I reckon you could prepare this batter ahead - but I haven't tried it.

Drop Doughnuts
1/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten
1 egg, beaten
4 cup unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup buttermilk OR sour milk
icing sugar

Cream the butter and sugar. Stir in egg yolks and whole egg; blend. In a separate bowl, sift all dry ingredients except the icing sugar; add to creamed mixture, alternating with buttermilk. Stir to mix all ingredients. Drop spoonfuls of dough into 180C deep fat. Fry a few at a time, to keep fat temperature constant. Turn to brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels; sprinkle with icing sugar.

I have made the following recipe a few times. I reckon it would be possible to cut out the dough, then store in the fridge between sheets of plastic wrap.

Doughnuts
500g self raising flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
60g butter
60g sugar
2 eggs
about 80ml milk
castor sugar
1 lemon

Sift flour, salt and nutmeg, rub in butter, add sugar, then well beaten eggs, and sufficient milk to mix into a soft dough. Turn onto a floured board, roll out 1cm thick, cut into rings with a doughnut cutter or 2 cutters, deep-fry till doughnuts are a golden brown, sprinkle with castor sugar and serve hot with slices of lemon. Makes about 15 doughnuts.

Orange Doughnuts (ditto above with refrigerating the rounds)
1 3/4 cups self raising flour
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 dessertspoon butter
3 tablespoons sugar
grated rind 1 large orange
1 egg, beaten
3 tablespoons milk
2 tablespoons orange juice

Sift flour, nutmeg, and salt into a bowl, add butter, sugar and orange rind. Combine the egg, milk and orange juice, and add to dry ingredients. Knead lightly and roll out to 1cm thick. Cut into rounds with a large cutter to form rings. Fry in deep, very hot fat or oil until golden brown. Drain on paper, sprinkle with sugar.

And another nice and easy recipe just to make your choices more difficult!! These won't have the holes in the middle, though.

Easy Doughnuts
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons castor icing sugar
Sift dry ingredients together and add egg and milk. Batter will be thick. If too thin add a little more flour. Drop by spoonfuls into deep hot fat and cook till browned. Drain off excess fat and roll in sugar.

Muffins that Taste Like Doughnuts
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup milk

Topping:
1/2 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Reheat over to 180C and prepare large muffin pans. Combine flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. In another bowl combine thoroughly oil, sugar, egg and milk. Add to dry mixture and stir to just combine. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Remove muffins immediately while hot, dip in melted butter then combined sugar and cinnamon. Makes 8-9 large muffins.

Variation:
Fill pans 1/2 full, put 1 teaspoon jam on top of each and top with the rest of the batter.

The mini doughnut recipe below enables you to chill the dough so it could be made ahead.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mini Doughnuts

this is from a past member and i'm sure it's good--they need time to rise which may work fine for you. i just keep thinking of a bunch of excited little kids and pans of hot oil and it scares me more than a bit, so i hope you have "more chiefs than indians" to help keep everything under control!

Doughnuts (MALASADAS)

1 pkg. yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/3 cup cream
1 1/3 cup warm water
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 lbs. flour
1/3 cup melted butter
1/3 cup sugar
8 eggs, slightly beaten
Dissolve yeast in the 1/3 cup warm water and 1 tsp sugar. Let stand until ingredients are dissolved. Measure flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Mix cream and water together, and add to dry ingredients. Add also the melted butter and beaten eggs. Add the dissolved yeast mixture and stir well to form a soft dough. Cover and put in a warm place. Let stand until double in size, about 1 1/2 hours. Drop by spoonfuls into deep hot oil, fry until light brown. Remove and drain on a rack with absorbent paper towel. Coat with sugar, if desired. Makes 5 dozen.
Krasnas

and just as a thought, funnel cakes would be less time-consuming to make--just mix and pour. but of course, that uses hot oil to cook with too...anyway, i hope you and your son and all his friends have a great time!

If you want some very quick and super easy donuts for kids to do use Pillsbury's Bisquits (I like the Grands) --- the ones in a can that you rap on the counter and they pop out of the can. Anyway....
get your oil hot,
break open the can,
seperate the layers,
punch a hole in the middle with a small cutter or thimble,
drop in the hot oil,
turn once,
remove to paper towel,
sugar, dust, whatever,
and eat!

*Note: they don't taste very good a day later, so you'll be forced to eat them all up immediately. :^)

** Yes, they do taste VERY good hot out of the fat.

Like san, I'm a little intimidated by the thought of small children and hot oil, you're a better woman than I am!!

Here's one I like, and it actually requires that the dough be refrigerated until ready to fry, then sits at room temp for 10 minutes.

It's chocolate, too!!

CHOCOLATE SOUR CREAM DOUGHNUTS WITH ORANGE CHOCOLATE GLAZE

Doughnuts:
3 large eggs
1/14 cups sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
Vegetable oil for frying

GLAZE
3 bars (1.5 each) dark chocolate, coarsely chopped
cup heavy cream
2 tbls unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp grated orange peel.

Whisk together eggs and sugar, add sour cream and vanilla. Mix flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda, cinnamon and salt until thoroughly blended. Fold flour mixture into sour cream mixture and blend until a soft moist dough forms, adding additional flour if needed. Place dough onto lightly floured surface and sprinkle top of dough lightly with flour. Gather dough into a ball and knead gently 5 or 6 times until smooth. Do not overhandle dough.

Divide dough into half and pat each with floured hands into a circle about ½ inch thick. Place in freezer 20 minutes or until firm. Cut doughnuts and transfer to waxed paper lined baking sheet. Gather scraps and refrigerate for 15 minutes, the roll and cut more doughnuts. Cover doughnuts and refrigerate until ready to fry them. Remove from refrigerator, let stand 10 minutes, then fry in vegetables oil 3 at a time for about 1 minute on each side or until lightly browned. Drain on paper towels and cool on rack.

Place chocolate in mixing bowl, heat cream to a boil, pour over chocolate and leg mixture stand for 30 seconds. Gently whisk until smooth. Stir in butter and orange peel, cool glaze until it starts to thicken slightly, stirring occasionally but gently.

Set wire rack with doughnuts on baking sheet, drizzle spoonful of glaze over each doughnut, covering top. Place baking sheet in refrigerator for 5 minutes or until glaze is firm. Sprinkle with orange zest if desired. Store in airtight container. Best if served the same day they are prepared.

Annie

Thanks all for the great recipes . . .I'm going to pick a few and go for it.

And fear not, the hot oil and children will be separated. I plan on dividing the kids into stations, so I'll need to have some pre-fried for the icing station and decorating stations. And yes, we do have quite a few "chiefs" coming to help.

My four stations will be cut-out (most of this will be done pre-party, but I'd like to let each kid use the fancy wheel donut cutter that the donut man loaned me.) then frying (but I'll be doing that at a distance . . .they'll see them go in and come out, but that is about it) then icing, then decorating.

I'm hoping that a bit of up front planning will keep it somewhat organized.

Thanks all!