# Elephant ears vs. funnel cakes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 13, 2017, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246 "2017-09-13T15:53:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/21 "2017-09-13T20:03:22Z")
I’ve had a funnel cake. Nasty, greasy, fair food. An elephant ear, to me, is a plant with large leaves. ---
**Author:** ![Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@Tired\_and\_Cranky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tired_and_Cranky)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/22 "2017-09-13T20:42:39Z")
It’s clear the consensus is that there is a big difference between funnel cakes and elephant ears. I stand corrected. I realize now that I’ve probably never had an authentic funnel cake. If I did, I probably just thought it was an unmemorable wonky elephant ear. **Paintcharge** , for the little that my experience seems to be worth, the New England “fried dough” I’ve had is what people here seem to be calling an elephant ear. My father’s club in Massachusetts runs a Portuguese feast every year at which they sell thousands of malasadas. Those malasadas are just like the fried dough I’ve bought at other fairs in New England and they are made the way people are describing elephant ears. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2017, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/23 "2017-09-13T21:01:07Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’ve had a funnel cake. Nasty, greasy, fair food. Not if cooked properly. Which 90% of the time they are not. A well made funnel cake is hardly greasy at all, like a well made donut. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2017, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/24 "2017-09-14T00:29:01Z")
I’m surprised it took 20 posts before the mention of donuts. Elephant ears and donuts are more like each other than either is like a funnelcake. And if you’re looking for bad funnelcakes, I’ve seen some places selling them that they have a big freezer full of pre-made frozen ones, which they thaw out in a microwave. Now, _those_ are nasty and greasy. ---
**Author:** ![Spud](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spud/32/347_2.png) [@Spud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spud)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/25 "2017-09-15T04:41:04Z")
Here is a video of why it is called a funnel cake. Look closely at what they are using to put the batter in the oil (spoiler alert… it is a funnel) [County Fair Funnel Cakes - Love Bakes Good Cakes](http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/2015/07/county-fair-funnel-cakes.html). ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/26 "2017-09-15T05:55:23Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I’m surprised it took 20 posts before the mention of donuts. Elephant ears and donuts are more like each other than either is like a funnelcake. > > And if you’re looking for bad funnelcakes, I’ve seen some places selling them that they have a big freezer full of pre-made frozen ones, which they thaw out in a microwave. Now, _those_ are nasty and greasy. My point was not that a donut and a funnel cake are similar, but that there is no fundamental reason that a funnel cake has to be greasy any more than a donut has to be greasy just because it is fried. It’s a matter of quality control. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk ---
**Author:** ![kaiwik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaiwik/32/3978_2.png) [@kaiwik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaiwik)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/27 "2017-09-15T07:37:04Z")
Elephant Ears are just large fry bread. Fry bread is often made with a sweetened dough, and also often tossed with cinnamon and sugar immediately after being taken out of the fryer, not too unlike a doughnut. Funnel cakes, done correctly, must be topped with powdered sugar or else they will float away. Having said that, in my humble opinion, why don’t you drive down and Do the Puyallup, and as you’re leaving stop and get a dozen scones to take home with you. If they last the trip home. mmmm, scones . . . ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/28 "2017-09-15T12:27:47Z")
Oh, and speaking of scones, I’ve also seen what I know as “elephant ears” called “scones”. I don’t know if that’s what **kaiwik** was referring to, though. To me, a “scone” is a baked (not fried) product similar to an (American) biscuit, usually with raisins. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/29 "2017-09-15T13:45:00Z")
Interesting. I’ve seen some rather interesting American interpretations of “scone,” but never something flattened and deep-fried like an elephant ear. I wonder if this is regional, or somebody got their recipes mixed up. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/30 "2017-09-15T13:52:36Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > My point was not that a donut and a funnel cake are similar, but that there is no fundamental reason that a funnel cake has to be greasy any more than a donut has to be greasy just because it is fried. It’s a matter of quality control. > > Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Eating a funnel cake should be a communal activity. They should be eaten as soon as they are cool enough to not burn your fingers and should be finished while still hot. That usually requires at least two people eating the same one. When cold they tend to taste greasy. ---
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/31 "2017-09-15T20:35:13Z")
They have always served both at the local fair. The difference is elephant ears are flat, have a large circumference (20" or more) and only come in cinnamon flavor. Funnel cakes are thicker with a smaller circumference, look like they came through an extruder, and come in a wide range of flavors. Chocolate, strawberry, blueberry, cherry, etc. ---
**Author:** ![kaiwik](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaiwik/32/3978_2.png) [@kaiwik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaiwik)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/32 "2017-09-15T21:05:04Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Oh, and speaking of scones, I’ve also seen what I know as “elephant ears” called “scones”. I don’t know if that’s what **kaiwik** was referring to, though. To me, a “scone” is a baked (not fried) product similar to an (American) biscuit, usually with raisins. > [@pulykamell](#): > > Interesting. I’ve seen some rather interesting American interpretations of “scone,” but never something flattened and deep-fried like an elephant ear. I wonder if this is regional, or somebody got their recipes mixed up. Oh no! The Puyallup Fair is famous for it’s scones. Real, authentic scones. Fresh from the oven, hot and a bit crumbly with honey butter and raspberry jam. Fair foods can be a delightful treat, but nothing is as good as the scones from the Washington State Fair! > **[Fisher Scones at the Washington State Fair](https://www.thefair.com/vendors/fisher-scones/)** > > Smeared with whipped butter and local raspberry jam, these mouth-watering scones continue to be a crowd pleaser year after year. ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/33 "2017-09-15T21:24:33Z")
Funnel cakes were one of life’s great disappointments for me. I pictured them as tasting like the stuff left on the tube (“funnel?”) of an angel food cake pan after you took the cake out. Brown, slightly crunchy, sweet, and delicious–but a whole CAKE of this. It was nothing like that.:mad: I think of elephant ears as kind of a flat donut, with the things donuts have but no hole. (I.e., jelly inside, honey dipped, sprinkles _if you must_.) Scones were another great disappointment. I first heard of them when Uncle Scrooge was rhapsodizing about them in a Donald Duck cartoon. I imagined something like a wonderful pancake, only even better! Again, not like that at all. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/34 "2017-09-15T21:29:25Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > I think of elephant ears as kind of a flat donut, with the things donuts have but no hole. (I.e., jelly inside, honey dipped, sprinkles _if you must_.) I’ve never seen an elephant ear with any of those, especially the filling. Around here, they’re pretty much invariably cinnamon & sugar. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/35 "2017-09-15T21:41:11Z")
> [@Paintcharge](#): > > Interesting, where does a New England style fried dough fit on that continuum? That was my question and looking at the pictures compared with what I’ve gotten at the fairs, I’d say it’s roughly equivalent to the elephant ear (a solid sheet of dough) but I haven’t seen it called that. The twist though is when I had what we called “fried dough” at the church bazaar when I was a kid (Hudson Valley of NYS), it was more like the funnel cake pictures! ---
**Author:** ![Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hilarity_n.suze/32/6223_2.png) [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hilarity_N.Suze)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2017, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/36 "2017-09-15T22:41:59Z")
> [@Hilarity\_N.Suze](#): > > Funnel cakes were one of life’s great disappointments for me. > > I pictured them as tasting like the stuff left on the tube (“funnel?”) of an angel food cake pan after you took the cake out. Brown, slightly crunchy, sweet, and delicious–but a whole CAKE of this. It was nothing like that.:mad: > > I think of elephant ears as kind of a flat donut, with the things donuts have but no hole. (I.e., jelly inside, honey dipped, sprinkles _if you must_.) > > Scones were another great disappointment. I first heard of them when Uncle Scrooge was rhapsodizing about them in a Donald Duck [del]cartoon[/del]comic book. I imagined something like a wonderful pancake, only even better! Again, not like that at all. FTFM ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/37 "2017-09-16T13:10:41Z")
If your description of the difference between elephant ears and funnel cake rests on the diameter and thickness of the confections, then what you have is not funnel cake. A funnel cake doesn’t even have the same topology as an elephant ear (nor, for that matter, the same as pretty much any other food at all). All I can figure is that someone had their early childhood in an area that had funnel cakes, and remembers absolutely nothing about them beyond “they were these sweet things covered in powdered sugar they had at the fair”, and then applies that name to something completely different at the fairs they go to as an adult, and the new name sticks for some reason. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/38 "2017-09-17T01:55:29Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > So I’m curious: If I went to a fair, would I find both elephant ears and funnel cakes? Or would funnel cakes be _called_ elephant ears? I don’t go to many fairs (have been to a couple state fairs with the kids over the past decade but don’t remember much and probably wont go again after the fatal accident this year), but our local fireworks show on the 4th of July features vendors that sell both and they are different. I can’t tell you what exactly - other than the shape and size are different. They might be the same bread/dough/whatever but the elephant ears are big and flattish and the funnel cake is small rolled “funnel” pieces. This is in Ohio, btw. ---
**Author:** ![actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e79b87/32.png) [@actualliberalnotoneofthose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/actualliberalnotoneofthose)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/39 "2017-09-17T01:58:31Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > The difference is elephant ears are flat, have a large circumference (20" or more) and only come in cinnamon flavor. I don’t think they have any flavor here because when you buy them you go to the condiment table and put either cinnamon or powdered sugar on. Or maybe they ARE cinnamon and extra cinnamon sugar or powdered sugar is an option. I’ve never paid that much attention and I’ve only eaten them in complete darkness. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/40 "2017-09-17T02:59:41Z")
Wait, you mean the funnel cake has pieces that are shaped like funnels? Like, someone had heard the name “funnel cake”, and decided that’s what it must mean, and figured out how to make it? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246.md?page=3)