Funnel cake is a fair favorite made easy at home. Crispy, golden, and dusted with powdered sugar, it’s perfect with homemade caramel sauce, hot fudge sauce, or your favorite toppings!
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What is a Funnel Cake
If you’ve been wondering, “Is funnel cake a cake?”, the answer is no. Funnel cake is a lovely light batter fried until golden brown, most often topped with powdered sugar. It is a sweet and delicious fair food that no one really thinks to make at home, and yet it makes me wonder, why not?!
They are actually incredibly easy to make. If you can stir together a simple batter and heat a bit of oil in a pan, you can make this easy homemade funnel cake recipe!
But why stop there, if you’re suddenly craving all the fair food, try these churros, caramel apples or homemade mini corn dogs. They are sure to satisfy your craving!
How to Make Funnel Cakes
This recipe makes two large funnel cakes. Because they really need to be eaten fresh, I wanted a small batch that can easily be doubled or tripled when you need it.
- Mix together wet ingredients.
- Whisk in dry ingredients until completely smooth (per recipe below).
- In a pot of hot oil, drizzle batter in thin lines, swirling and overlapping.
- Cook just until golden, using tongs to carefully flip.
Remove to a paper towel to drain excess oil. Dust with powdered sugar, add your toppings of choice, and serve immediately.
Best Funnel Cake Toppings
The most difficult thing about making homemade funnel cakes might be deciding what to top them with ;).
Traditionally, they are served with a generous sprinkling of powdered sugar. But there are so many fun toppings to try!
- Fruit: Fresh sliced strawberries, pineapples, or an assortment of berries!
- Ice Cream: A scoop of your favorite ice cream, like classic vanilla or mint chocolate chip ice cream.
- Sauce: Drizzle with chocolate sauce, homemade nutella, caramel sauce, or even whipped cream!
- Sprinkles: Try cinnamon sugar like a churro or classic rainbow sprinkles.
Whatever you choose, just be sure you eat them while they’re fresh and warm!
More Fun Desserts
- Homemade Jelly Jigglers – with real fruit juice
- Mini Cinnamon Donut Holes – just 3 ingredients!
- Ice Cream Cone Cupcakes – perfect handheld portions!
- Easy Fruit Pizza – colorful, sweet, and full of flavor!
- Frozen Hot Chocolate – with 3 ways to serve
Equipment
Ingredients
- ¼ cup milk
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon water
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon granulated sugar
- ¾ teaspoon baking powder
- 1 pinch salt
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons powdered sugar
Instructions
- In a large liquid measuring cup or batter bowl with a spout, whisk together milk, egg, water and vanilla.
- Add sugar, baking powder and salt and whisk until combined.
- Add the flour, and whisk until completely smooth. Set aside.
- In a medium, deep-sided pan or pot, heat 1" of oil to 375°F over medium-high heat. When you put the end of a wooden spoon in the pot and bubbles form around the spoon, it's ready. Reduce heat to medium.
- Drizzle batter from cup in a thin line, swirling around the pan and overlapping as desired. Cook for 2 minutes or until light golden brown, then flip and cook another 2 minutes or until golden brown.
- Dust with 2 tablespoons powdered sugar and serve. Repeat one more time with the remaining batter.
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dessert
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Do you have any suggestions on if these came be made ahead of time? I would rather not be frying while guests are over so if it is possible to make ahead of time and heat back up, or leave out for a few hours that would be helpful. Thanks!
I’ve never made them ahead. While they are best served immediately, I think you could make them ahead, and pop them into a 350F oven to warm and crisp them right before serving. Let us know if you try it Kristina!
So good! I made these today. I added a little extra sugar as suggested, but no other modifications. I used a ziploc bag and cut the tip off a corner to drizzle it into the oil. Definitely a family hit also.
I have to give this one all five stars. Delicious and satisfied the craving I’ve had since before the pandemic began. Easy to make and scrumptious.
Thanks for thinking about the costs and well as the taste. Looking forward to trying many of your recipes.
can’t be doubled!! but works well with gluten free flour as instructed!
Thank you for sharing Elizabeth!
Elizabeth I doubled it and it came out really well. I made 4.5 medium cakes.
Doubled sugar and added cinnamon to the batter as suggested, my family enjoyed it.
Absolutely fantastic, I thought I would double the recipe, but it was quite a bit .. A very fast, and easy to prepare fair food.
This was my second attempt at funnel cakes and these ones tasted and turned out so much better. Will do these again
What is this? A funnel cake made for ANTS?! Totally quadrupling this recipe next time – delicious but I need more!
First time making funnel cake. This recipe is easy and very good!
Perfect, quick and easy!
I made this last night and it was delicious. I added a tsp of sugar and a little orange zest. Everyone really enjoyed this. It’s quick and easy so I’ll be using this again.
Orange zest sounds like a great addition, thanks for sharing Joan!
Can you use slf rising flour?
I’ve only tried this as written so I can’t say for sure. Let us know how it works out for you!
I used this recipe to make fried Oreos, I only had almond milk so I skipped the water, and they still came out perfect! Like others have said, I’d add more sugar, but still, this recipe will definitely be my go-to for funnel cake batter!
Hi Pamela, don’t know if this any help but self raising flour is all purpose flour with salt and baking powder added. So I would think that using self raising flour and omitting the salt and and baking powder should work!
Hi there! Happy holidays!!! I made these today (12/24). They came out perfect, light, and light crisp on the edge. We had it with plain with powder sugar…keeping it simple. The recipe is super easy to make. We will definitely make it again. Thank you so much for sharing your recipes with the world. Have a wonderful Christmas! Cheers and happy baking/cooking!
So glad you loved this Vivian! Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Maybe I Cant Cook , Maybe This Recipe Not For Me . But My Funnel Cakes Looked More Like Pancakes , My dogs wouldn’t even eat the left overs .
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. Thank you for trying the recipe.
Try it again! I really suck at baking and it came out delicious! I was so proud of myself. Make sure you are measuring everything correctly.
This was great; from start to eat time was less than 15 minutes!
I’d sweeten it a bit more next time, but a very nice texture-wise, easy, and quick recipe.
Thank you!
Was definitely not as sweet as I was hoping it’d be, but still enjoyed. Next time I was be sure to add more granulated sugar and maybe a little more vanilla extract. Overall this was enough to feed 4 of us and was good.
What kind of oil do you use?
Hi Natalie, vegetable/canola oil is best for this recipe, it has a higher smoke point than olive oil :)
Veggie oil
Super easy and super delicious! And I love that the recipe is for 2 so no waste! Thank you!!
Excellent recipe.Accurate, it did make two large funnel cakes. I added a pinch of nutmeg and a dash if cinnamon, and was very pleased with the extra flavor. I plan on also serving this at a brunch with a topping of warm cinnamon apples and a dollop of whipped creme. So good!
We are so glad you loved this recipe, Cindy! Thanks for leaving a comment :)