Funnel Cake Makes the Fair Go ‘Round

At the Orange County Fair, culinary choices range from eggroll on a stick to barbecue brisket sandwiches. But for many, the funnel cake remains the king of fair food.

Whether topped with powdered sugar, apples and cinnamon, strawberries and cream, or all of the above, the traditional fair pastry continues to be a hit.

“Funnel cake is the thing here,” said Tommie Fomby, deputy manager of the fair, who likes the pastry plain. “Right now it’s so good.”

Fomby’s granddaughter, Jessica Yasger, 11, of Yorba Linda, agreed.

“I would not eat a reduced-fat funnel cake,” said Yasger, who likes hers with powdered sugar. “It would lose all the taste.”

Provided by Mike and Linda Davis for the last 17 years, the deep-fried dough treat, which starts at $3.50, has been attracting long lines--often 50 or more people at a time--even with the addition of a second funnel cake stand.

Despite the long lines, Linda Davis offers assurance that people do not have to wait long for their piece of cake.

“One night I stood at the end of a line with about 20 people or so with a stopwatch,” she said. “It took about seven minutes to get to the counter.”

As soon as an order is placed, one of a handful of workers, or one of the Davises, will pour batter into a funnel and release it into the vat of hot vegetable oil. The dough is drizzled into the shape of a doily, cooked until brown and served on a paper plate with a variety of toppings.

“It lies somewhere between a Belgian waffle and a doughnut,” Mike Davis said.

Over the course of the fair, the Davises will make thousands of funnel cakes, but the money they make will be just enough to pay bills and provide for their three-month winter hiatus in Apple Valley when the fair circuit is over.

“We are a mom-and-pop shop,” Linda, a former travel agent, said. “Our insurance just went up, we have payrolls, and forms to fill for the health department. It’s a lot of hard work.”

When the fair ends, the couple will hitch the stands, which are actually trailers, to the back of their trucks and head for the next fair, in Sacramento. In August, the couple will celebrate their eighth wedding anniversary as well as the anniversary of their business, Toucan Enterprises.

“Mike said it is too hard for one person to do, but ‘two can,’ ” Linda said.

Mike, a former electric technician, bought the business in 1981 after he visited a fair in Ventura County. He saw the long lines at the gate of the fair and jumped at the opportunity to invest in his own funnel cake stand.

Neither partner sees an end to their fair life. They said they enjoy their work too much.

“When little kids buy the strawberries and cream, they carry it like it’s gold,” Linda said.

* FAIR SCHEDULE: A list of today’s events. B4