Funnel Cakes

While looking for recipes on Martha Stewart a few weekends ago, Paul glanced over at my screen just a post about funnel cakes scrolled by. He asked me if I could make them, since he hadn't had a funnel cake in a long time, so I took that as a challenge. We were also helping a friend mark some science tests that night while watching a hockey game, so a treat would be nice.

I googled funnel cake recipes, and this recipe from the blog Moms Who Think caught my eye. It was pretty simple and contained ingredients that I already had on hand.

I know funnel cakes probably aren't the healthiest thing to eat, since they are fried and are sugary, but a treat is necessary every now and then. To cut down on the artery clogging goodness of this recipe, I used a frying pan and put a very thin layer of canola oil in it. This is the same method I have used in the past to make my doughnuts. It worked very well. I used a piping bag with a fairly small round tip to create the funnel pattern, since the batter was thicker than I thought it would be. I made little swirly patterns in the oil, making sure that all my squiggles touched in some way so it would be easy to remove from the pan. After they were cooked to a golden brown, we dusted them with powdered sugar and enjoyed!

For this recipe I used soymilk instead of regular milk, and no one could tell the difference. I hadn't had a funnel cake in a really long time, since you can never really be sure what they contain when you eat them at an amusement park (and I doubt the person making them knows what goes in them anyway). These were definitely best the day they were made. We ate some the day after and they turned pretty hard, but they were still tasty!