FUNNEL CAKE CONTINUES TO HIGHLIGHT FAIR FARE

A little sugar, flour, baking powder, a little more sugar, eggs, a little more sugar, milk, a little more sugar, butter and a little more sugar are the required ingredients for one of the fair's most distinctive foods, a funnel cake.

The exact recipe might not mention that much of the sweet stuff, but sugar is why most folks buy the fried treat, and the American Heart Association doesn't recommend it as a fat-free, low-cholesterol food.

"Every time I go to a fair, I've got to have one," Chris Klos said as she dipped a piece of the cake in the powdered sugar sprinkled about her paper plate.

Klos said she never really craves a funnel cake unless she is at a fair or other festival.

Sammie Hampton doesn't crave funnel cakes too often, especially when he is at the fair. But his appetite is probably affected by the three years he has spent in the Pennsylvania Dutch Funnel Cake stand at fairs around the country.

Hampton said funnel cakes are one of the traditional foods fairgoers expect to see at events like the SEMO District Fair.

"I'll make about a quarter of a million of these this year," he said. "We're going to make 13,000, 14,000 or 15,000 of them at this fair alone."

Hampton said he will make funnel cakes in six states this year. He said the cakes are cooked in peanut, canola or sunflower oil.

The Pennsylvania Dutch, he said, also will top a funnel cake with fruit, in addition to the traditional sprinkling of powdered sugar.

A few Saturday fairgoers were enjoying funnel cakes for the first time.

Twin sisters Heather and Jennifer Brown indicated they liked funnel cakes as they continued to pick at the twisted cake. The twins, 19 months old, were too busy eating to be interviewed.

Their mother and father, Rick and Dawn Brown of Scott City, said Saturday was the first time their daughters have visited the fair and sampled a funnel cake.

"Usually their dad has to get one anyway," Dawn Brown said. "They seem to like it too."

Kim Ramnor, an exchange student from Orebro, Sweden, also was eating a funnel cake Saturday for the first time.

"It tastes a lot better than it looks," she said. "I am definitely going to have one again."

Ramnor said nothing similar to a funnel cake exists in Sweden. The food was unique to the United States.

"I guess if I get a craving for another one, I'll have to fly back to the States," she said.

Some people have tried making funnel cakes at home, but most cooks admit to little success.

"I made one at home," Klos said. "It was interesting to say the least."

Hampton said funnel cakes have to be made with consistency. He uses a white cake mix. Too much water will cause the cake to fall apart; too little will cause the paper plate to fall apart.

Hampton isn't worried about the home-cooked funnel cakes affecting his business.

"This is the fair food," he said. "People always want to spend money for a funnel cake at the fair."