Made with funnel cake mix, egg, water, and canola oil.
Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! What in heaven’s name is this supposed to be?! It’s supposed to be some concoction of a funnel cake—that’s what.
I was thoroughly disappointed. It was just so hard for me to make the swirly things in the oil and have it look nice. None of my attempts looked anything remotely like the funnel cakes you’d get at a carnival.
As I’m attempting to make the third one of these waiting for it to get a nice medium brown, I was standing there thinking to myself—“Hmmm, I wonder where the name funnel cake came from?” HOT DOG! Talk about a light bulb moment.
There at that moment, while yet another attempt is frying in the oil, it dawned on me—ohhhhhh, that’s why they use a funnel. So this whole time I was reading the directions on the box I didn’t think it was that big of a deal to pour it from the mixing bowl into the oil instead of through a funnel. I mean, there was a little indent on the edge of the bowl for pouring so I thought let’s make life easy. No such luck. Plus I didn’t own a funnel anyway.
I was so frustrated at my attempts at this, that I didn’t even try at all with this last one and made it in pancake form by just dumping the last of the batter straight into the oil—no swirly movements, nothing. At least it did taste like a funnel cake. And that’s that, folks!
Needless to say, I’ll never get a job as a funnel cake maker with a traveling carnival.
So, if you have nothing else to do today, attempt to make your own homemade funnel cakes—but make sure you have a funnel first and give it as good a go as you possibly can.
Take-Away Life Lesson: Actually read the title of a boxed recipe you want to make and wait for the meaning to sink into your head before attempting to cook or bake anything.
Haha, this is great. I’ve never made funnel cakes, but a friend has and I believe she improvised a funnel by snipping a corner of a freezer bag if you ever want to try again!
Never thought of that. I think I’ve pretty much given up at this point. Lol.
In my opinion funnel cakes taste better at fairs, baseball games, etc anyway. They are just meant to be eaten outside, without a table. The messier the better!
🙂
Annnnd now I can’t stop craving funnel cake!
🙂
Well, as long as it tasted good I’m calling it a success!
🙂
Exactly! If it tastes good…then it’s good! Can’t be easy to make those things…
hello! I think there’s an actual funnel cake shaper you put in the hot oil: it’s a metal ring that is maybe 1-2 inches high and you drizzle the batter within the circle so it gets it shape. So don’t feel bad, without that, your funnel cake (round 2) is how it should look 🙂
Thank you. I’ve never heard of it before.
I wonder how funnel cake tastes like! I’ve never even seen one! 😀
You’re missing out, Hari.
I googled it and I found out that it was sold in fairs and similar events. We do not have funnel cake in our fairs. Ha ha ha
We do have cotton candy though! 😀
Well at least you have the cotton candy. That’s some good stuff too!
Awesome – hats off to you for trying! At least they taste good!
🙂
Hats off to you for trying! Personally,I am terrified of deep frying stuff, hot oil splattering all over and what to do with so much oil after you are done. Even if your funnel cakes didn’t look like the ones at the carnival, at least, they taste good 🙂
You’re right. I was glad they at least tasted the same. And my oil pretty much gets dumped in a tin can, then I freeze it, and dump it out with the garbage. Sometimes the splattering might get out of control depending on what you’re making—then I usually have to shield myself with a big lid as if I’m going to battle. 🙂
Yuuuuum. @_@ I didn’t realize you could make it at home in a pan — I always figured it had to be some big production with a giant vat of oil. Aaaaah funnel cake. Delicous. (I too did not realize that funnel cake actually meant…funnels.) Thank you for experimenting for us!
Maybe the giant vat of oil and the funnel is the key to making these look proper. 🙂
Naaaaah! ;D We do what we want!
I guess maybe the county fair people have the right idea. Oh well. I’ll leave it to the professionals… 😀
🙂
doesn’t look like the picture in the box but I bet it still taste good Yum!
Yes it did.
Dip it in chocolate 🙂
Even better!
A man’s rule: Hey, if it goes down good, who cares what it looks like!
Ha ha! So true. It’s all going the same place.
For some reason I tend to have trouble cooking ANYTHING on the stove in oil. I keep it safe and stick with the oven 🙂
The oven does seem to be much simpler sometimes. Just throw it in and wait.
Take this with you if you stop by:) it’s a nice dessert:)
🙂
would you mind if I put this in our next months newsletter as long as I cite you and put the link to our blog — you can view our past newsletters at http://inspiritual.biz and then click on newsletters
No, not at all. Use whatever you’d like.
Mmmmmm….funnel cake! Even if it didn’t look quite as expected, I’m sure it was yummy. One can never go wrong with deep fried dough and sugar. Loved your post 🙂
Thanks, Michelle!
Well, I never thought of the funnel part of the cake either, so how’s that? And I live in the midst of funnel cake heaven (lots of local carnivals and stuff around here). But you put powdered sugar on it, and it looked fancy and yummy! Dump away! Who needs curlies?
Yeah, I was just glad it tasted like a funnel cake. At least I tried with the curlies.
I don’t have a funnel either. I’m defo gonna get one though. Fer sure
I’d say don’t attempt it without one. Plus funnels are good for other things, too, so they’re good to have around.
🙂
Ahihihi… The question now is that is it really a cake? Fun post. At least you had fun trying out things? And it’s edible.
Yes, I did have fun cooking and was still able to eat them. But who knows what they should be called at this point. 🙂
I also asked myself before why people call it funnel cake, and then I searched for a recipe… That’s how I knew about funnel cakes. I don’t own a funnel, too, so when I decide to make this, I should give it another name. 😀 Your ‘funnel cake’ looks beautiful, btw. 😉
Aw thanks, but none of them look that great to me. Funnels can come in handy for so many other things, too.
You actually need a proper stove top with the metal skewers to hold the cake mixture like you see in the street stalls….at least if you are trying to make the Hungarian funnel cake…which maybe you are not…in which case totally ignore what I have just said!
Lol! All tips are welcome at this point. Any nice looking funnel cake would have been nice to be able to do. 🙂
As much as I know the key to success with funnel cakes is to deep fry them. I guess you didn’t have enough oil. But the important thing, as you say, it tasted like funnel cakes! 🙂
It only said 3/4″ oil which didn’t seem like a whole lot to begin with to me. I don’t know that the amount of oil has anything to do with my shaping skills though. But at least they were edible. 🙂
The thing is, with a lot of bubbling oil, the dough swirls almost by itself and it’s easier to shape. But as you say, at least they were edible! 🙂
🙂
I think they literally pour the batter out of a funnel tube to get it all swirly..hence the name funnel cake? It’s just a hunch lol…now I want funnel cake ugh
That’s exactly why it’s called ‘funnel’ cake, too. Lol.
Just close your eyes when you eat it ! Problem solved! ;->
Virtual hugs,
Judie
Lol. This is true!
Thanks for being the “tester”! I wondered if the box mix was any good, I do have a funnel so I may give these a try 🙂
They tasted like funnel cakes. I just couldn’t shape them well. 🙂
Heavens! I had to Google funnel cakes just to understand what was going on here. Interesting. At least they tasted okay, just close your eyes and imagine they look fabulous 🙂
Lol! Too funny.
that’s awesome. love your thought process and how you went ahead and tried things even without a funnel. Gotta love these experiences! Thanks for sharing. And lol, can almost smell the grease and powdered sugar from here.
‘Experiences’ or ‘Experiments’. Lol!