Beat the sour cream, oil, vanilla and egg together in one bowl.

Whisk together the flour, spice and caster sugar in another.

Combine the two together and stir until just combined – like for muffins, a little lumpy is the best as you don’t want to over work the batter.

Spoon into a piping bag and cut an opening about 1.5 cm wide.

Spray your donut pan with oil and pipe in just enough batter to fill the moulds half way up – any more and the hole will disappear on baking. My donut mould holes are 6 cm across and each “tray” (they are silicone, not tin) has 8 donuts each.

Place the donut mould on a baking sheet if yours is silicone too and bake in an oven preheated to 180°C for approximately 12 minutes

If you only have one “tin”, rest the baked donuts for a couple of minutes only before turning gently out onto a baking rack – they are small enough to cool and firm up quickly. A quick spritz with a touch more oil and you are good to bake the second batch but this can take up to 2 minutes less because the tin and the oven are hot. Do check them at 10 minutes – they are don when risen and spring back when gently poked.

Put your caster sugar and spice in a small cup or bowl and whisk to mix thoroughly.

Melt the butter, paint each mini donut on all surfaces with it and roll in the cup of sugar – shaking the cup then flipping the donut is a good technique to ensure it is coated nicely. You can do this as soon as they are cool enough to handle – about 5 minutes for asbestos hands me, maybe 10 if you are less thick skinned.

These baby donuts are best eaten within 24 hours of baking.