Funnel Cake!

Who doesn't love this carnival favorite?! I grew up eating it at the amusement park in Mall of America, and it was warm, soft yet crispy, sugar dusted magic. It actually is really easy and doesn't take long at all to make!

Ingredients

1 cup all purpose flour
1-4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
pinch salt
3/4 cup milk
1 egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)

Toppings:
Powdered sugar
cinnamon-sugar (mixture of cinnamon powder and powdered sugar)
Chocolate syrup
strawberries, or other fruit

Heat clean oil over medium high heat. Mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon powder. Beat together the egg, milk, and vanilla extract. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix together until lumps disappear. You can use an electric mixer. If it looks too runny slowly add more flour. If it looks too thick, add more milk. It should be the consistency of pancake batter.

If you have a funnel, put your finger over the opening and fill with batter. I don't have one, so I filled the batter into a ziploc and snipped off a bit of a corner. You can also use old ketchup, mustard, or chocolate syrup bottles.

Test the oil with a drop of batter. It shouldn't be smoking but it should be hot enough so the drop of the batter floats right to the top and starts to fry. Start drawing large circular designs in the oil with the batter until the surface of the oil is about covered with the web of batter. Let it fry for about 2-5 minutes, lifting an edge to check for a golden brown color. Flip the cake over using two large spatulas or tongs, but be careful, it may break apart. The edges are usually more crispy so they will break easier. Let fry on the other side until golden brown as well.

You can either serve this dusted with powdered sugar (through a little strainer we use for tea), or drizzled with chocolate syrup (my favorite!) or cinnamon-sugar, or whatever else your little heart may desire.

NOTE: This recipe is enough for about two funnel cakes.