The terms "Munchkins" and "donut holes" refer to the same thing—small, round pieces of fried dough that are removed from the center of a donut.

Cake Doughnuts The consistency of these doughnuts resembles cake, but drier, and crumbs are a given. They are leavened using baking powder, and then dunked into oil to cook. Popular Cake Doughnut Recipes: Plain Cake Doughnuts. Cake Doughnuts.

Types of Crullers French crullers are pastries made from stiff choux dough piped into circles, fried, and glazed. It's common for American donut shops to create their own cruller donut varieties or label French crullers as donuts.

The history of the doughnut itself is generally traced to Dutch immigrants in 17th- and 18th-century New York, then New Netherland, who prepared fried dough balls called olie koeken or olykoeks, which means “oil cakes.” They were similar to modern doughnuts, although they did not yet have the iconic ring shape.