In Switzerland we have Fasnacht/Carnival at this time of the year.

Facts: Fasching or Karnival celebrations stem from various beliefs and needs. For Catholics, it provided a festive season of food and fun before the Lenten fasting period would begin. During the late medieval times, plays were performed during the Lenten period called Fastnachtspiele.

In pre-Christian times, carnival celebrations symbolized the driving out of winter and all of its evil spirits. Hence the masks to "scare" away these spirits. The carnival celebrations in southern Germany and Switzerland reflect these traditions.
(From about.com)

During these times we have a lot of different sweets that are being offered. Doughnuts are famous, even dough by now you can buy them all year long.

Step 1:

This recipe is for baked doughnuts, I tried to avoid the oil and they turned out pretty good.

For approx. 20 doughnuts:
600 g Flour
1 pinch Nutmeg
1 tsp Salt
80 g Sugar
1 sachet Dried Yeast = 7 g
2 tbsp soft Butter
2 Eggs
320 ml warm Milk

To finish:
50 g melted Butter
150 g Sugar

If you wish:
Raspberry Jam (brush it through a sieve)
Lindor Chocolate balls
Nutella
Vanilla Cream
Cinnamon

Step 2:

Mix the flour with the sugar, nutmeg and the dried yeast, then add the soft butter, the eggs and the warm milk. Mix together then add the salt. Knead until you have a soft dough. Let rest under a towel for 1 hour.

When the dough has risen to double its size cut it into 20 pieces. Now there are several possibilities. You can form round small bread rolls and fill them after baking with jam or Nutella or whatever you want. Or you can fill it now with a chocolate ball, I used Lindor. You can also cut out shapes or form the doughnut with a hole in the middle.

Step 3:

I did form half of them like a bread roll, empty. After baking I used a piping bag with a small hole to pipe jam into the hot doughnut. You can do the same with Nutella or vanilla cream.
The other half I filled with the chocolate.

Step 4:

Put them on a baking sheet and cover with a towel, let rest for 30 minutes.
Bake at 170 C for 15-20 minutes. Some of my rolls have broken and the chocolate poured out; they definitely looked funny.

Turn the hot rolls immediately in melted butter and sprinkle with sugar. If you leave the rolls unfilled add some cinnamon.
If you want to fill the rolls do it immediately. Pipe the jam in. I did it on top of the rolls so you can see what is inside. The doughnuts are best eaten the same day!