Beracha Achrona - Large Quantities of Cake

Q. I know that if I eat a large amount of cake and cookies, I am required to wash netilas yadayim, recite Hamotzi and conclude the meal with Birkas Hamozon. This is because cake is normally eaten as a snack, and for that reason it has a lower-level set of berochos than bread. If, however, I consume a large amount of cake (known in halacha as kivias seudah), the cake is treated like bread and not a snack, and the brochos are the same as those recited at a bread meal. Is the same true of doughnuts? If I eat a full meal of doughnuts, must I wash, say Hamotzi and Birkas Hamozon?

A. Doughnuts are made by boiling dough in oil. Because doughnuts are boiled and not baked, there is a disagreement among poskim whether they are considered like bread if they were eaten as a full meal. According to most poskim, even though doughnuts look like cake, they do not have the same status, and no matter how many donuts one consumes, Mezonos and not Hamotzi is recited (see Shulchan Aruch OC 168:13). However, according to a minority opinion quoted in Shulchan Aruch, doughnuts are halachically identical to cake. Because there is a dispute, a Yarei Shamayim (a G-d fearing individual) should avoid putting oneself in a situation of uncertainty by eating a large quantity of doughnuts (this is based on Shulchan Aruch 168:13). According to the Magen Avrohom (168:34), if one ate many doughnuts such that he is satiated, he should bentch. This is because the requirement to bentch when satiated is Biblical, and we are stringent with uncertainties related to Biblical obligations (safek dioraysa lichumra). However, the Mishnah Berurah (168:75) adds that this only applies if the original intention was to bake the dough and only later changed their mind and boiled it. However, if one always intended to boil the dough, then Al Hamichya is recited, irrespective of how many doughnuts are eaten.

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The Gerald & Karin Feldhamer OU Kosher Halacha Yomis is dedicated to the memory of Rav Yisroel Belsky, zt"l, who served as halachic consultant for OU Kosher for more than 28 years; many of the responses in Halacha Yomis are based on the rulings of Rabbi Belsky. Subscribe to the Halacha Yomis daily email here.