# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/41 "2017-09-17T03:14:18Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > 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? Good question. The only funnel cakes I’ve ever seen are called that because a steady stream of batter is dripped into the oil from the bottom of a funnel. It’s basically a monotone Jackson Pollack painting in fried dough. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/42 "2017-09-17T14:13:02Z")
I am confused. The difference between fried dough and funnel cake here (New Hampshire) is whether it’s a solid blob or basically a string of fried dough. Both are yummy and fried while you wait. An elephant ear isn’t something we buy at the fair (unless, I guess, there’s a few at a bake-sale type booth) and it’s made of [a baked, flakey puff pastry](http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cinnamon-elephant-ears-recipe-1923543) as \*\*MrDibble \*\*stated, already cooked long before you see it, and room temperature. You pick up an elephant ear in the pastry case where you get muffins or donuts before work, not at fairs. ---
**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 17, 2017, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/43 "2017-09-17T14:20:42Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I am confused. The difference between fried dough and funnel cake here (New Hampshire) is whether it’s a solid blob or basically a string of fried dough. Both are yummy and fried while you wait. > > An elephant ear isn’t something we buy at the fair (unless, I guess, there’s a few at a bake-sale type booth) and it’s made of [a baked, flakey puff pastry](http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/cinnamon-elephant-ears-recipe-1923543) as \*\*MrDibble \*\*stated, already cooked long before you see it, and room temperature. You pick up an elephant ear in the pastry case where you get muffins or donuts before work, not at fairs. Yeah, that’s definitely a different version of “elephant ear” than I’m accustomed to. Here it’s definitely not puff pastry and definitely fried to order (or at least should be.) I noticed those when doing an image search earlier for “elephant ears.” It seems there are at least two different pastries with that name: one the deep fried carnival food that I’m familiar with, and the other something that looks more like a pastry I’d find at a Viennese cafe. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/44 "2017-09-17T14:39:19Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Both are yummy and fried while you wait. How are they _after_ you wait? 😛 ---
**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 17, 2017, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/45 "2017-09-17T15:51:22Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > How are they _after_ you wait? 😛 Can’t tell. Taste buds burned off. ---
**Author:** ![wonky](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonky/32/393_2.png) [@wonky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonky)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 7:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/46 "2017-09-17T19:28:05Z")
I love elephant ears. Funnel cakes are too greasy, in my experience with them. They are not similar. Elephant ears are stretchy and doughy. Funnel cakes are much more tender, with small pieces you pull off. Both were sold at Ohio fairs, along with [sugar waffles](https://2eat2drink.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/084-sugar-waffle-2eat2drink-p.jpg), which are delicious for ten seconds and then fairly sickening. 😃 Oh, and at the local fair of my childhood, you could get elephant ears with apple or cherry topping (like pie filling). But they always came coated in cinnamon and sugar. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/47 "2017-09-17T19:34:39Z")
Funnel cake really ups the crunch factor with all those edges made by funneling the batter. We don’t have elephant ears here in street fairs but we do have zepoles. Or is that zepolies? Elephant ears sound like flattened versions of zeps. ---
**Author:** ![Biggirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/biggirl/32/3294_2.png) [@Biggirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biggirl)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/48 "2017-09-17T19:42:22Z")
O.K., after checking to see how it is actually spelled, zeppole (yeah, should have done that first), I see that there are many varieties. The one commonly served here in NY street fairs is a plain fried dough ball, put hot in a paper bag with a fistful of powdered sugar. Shake and eat. ---
**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, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246/49 "2017-09-17T22:06:13Z")
I can see there being multiple things called “elephant ears”, because it’s a natural-enough name to give to anything big and flat (see also the large plant leaves mentioned by **kayaker** ). But “funnel cake” refers to a very specific way of making them, so something either is or is not a funnel cake. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/elephant-ears-vs-funnel-cakes/796246.md?page=2)