Happy Doughnut Day! In 1938, the Chicago Salvation Army established National Doughnut Day to raise money during the Great Depression. Now 75 years later, doughnuts are bigger business than ever. The U.S. doughnut industry is worth an estimated $3.6 billion US, and nobody seems to love doughnuts more than Canadians!

The question as to why doughnuts have holes has been raised by dozens of bakers over the years, but most agree that the answer to this sticky question lies in the fact that the interior of these fried cakes would not cook fully without a hole in the center. In short, the consistency of a doughnut lacking a hole would be, quite simply, doughy.

Another riveting theory as to the origin of the bulls eye in the doughnut holds that a sea captain named Hanson Gregory, while manning his post one stormy night, found it impossible both to steer his vessel and to eat his fried cake. Out of sheer frustration, and probably out of hunger, he impaled his cake over one of the spokes of the ship’s wheel, thereby creating a finger hold with which to grip the cake. Quite pleased with his ingenuity, Mr. Gregory ordered the galley’s cook to fry the cakes in that manner henceforth.

Whatever the reason for the hole in the doughnut, this fried cake, with or without a hole, has been incorporated into the diets of people throughout the world for centuries. In fact, archaeologists found petrified fried cakes with holes amongst the artifacts of a primitive Indian tribe.

Doughnut fun facts

• National Doughnut Day is celebrated on the first Friday in June.
• More than 10 billion doughnuts are made every year in the U.S. alone.
• Canada’s estimated doughnut consumption is around 1 billion.
• Per capita, Canada has more doughnut shops than any other country.
• The largest doughnut ever made was a 1.7 ton jelly doughnut, which was 16 feet in diameter and 16 inches high in the center.
• Adolph Levitt invented the first doughnut machine in 1920.
• The Dutch are credited with bringing doughnuts to North America with their olykoeks, or oily cakes in the 1800s.
• The Guinness World record for doughnut eating is held by John Haight, who ate 29 doughnuts in just over 6 minutes.

Source: LaMar’s Donuts, www.lamars.com