still only costs you 10 grams of carbs each. The pumpkin puree is the real trick: it is the moisture and fat that oil would normally provide, for a fraction of the calories, which is why these donuts stay at 2 grams of fat instead of the 10 to 15 grams a bakery version would carry. The sugar-free pudding mix and strawberry preserves give you the red velvet tang and color without the sugar, and the stevia carries the sweetness that would otherwise come from a full cup of sugar.
Tips for the Perfect Red Velvet Donuts
Do not overbake these. Protein powder sets fast and dries out even faster, so pull them at 16 minutes and check with a toothpick before you give them the full 18. A donut tin is worth owning if you are going to make this series regularly, since a muffin tin changes the bake time and the texture. Let them cool for a few minutes before you glaze, or the glaze will slide right off instead of setting. If your batter looks thick, that is normal for this one. It should scoop, not pour.
Swaps and Variations
Since Red Velvet is not in the current Equip lineup, Chocolate is the closest match and what I use for this recipe. Cinnamon Roll gives you a lighter, less chocolatey version that still has the cozy fall flavor. Cookies and Cream also works if you want something a little different than either. Want it higher carb for a training day? Add a tablespoon of maple syrup to the glaze and you pick up roughly 7 grams of carbs. Want more fat and more satiety? A tablespoon of cream cheese mixed into the glaze adds richness for about 5 grams of fat. No sugar-free chocolate pudding mix in the house? A tablespoon of cocoa powder with an extra pinch of sweetener gets you close, though you lose a little of the signature red velvet flavor.
How to Fit It Into Your Day
At 10 grams of protein and only 2 grams of fat, this one is easy to fit almost anywhere. It works as a weekend breakfast alongside eggs for a protein-heavy start, or as the after-dinner dessert on a day where your fat target is already tight and you still have carbs to spare. Because the fat is so low, you have room elsewhere in the day for the things that actually need it, like the oil in your dinner or the nuts in your snack. Track it as one donut, one serving of protein powder, and you are within a gram or two either way.
Meal Prep Notes
These hold up well. Bake the full batch on Saturday morning, let them cool completely, and store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. They also freeze well without the glaze, so if you want one ready on a random Tuesday, freeze a few individually and glaze them the morning you plan to eat one. Skip glazing the ones you are freezing so the texture does not change.
Here is the shift most women need to make about a weekend treat like this one. The problem was never wanting something sweet on a Saturday. The problem was never having a version that fit, so you either white-knuckled past it or ate the full-sugar version and called the whole weekend a loss. Knowing how to fit the foods you actually want into your macros is a skill we teach every client in the first two weeks. If you are ready to stop choosing between discipline and dessert, book your call here.
The Protein I Use (and How to Get 30% Off)
Every recipe in my sweet treats guide is built on Equip Prime Protein, and this one is no exception. It is a gut-friendly, dairy free, whole food sourced protein made from grass-fed beef isolate. No whey, no gluten, no soy, no gums, no sugar alcohols, no fake sweeteners, nothing artificial, ever. That is why it bakes into real donuts instead of a dense, rubbery puck. Every flavor comes in a regular and a stevia-free version, and I buy stevia-free because I cannot stand the aftertaste. Chocolate is the flavor I use for this recipe since Red Velvet has been retired. Cinnamon Roll, Peanut Butter, and Cookies and Cream are the others I always have on the shelf, and all three work here too.
Go to equipfoods.com/COACHCAM and your 30% off is applied automatically, or use code COACHCAM at checkout. Grab Chocolate for this one and Milk Chocolate for next Saturday's dirt cups. That is an affiliate link, so I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. It is the only protein I recommend to my clients and the one every macro count in this series is built on. Any powder works if a scoop is about 25g protein and 120 calories, just log the scoop you actually used.
