Make This: DIY Watermelon Donuts for National Donut Day

I’ve really just barely dipped my toes into the whole world of donut DIYs, but since the last one went so well, I thought I would try another. And what better time to do it than right now, since National Donut Day is this Friday.

So, playing to the fact that summer is right around the corner, I made watermelon donuts. Because nothing says summer like watermelon, right? Plus, it’s my second favorite fruit (strawberries are my #1).

After playing around with several kinds of donuts and the right consistency for the ‘paint’, I was able to figure out the best way to make these colorful treats. You can either use store bought donuts, like I did, or make your own from scratch.

There are some awesome donut recipes out there. These two look pretty yummy, if you’re taking suggestions… 1) vegan glazed donut recipe or 2) try this grapefruit glazed donut recipe for a fruity kick. Whether you make your own or buy them, though, you’ll want to make sure the donuts are light in color, so that the paint will show up more easily.

NOTE: Glazed donuts work the best. I wouldn’t bother trying powdered or cake donuts with this technique. The result is not cute. Trust me. So with these tips in mind, here’s how you can make your own watermelon donuts…

What you Need:

• Glazed Donuts
• Gel Food Coloring (in pink, red, and green)
• Cake Decorating Brush Set (this is the set I used)
• Black Sprinkles
• Knife
• Vodka or Lemon Extract
• Small Bowls

How-To:

1. Cut donuts as shown in the photo, cutting out the hole and remaining side pieces, to create the watermelon shape. You’ll get two watermelon shapes from each donut. Discard small pieces that are left over, or make tiny donut watermelon slices if you’re feeling ambitious.

2. Next, mix your paints with a small amount of food coloring gel and a little bit of vodka. Alcohol will evaporate quickly, which makes it the perfect liquid to use for creating an edible paint with gel food coloring. **If you don’t want to use alcohol, try lemon extract. I haven’t tested it myself, but I think it would do the trick.

3. Next, paint the green watermelon rind on the lower part of the donut and the sides, as shown in the photo.

4. Then paint the pinkish-red inside. I mixed equal parts pink and red (again, with vodka) to get the color you see in the photos.

5. Give the paint a little bit of time to dry. Then, add small black sprinkles on top to create the watermelon seeds. I poured out the sprinkles on a plate and picked out the smaller pieces that looked most like seeds to me. You don’t have to do this, obviously, but some of those sprinkles are pretty big to be considered seeds, so I tried to find ones that fit best, scale-wise.

Side Note: Before switching to sprinkles, I attempted to paint the seeds on. And it looked awful. My brush wasn’t small enough and it looked super messy. So that was a no go.

Then, I tried black nonpareils and black sparkling sugar sprinkles. Neither one looked much like a watermelon seed though (Jeff and Luna agreed) and the sugar sprinkles bled. So, definitely go with sprinkles like this to save yourself the headache.

Also, if you want to create whole watermelon donuts, you can do that just as easily, by following steps 2-5. The only difference, really, is that you aren’t cutting the donut into pieces before painting.

What do you think? Think you might whip up a batch of these for Friday’s donut day?

For more donut ideas, check out my DIY ombre + color blocked donuts.

Concept, photography, and styling by Brittni Mehlhoff