Funnel Cake

Six dollars! Six dollars is what they charge at the carnival for funnel cakes! They are basically deep fried pancake batter for six dollars! Did I mention that they cost six dollars?!

In my hometown, the last weekend of July is the Ski-Hi Stampede. There are rodeos, parades, dances and a big carnival. We took the kids to the carnival this afternoon to ride the rides and of course they wanted food. Food that is so outrageously expensive that we don't buy it. Six dollars for a funnel cake! After a while, it started raining so we decided to go home (and we walk because all of this happens about 1/4 mile from our house) and MAKE some funnel cakes.

I found this site that has a bunch of different recipes for funnel cakes. I made recipe #6, which was a pretty big batch. There were a lot of us, though, so it was about right. I was missing a few key things, like a FUNNEL, but I made do. I put the batter in a gallon size bag and snipped off the corner. And since I didn't have the funnel to measure with, I just kind of eyeballed it until it looked right. Secondly, I didn't have a thermometer or an electric skillet or a fry daddy, so I didn't have any idea how hot the oil was. I just used a deep skillet and did some trial and error. I think the hotter the oil is, the better, because they don't seem to get as oil-logged if they don't have to cook as long. And I had to turn mine over to cook both sides. Some of the recipes say to do that, and some don't. I did.

All in all, they turned out great and my kids think I'm a hero. And I felt better feeding them to my kids because carnival food is just kind of gross. Who knows when the last time they changed their cooking oil was, or washed their hands, or...I think I'll stop there.